Senior Invesment Officer (Project Finance)

The Senior Investment Officer (Project Finance) is a permanent, Grade 16 position based at the Development Bank of Southern Africa’s Midrand campus in Gauteng. This is a senior-level role within a development finance institution, and its core purpose is to generate deal flow and build a strong pipeline of prospective projects for development financing. The successful candidate will be responsible for structuring, appraising, negotiating, and closing Project Finance, Corporate Finance, or Structured Finance transactions, ensuring that these deals align with DBSA’s strategic objectives and broader national and regional economic development priorities.

Candidates for this role must bring advanced technical expertise across a wide range of competencies. This includes project management of large, strategically complex projects with national implications, assembling and leading multi-disciplinary teams, and managing substantial project budgets. Business development experience is essential, particularly at national and international levels, including the ability to review competitor environments, formulate market approaches, and lead the development of strategies that generate new business opportunities in public and private sector infrastructure delivery. The role also demands deep knowledge of deal structuring, including the use of credit enhancement techniques, optimisation of capital structures, collateral packages, and debt repayment profiles, as well as familiarity with advanced instruments such as derivatives, syndicated loans, synthetic loans, securitisations, inflation-linked debt, credit default swaps, and subordinated debt. Strong financial analysis skills, financial acumen, attention to detail, negotiation ability, and commercial awareness are all critical to success.

The main duties of the role are broad and strategic. The officer will take the lead in proactive business development, identify and develop new markets, products, and clients, and represent DBSA at investment conferences and roundtable discussions. They will coordinate business activities to ensure investment initiatives support government BEE strategies and broader economic development goals. In deal structuring, they will interrogate complex financial models, identify structural issues that require escalation, and propose bankable solutions. They will prepare specialised reports on innovative instruments for new product approval committees and compile comprehensive reports for credit committee submissions. As a subject matter expert, the officer will evaluate fiscal, operational, and service impacts, analyse legislation, and defend recommendations before management and commissions. They will also prepare budgetary submissions and forecasts, interpret management account reports, and take action to maximise revenues and control costs. The role requires leading sensitive negotiations with tact and diplomacy, while protecting DBSA’s long-term interests, and ensuring the highest standards of accuracy and quality in all team outputs.

This position is ideal for an experienced investment professional who understands the commercial drivers of complex transactions and can link short-term tasks to long-term business strategies. The officer will need to coordinate efforts with government entities, the private sector, community groups, and individuals to ensure effective implementation of policies and regulations. Given the senior nature of the role, the successful candidate must be comfortable working with ambiguity, identifying relevant information quickly, and managing multi-faceted problems. The position offers the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to South Africa’s infrastructure development and economic growth through the financing of bankable, high-impact projects.