Job at Powerhive for a Business Development Director
Powerhive is a technology venture founded in 2011 that partners with
utilities and independent power producers to provide access to
productive, affordable, and reliable microgrid electricity for millions
of rural homes and businesses around the globe. Our proprietary
technology platform and business
model enables the financing,
monetization, and management of distributed microgrid solutions. We are
headquartered in Berkeley, CA.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Director, Business Development - West Africa
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Job Type: Full-time
Hiring Manager: VP, Business Development
Department: Business Development
Intended Start Date: July/August, 2016
Language Requirement: English and French
Travel: Up to 60% of the time
Relocation: Local hires are preferred. A relocation package will be considered for exceptional candidates only.
Job Description
- As a senior member of the business development team, you will
work closely with VP, Business Development to lead Powerhive’s efforts
in new markets within West Africa and initiate and develop off-grid
renewable energy projects across the region.
- You will be responsible for sourcing and developing a
substantiated pipeline of projects using in-market resources or
Powerhive teams and ensuring bankability through efficiently coordinated
diligence processes.
- You will work with cross functional internal support teams,
including Project Finance, Engineering, and PMO to help bring projects
to Execution.
Key Responsibilities
- General -10% - Help refine development, assessment and due
diligence processes and workflows; Create compelling analysis and
clearly-articulated presentations for executive management and
board-level stakeholders in order to support executive decision-making;
Be part of Investment Committee meetings to present deals and projects.
- Market Entry -25% - Competitive research, assessment of
competitive activities within the micro-grid and energy access sector;
Contribute to twice-annual Market Prioritization exercise to help set
overall BD goals; Identify key local stakeholders and partners, and
develop relationships; Investigate business climate and key factors
including permits and land acquisition; Support negotiations,
transaction structuring and successful execution of varying form of
transactions and partnerships
- Project Pipeline -50%- Drive delivery of pipeline (i.e.
shovel-ready connections, including concession, customer contracts, all
commercial arrangements, etc.) to Operations for execution; Lead
opportunity screening by conducting preliminary analyses of investment
opportunities; Contribute to company-wide monitoring of RFQs and similar
government/DFI-led project opportunities for cheap financing and/or
suitable subsidies; Perform/drive financial and modeling analysis for
potential projects, partnerships, RFQs, and acquisitions; Lead
government relations in the region and source local representatives with
right political pedigree to develop appropriate relationships that lead
to bankable greenfield concessions; Source M&A opportunities for
expedited acquisition of pipeline. Create term sheets, coordinate legal
documents and gain internal approvals for various partnership and
M&A transactions; Engage with Powerhive stakeholders in various
functions to create, present, and follow up on partnership and/or
M&A proposals with prospective companies; Work with Strategic
Relationships managers to identify specific opportunities provided by
existing partners pertaining to key countries or projects under
development; Leverage existing deal structures in other countries to
identify suitable partnerships.
- Project Execution - 15% - Work hand-in-hand with joint
development partner(s) and other strategic partners (e.g. equipment
suppliers, EPC, O&M contractors) in region to ensure that the BD
team delivers fully defined project to Operations; Support CIO in
achieving financial close; Work closely with PMO to ensure smooth
handover to Operations team for project Execution.
Requirements & Qualifications
- 5+ years' experience developing and leading infrastructure
projects, ideally in the energy/utilities or telecom sectors.
Demonstrated experience working on complex transactions including
mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and/or asset sales.
- University Degree in Finance, Law, MBA, or Project Management.
- Superior communication/presentation skills - both written and
oral AND good listening skills; Demonstrated ability to express complex
ideas in simple unambiguous form, whether visual or numerical.
- Thorough understanding of project finance and process of getting projects funded.
- Highly organized, ability to track and follow up multiple deals/projects concurrently and timeously.
- Strong quantitative analysis skills including the development of business cases and other relevant transaction support analysis.
- Proven ability to manage multiple simultaneous transaction
processes and close complex deals with significant contracted revenues /
customer targets.
- Proficient with modern productivity tools such as MS Office, Google Apps, Asana, Slack, Salesforce.
- Understanding of the off-grid and micro-grid markets in particular, and the renewable energy sector in general.
- Understanding of energy markets, utility rates and consumer and
channel partner value propositions for residential and commercial solar.
- Strong understanding of West African cultures, governance, and economies.
- Advanced negotiation skills.
Personal Characteristics:
- Work well under pressure
- Sunny disposition and good sense of humor
- Driven to excel, and perform; not a 8-5 mentality.
- Team player, able to achieve results through others
- Self-starter with excellent organizational and planning skills
- Comfortable with ambiguity
Basic Information
In your first...
- Month - In the first month, you will familiarize yourself with
our business model and do a deep dive on the West African region to
develop your goals and priorities. You will have traveled to each
country to assess the potential on the ground. You will also take
control of our market and project development in Nigeria and personally
manage the efforts in-country.
- 90 DAYS - In the first three months, you will have personally
initiated operations in one new market, defining the opportunity,
establishing key stakeholder relationships and scouting local talent.
You will have identified several solid opportunities for greenfield
development and/or M&A and have brought on dedicated resources in
each of your focus markets and have detailed goals, timelines and
(preliminary) budgets in place.
- 180 DAYS - After 6 months you are in advanced stages of
acquiring concessions/permits in your focus markets, have a
well-defined opportunity and project for each and have achieved
sign-off from the Investment Committee.
- One Year - After a year, you and your team will have developed a
ready-to-build pipeline of ≥500k connections, opened up at least 2 new
markets and are ready to hand over at least 100k connections to the
Operations team for execution.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply