Principal Investment Officer Project Finance

 

 

1 | P a g e Principal Investment Officer

JOB PROFILE: PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT OFFICER

 

 

 

 

DBSA MANDATE

The Development Bank of Southern Africa (“the Bank” or “the DBSA”) is a Development Finance Institution (“DFI”)

owned by the Government of the Republic of South Africa (“the Shareholder”). The Bank is mandated with the primary

purpose of promoting economic development and sustainable growth, human resource development and institutional

capacity building, by mobilizing financial and other resources from the national and international, private and public

sectors for sustainable development projects and programmes in South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the wider

African continent. For more information, please access the website at www.dbsa.org.

 

JOB INFORMATION

Job Title Principal Investment Officer Occupational Level Professional

Job Grade TBD Reports to Head: Project Finance

Division Transacting Business Unit Project Finance

Signature Approved by Head: Project Finance

Date Approved

Location Midrand Employment Type Permanent

PURPOSE OF THIS JOB

The Principal Investment Officer is responsible for formulating and executing the strategic objectives of the business in

collaboration with the Transacting Head, whilst generating deal flow and building a robust pipeline of prospective projects

for development financing bankability.

Functional Structure Overview

 

Divisional Executive:

Transacting

Head: High Impact

Investments

1. Principal Investment

Officers

2. Snr Investment

Officers

3.Financial Modelling & Structuring Specialist

4. Investment Officers

5.Analyst

Head: Corporate Finance &

Lending (SA)

1. Principal Investment

Officers

2. Snr Investment

Officers

3. Investment Officers

4.Analyst

Head: Trade Finance

1. Principal Investment

Officers

2. Investment Officers.

3.Analyst

Head: Project Finance

1. Principal Investment

Officers

2. Snr Investment

Officers

3. Investment Officers

4.Analyst

Head: Equity Investments

1. Principal Investment

officer

2. Senior Investment

officer

3. Equity Portfolio

Monitoring Specialist

4. Analyst

Senior Head Municipalities

Head Financing

1. Principal Investment

officer

2. Senior Investment

officer

3. Investment Officer

4.Client Soultions Specilaist

Docusign Envelope ID: B76F371A-2889-4EB5-830D-5711B0C3D5C5

22-04-2026

 

 

 

2 | P a g e Principal Investment Officer

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

1. Transaction Assessments

• Evaluate the feasibility of investment opportunities with a view to ensure they are commercially viable and align with the DBSA’s strategic objectives and mandate.

• Enhance the bankability of transactions by identifying and mitigating key risks, collaborating closely with Credit Risk, Country Risk Specialists, and other Divisions/Units in the Bank.

• Provide financial structuring expertise on transactions for the benefit of clients and the organisation through innovative approaches and strategic thinking.

 

2. Transaction Execution and Credit Approval

• Collaborate with the team to structure and negotiate detailed term sheets with Treasury, Legal, and Loan Administration teams, ensuring transaction approval.

• Secure internal approvals and lead or participate actively in closing transactions through successful negotiations.

• Manage the credit approval process from early review to final decision by the relevant committees.

• Review proposals submitted to approval committees to ensure they are well-structured and documented for informed decision-making.

• Resolve potential constraints in the lending value chain in collaboration with the Head of Transactions.

• Implement risk management procedures across financing functions, ensuring investment risks are appropriately structured and mitigated during operations.

• Capture and apply learning opportunities post-transaction to drive continuous improvement and successful deal delivery.

• Contribute to and lead input into certain strategic initiatives that are driven for the benefit of the organisation

3. Lead Transaction Execution Functions

• Lead transaction teams in conducting assessments, executing deals, and driving the credit approval process.

• Coach and mentor Senior Investment Officers and Investment Officers, guiding them toward achieving transaction bankability and to enhance their skills and performance.

 

4. Relationship Management and Stakeholder Relations

• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, global and regional private businesses, banking and

multilateral partners and government officials to further develop specific investment opportunities.

• Manage relationships at various levels with the relevant project stakeholders, partners, and lead promoters,

following the project’s development objectives.

• Maintain communication with clients and manage client relations; ensure that they submit all the Bank’s

requirements to facilitate the appraisal process.

• Provide feedback on the status of their application timeously and advise them on the bank’s processes and

procedures.

• Ensure continuous communication with clients/ projects that the DBSA has funded to adequately support the

division’s monitoring function.

