Senior Operations Officer

Job #: req11301

Organization: IFC

Sector: Advisory Services

Grade: GG

Term Duration: 3 years 0 months

Recruitment Type: International Recruitment

Location: Luanda,Angola

Required Language(s): English

Preferred Language(s): Portuguese

Closing Date: 4/5/2021 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Do you want to build a career that is full of meaning and impact? The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities where they are needed most. Visit www.ifc.org

IFC invests in private sector institutions, mobilizes private capital in local and international financial markets and provides technical advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses. It focuses on investing in private sector projects that are financially and economically viable and have a substantial development impact.

The Financial Institutions Group (FIG), one of IFC's largest industry departments, is responsible for a significant portion of IFC's business volume, profitability and development reach. FIG has three main objectives: 1) financial inclusion 2) servicing the real economy and 3) mobilizing third-party resources. To achieve these objectives, FIG invests in numerous financial subsectors and strengthens financial institutions across the region through Advisory Services (AS). The FIG AS program in Middle East & Africa (MEA) is closely coordinated with investment operations and helps banks across the region to build or improve their operations across several focus areas: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (including Gender Finance and Non-Financial Services); Digital Financial Services; Risk Management; Microfinance; Agri-finance; and Climate & Sustainable Finance.

FIG is seeking to recruit a highly motivated Senior Operations Officer (SOO) with cross functional expertise to support in the origination, design and delivery of FIG advisory service engagements across Middle East and Africa. The Senior Operations Officer will have extensive hands-on senior level experience in commercial banking, digital financial services and financial services consulting, among others.

The position will be based in Luanda, Angola.

Duties and Accountabilities

As a senior member of FIG AS regional team, the SOO will be responsible for the technical oversight of FIG Advisory services projects in the sub-region (Products include MSME Banking, Digital Financial Services, Gender Finance, Agri-finance, Value Chain finance, Climate Finance, etc.), and for delivering market-leading client solutions by leveraging local and regional resources. IFC designs and implements capacity building to strengthen clients' institutional capabilities to better serve underserved market segments, usually following a comprehensive diagnostic assessment and knowledge resources.

IFC's FIG Advisory Services aims to deliver innovative solutions to support target clients' objectives to expand and grow their business, in line with IFC's country strategies to address development challenges. The SOO would collaborate closely with Investment Services, Upstream, the IFC and the World Bank Country teams for better synergies and integrated firm level as well as market level solutions.

The SOO should have demonstrated experience in structuring, negotiating and implementing successful technical assistance programs for financial institutions and non-bank financial institutions, and an ability to clearly communicate and present the deliverables to senior stakeholders. The Senior Operations Officer will report to the Manager, FIG Advisory Services, Middle East and Africa.

The SOO would play an instrumental role in helping FIG AS MEA deliver its targets, especially those related to signing new projects, client cash fees committed, effective project delivery and management and contributing to the AS team's knowledge management initiatives. His/her specific responsibilities in each of these areas include the following: i) Business Development

  • Lead/organize business development efforts through market analyses and meetings with existing and potential clients to identify potential areas of support.
  • Work closely with IFC Investment teams in pipeline identification, participation in due diligence and closing of deals, where there is potential for advisory services support.
  • Working with the project teams, improving our FIG AS Value Proposition in Angola, lead the preparation of pitch books and project proposals including project objectives, scope of work, key deliverables, timelines, and budget with input from the client and relevant IFC staff.
  • Lead the presentation of project proposals to get buy in and the negotiation of fees for the projects.
  • Have overall responsibility for the quality and timelines of the internal project-related documents such as Implementation Plans, Budgets and Legal Agreements.

ii) Client and Stakeholder Management:

  • Have overall responsibility for managing senior level client relationships with clients and articulate IFC's value proposition, leading to increased development impact (and supporting Investment and Upstream Services).
  • Hold knowledge transfer sessions, lead diagnostics with the client, and act as the technical lead for advisory services projects as per area of specialization.
  • Provide oversight, especially to MSME Banking and Digital Financial Services projects in Southern/Lusophone Africa, supervising the team of Operations Officers and experts to ensure consistency in the approach and high standards of delivery that meet client expectations.
  • Work collaboratively with Investment/Upstream Anchors in the designated countries (mainly in Lusophone Africa) to align advisory to help close pipeline investment projects and provide solutions to key portfolio clients.
  • Engage with the relevant teams at the World Bank and IFC for reforms needed to unlock new markets and work collaboratively with Upstream teams.
  • Support country priority initiatives such as MSME Banking, Gender, Digital Financial Services, Risk Management, Agri-finance, Digitization, and Housing.

