About Palladium – Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people’s lives.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or any other circumstance, please email our team at [email protected]

Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Project Overview and Role:

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Project Description

The COVID-19 Africa Response & Rebuild facility is a 10 million Euro grant facility funded by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The facility supports economically and environmentally sustainable businesses with the aim of protecting at-risk value chains and safeguarding the forest-dependent communities who rely upon them for income. The facility leverages networks of partner businesses across Africa, providing working capital in the form of returnable grants to aggregators, off-takers and other buyers of speciality cocoa and coffee. Palladium is hiring an Investment Associate into the project team. The Investment Associate will work closely with the Investment Manager on all aspects of developing the pipeline and managing the portfolio of Grantees in West and Central Africa, and other emerging platforms within Palladium’s nature-based solutions work area.

Outline of Position

The Investment Associate is a valued member of the team completing a variety of substantive and proposal development and analytical tasks that are critical to high-quality pipeline and portfolio management. This role encompasses proposal writing, developing analytics, project management and relationship building. Initially focused on learning the basics of pipeline and portfolio management, this role works closely with the Investment Manager to be trained in these duties and best practices in project delivery. Over time, the Associate should apply that learning to complete tasks independently and build competencies and skills in preparation to take on Manager-level roles in project delivery or other functional areas of Palladium’s business.

Key Responsibilities, Duties and Tasks

The Investment Associate is an early-mid career role supporting the delivering a returnable grant fund, with particular responsibility for driving innovation in pipeline development, portfolio management and financial management.

Pipeline Development

• Develop a strong pipeline of cocoa companies who can apply for financing from the Rebuild Facility
• Attend regional events to promote the Rebuild Facility to the wider cocoa sector.
• Screen applications to the facility, conducting early assessments, and building investment proposals for the facility Steering Committees
• Carry out site visits to potential applicants to verify applications and carry out initial due diligence.
• Write proposal documents and coordinate the proposal development process with Grants and Finance team.
• Support in forecasting and updating the proposed outcomes and finance flows for subgrantees, both in the pipeline and portfolio stages
• Conduct desk-based research on supply and commodity prices as well as identifying potential risks at the Country level.

Portfolio Management

• Lead progress meetings with all companies in the portfolio over the course of the grant term.
• Carry out site visits and spot checks to ensure subgrantees are complying with terms and conditions of the subgrant agreement.
• Coordinate the contracting of all subgrantees, under guidance from the Grants Manager.
• Support in the preparation of the grant allocation, disbursements, and forecast schedules, as required.
• Ongoing identification and management of relevant operational risks.Maintain a risk dashboard highlighting potential risks and issues (operational, fiduciary, and reputational) and mitigation plans.
• Carry out ongoing monitoring and evaluation of project results and outcomes for Grantees.
• Ensure that goods and services are purchased by each grantee according to Palladium Procurement policy and guidelines.
• Support in programme close out.

Reporting

• Coordinate project expenditure verification and support in the programme audit.
• Input to regular reporting to Client and internally within Palladium.
• Work with the Project Management team in preparation of quarterly and annual reports and work-plans.
• Maintain a comprehensive information management and filing system that ensures all client contractual documents, reports, key correspondences, etc. are appropriately filed in up-to-date and consistent soft and hard libraries available as needed.

Relationship Management

• Develop and manage strong working relationships with client, project partners and other stakeholders.
• Develop strong working relationships and a regular dialogue on project progress and challenges with the Palladium team working on the project

Required Qualifications:

Education and professional experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Management, Business Administration or Agricultural Economics.
• Experience working the cocoa sector in West Africa.
• Additional experience in consulting roles is preferable, but not required.

Required skills and abilities:

• Commitment to fighting climate change and deforestation with the ability to convincingly articulate this commitment.
• Passion for environmental issues, international development, private sector-led development, forestry / nature-based solutions, sustainability or supply chain management
• Demonstrable experience of successfully contributing to a team in a similar early career role.
• Experience of developing business analytics and writing proposals.
• Good understanding of completing due diligence assessments and best practices in contracting.
• Able to work with limited supervision, be flexible and comfortable in a multi-cultural work force.
• Good communication skills: ability to build good working relationship with project team and partners at a range of levels and in different locations
• Fluency in spoken and written English.
• The ability to communicate in French will be considered as a distinct advantage.
• Advanced computer skills in Word and Excel.
• Experience working with Wrike project management software or ArcGIS would be an advantage.
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to work under pressure to meet specific deadlines

The role will work from our Accra office. The successful applicant will have the right to work and live in Ghana.