• Identify clients’ pain points to coordinate DBSA’s solution offerings to address them.

• Network and maintain relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.

• Undertake other tasks as assigned by the line manager, from time to time.

Key Measurements of Outputs

*The list is not exhaustive

1. Revenue performance in terms of Interest Income and Fees generated. 2. Delivery on the agreed Operations Mandate; these include: 3. Growth rate in assets of the loan book:

o Annual disbursements, commitments and approvals

Docusign Envelope ID: B76F371A-2889-4EB5-830D-5711B0C3D5C5

 

 

 

3 | P a g e Principal Investment Officer

 

INTERNAL LIAISON RELATIONSHIP *The list is not exhaustive

EXTERNAL LIAISON RELATIONSHIP *The list is not exhaustive

1. Divisional Executives and Unit Heads 2. DBSA Committees, e.g., Deal screen, Investment

Committees, Asset/Liability Committee 3. Origination, Transacting, IDD, Project Preparation, Risk,

Treasury & Finance

1. National Government 2. Provincial Government 3. Local Government 4. Knowledge partners – Universities, think tanks,

local/international organisations 5. Investment partners – commercial, DFIs 6. SMMEs 7. Sovereigns 8. Service providers – e.g. EPCs, advisors, O&Ms

 

 

 

 

 

 

o Quality of loan book o % of loan book in priority geographies and sectors o Number of new clients o Number of potential deals/ pipelines

4. Management of client relationships and key stakeholders.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Minimum Requirements 1. A postgraduate qualification or equivalent in Business (such as an MBA) or Finance (CA or CFA), or Engineering,

or Economics.

2. A minimum of 10 years of relevant work experience in appraising, negotiating, due diligence and closing project

finance, corporate finance, or structured finance transactions in a financial institution.

3. Experience in leading, initiating and developing new business strategies and opportunities to create a pipeline of development impact projects, ensuring deal flow and bankability.

4. Experience in securing infrastructure investment deals in relevant sectors/geographies in SA and Sub-Saharan Africa.

5. Comprehensive knowledge of the complex financial and regulatory environments.

6. Proven experience in working with senior stakeholders in highly political environments in South Africa and Sub-

Saharan Africa.

7. Successful track record in leading project teams with high-level stakeholders and qualified professionals.

8. Strong credit, financial, analytical, and financial modelling skills.

9. Strong networks and relations with clients, global and regional private investors and banks to identify and source viable projects/investments.

10. In-depth knowledge and understanding of the infrastructure market and financial markets. 11. Demonstrable experience in identifying client challenges and playing an active part in structuring innovative

solutions.

COMPETENCIES

1. BEHAVIOURAL

a) Achievement Orientation

Docusign Envelope ID: B76F371A-2889-4EB5-830D-5711B0C3D5C5

 

 

 

4 | P a g e Principal Investment Officer

• Focuses on new or more effective ways of improving own work and meeting targets.

• Focuses on raising quality, customer satisfaction and revenues.

• Makes specific changes to systems and processes to improve efficiency and quality.

• Formulates own objectives and action plans to achieve a measurable improvement in the future.

 

b) Analytical Thinking

• Identifies multiple elements of a problem and breaks down each of those elements in detail, showing causal relationships between them.

• Uses several analytical techniques to identify several solutions and weighs the value of each.

 

c) Conceptual thinking

• Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others and not learned from previous education or experience to explain situations or resolve problems.

• Looks at things in a significantly novel way, breakthrough thinking.

 

d) Strategic and Innovative thinking

• Recognises opportunities or problems emerging in patterns and trends, and their impact on the business and profitability drivers.

• Applies learning from previous situations and experiences.

• Sees underlying causality in the current situation. Applies business acumen to make sound decisions.

• Recognises opportunities or potential problems, before they become obvious, by seeing the connections in a

range of sources of information, including insights from outside DBSA.

• Restates complex knowledge in a way that makes it easier for others to understand.

 

e) Commercial Business Acumen

• Understands business fundamentals.

• Analyses and comprehends organisational goals and strategies.

• Understands tactical business fundamentals in the public sector environment and incorporates them into decision-making.

f) Teamwork

• Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale and resolves conflicts.

• Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.

• Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience.

2. TECHNICAL

a) Project Management

• Defines, plans, and manages large and/or strategic projects, including those with a high degree of technical complexity, with impacts across the organisation and/or with national implications.

• Assembles and leads diverse and multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring maximum effective resource utilisation.