iii) Technical Expertise

  • Collaborate with Client Engagement staff as well as industry specialists in the design, pitch negotiation of client solutions.
  • Lead the delivery of advisory projects (mainly in the MSME banking and Digital Financial Services).
  • Contribute to the development or review of and relevant project documents and client deliverables and in the related approval processes. Participate in senior level client meetings to provide technical advice, monitor progress, address challenges/ issues to successfully implement project recommendations.
  • Improve the design and delivery of client solutions, mainly in the MSME banking and Digital Financial Services, by incorporating global best practices and lessons from previous projects.
  • Partner with the Monitoring & Evaluation team in the development of appropriate theories of change and results frameworks and indicators to strengthen the development impact and sustainability of client solutions and continuously learn from client projects/ engagement.

(iv) Knowledge Sharing/Creation

  • Identify and participate in /conferences to showcase IFC offerings and value proposition, which includes serving as panelists/ moderator for internal and external events related to thematic area.
  • Conduct research to shape on-going and future offerings in thematic area and develop new tools and guidance to incorporate internal and external best practices.
  • Conceptualize and lead knowledge management initiatives.

(v) Capacity Building

  • Design and deliver training for Advisory Services staff, e.g. to build technical skills, client management capabilities
  • Share knowledge with Investment staff and other key internal stakeholders (e.g. upstream team) to better enable them to be Advisory Services champions, and for external stakeholders to generate interest in thematic areas and understanding of why it is important/ advantageous to businesses, business climate, community and/or economy.
  • Build tools and methodologies for enhancing the Advisory delivery capacity, especially in the country and the region.
  • Coach and mentor junior staff and strengthen their technical capacity; identify and address training needs.

(vi) Staff Supervision:

  • Effectively staff and supervise the Project team by including staff and external experts and ensuring the quality control of project deliverables.
  • Oversee the preparation and drafting of internal and external project documents and reports e.g. project documents, legal agreements, mission reports, project supervision documents, project completion documents etc. and ensure adherence to AS governance.
  • Build the capacity of assigned staff and members of the broader team through mentoring, coaching, and by providing on-the-job learning opportunities.
  • Determine resources needed to support projects and ensure efficient/ effective use of resources.

Selection Criteria

  • A Master's Degree in Business, Economics, Finance, International Development or related fields.
  • Minimum of 12 years of experience in commercial banks, consulting firms, or development financial institutions (ideally in an advisory capacity) of which at least 5 years should be in a position with oversight of teams.
  • In-depth knowledge in at least two of relevant areas to FIG advisory (e.g. MSME Banking and Digital Financial Services), and a solid understanding of commercial banks and Mobile Network Organizations (MNOs) in Southern Africa in particular, and the Africa region in general
  • Strong business development track record including ability to design, negotiate and lead efforts to develop and sell client offerings that reflect in-depth knowledge of thematic area and communicate effectively to clients how FIG AS products would improve their businesses
  • Ability communicate ideas clearly and confidently, both orally and in writing
  • A strategic thinker with an ability to see the "big picture" of country, regional and global private sector development challenges and an ability to identify how emerging market trends may create opportunities to refine its FIG AS products for increased uptake.
  • Ability to design research and analytical projects to produce new understanding of a thematic issue and/or potential opportunities to unlock new markets or new streams of business.
  • Strong project management and team leadership skills and an ability to develop and drive strategies and work with multiple stakeholders.
  • Strong organizational skills with an ability to work under time pressure, respond to ad-hoc shifts in client priorities, unstructured situations and unexpected events while maintaining order and professional delivery.
  • A keen interest in strengthening the financial sector in emerging markets and an ability to work in a multicultural environment
  • Strong leadership skills and a good team player with an ability to work in multicultural environments.
  • Strong oral and written skills in English and Portuguese is required.
  • Willingness and ability to travel extensively at short notice and work across time zones.

Poverty has no borders, neither does excellence. We succeed because of our differences and we continuously search for qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds from around the globe.

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