• Successfully manages substantial project budgets and reports directly to senior managers on the progress and results of projects.

• Identifies complex issues that need escalation and proposes appropriate corrective actions. b) Deal Structuring

• Uses credit enhancement techniques to structure deals and optimise pricing in terms of Basel principles.

• Has an in-depth and practical understanding of how to optimise the Capital Structure, collateral package, and

Docusign Envelope ID: B76F371A-2889-4EB5-830D-5711B0C3D5C5

 

 

 

5 | P a g e Principal Investment Officer

debt repayment profile.

• Interrogates financial models, including those with a high degree of complexity, to develop an optimal structure.

• Identifies complex structural issues that need escalation and proposes appropriate bankable structures.

• Demonstrates knowledge of advanced structuring, including the use of derivatives, syndicated loans, synthetic loans, securitisations, Inflation-linked debt, credit default swaps and subordinated debt.

• Prepares specialised or tailored reports relating to new innovative instruments, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses and includes in a report to new product approval committees.

• Compiles comprehensive specialist reports as required for inclusion into credit committee submissions.

c) Solution Focus

• Identifies broad, highly complex problems based on a multitude of factors, many of which are complex and sweeping in nature, difficult to define and often contradictory.

• Creates procedures to articulate the nature of problems and to identify and weigh alternate solutions.

• Evaluates the effectiveness of solutions using approaches tailored to the situation.

d) Financial Analysis

• Serves as subject matter expert.

• Evaluates and determines fiscal, operational, and service impacts; analyses and evaluates legislation; and

implements and evaluates statistical models in their subject areas.

• Demonstrates in-depth technical and administrative knowledge of the rules and regulations in the subject area

and to defend analyses, testimony, and recommendations relating to a variety of issues before management

and commissions.

 

e) Risk Management

• Drives integration and standardisation of risk management processes across the organisation.

• Advises on the application of the organisation’s risk management policies, industry best practices and constructs

organisation guidelines.

• Analyses trends in risk management and internal control, evaluates implications, defines, and implements

organisation-wide response.

 

f) Attention to detail

• Quickly identifies relevant and irrelevant information to support accurate decision making.

• Maps out all the logistics and details of a situation to ensure smooth and flawless implementation.

• Consistently identifies all relevant details that are not obvious in complex situations.

• Requires the highest standards for accuracy and quality for their work.

• Establishes processes to ensure accuracy and quality of services delivered by the team.

g) Negotiation

• Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences.

• Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation.

• Can take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy.

• Can place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of DBSA.

h) Commercial Awareness

• Deep understanding of commercial drivers and can make decisions based on an assessment of alternatives concerning complex business situations.

• Deep understanding of DBSA economic priorities and how they can be implemented to meet DBSA's strategic objectives.

• Deep understanding of DBSA's core sector role in achieving DBSA's strategic objectives.

Docusign Envelope ID: B76F371A-2889-4EB5-830D-5711B0C3D5C5

 

 

 

6 | P a g e Principal Investment Officer

 

• Deep understanding of the need to coordinate efforts with many government entities, the private sector, community groups and individuals to ensure effective implementation of new policies and regulations.

i) Research

• Demonstrates expert skill levels in strategic and operational research techniques, including process analysis, modelling, and forecasting.

• Adapts, creates, and designs new research techniques to meet the organisation's requirements.

• Provides specialist coaching and guidance to researchers and other organisation employees.

• Promotes the professional reputation of the organisation by maintaining a respected profile with relevant external organisations and the research community in general.

j) Communication and Reporting

• Able to communicate complex problems or concepts by making them simple and understandable for others.

• Adapts language to the level of the audience to ensure that the message has a positive impact and is interesting to the audience.

• Is articulate, demonstrates a wide range of vocabulary, and is confident when talking to large/high-level audiences.

• Designs / customises reports to meet user needs.

• Prepares complex or tailored reports, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses and includes in a report.

• Keeps standard reports under review and proposes improvements to meet user needs.

k) Innovation

• Develops innovative business solutions that shape industry practices.

l) Presentation Skills

• Knows how to deliver arguments persuasively by employing a range of advanced presentation techniques (e.g., the appropriate use of body language, how to close a presentation so that the audience continues to think about the subject matter, etc.).

• Knows various feedback mechanisms to check levels of audience understanding.

Docusign Envelope ID: B76F371A-2889-4EB5-830D-5711B0C3D5C5