SNV is a mission-driven global development partner with sixty years of embedded, country-level presence. It is home to 57 cultures working in 22 countries, with around 95% of its team members holding the nationality of the countries in which they work. Its work spans agriculture, energy access and water, and rests on long-term relationships with governments, companies and communities rather than short-term project cycles.
SNV Proximate (working name) is a newly established impact capital accelerator. It brings together SNV’s expertise in impact driven finance and inclusive commercial value chains to develop commercially viable solutions that generate both business value and development impact, operating with the pace, ambition and commercial mindset of a boutique advisory firm, while drawing on the reach, credibility and market presence of a global development organisation. SNV Proximate works with companies, investors, development finance institutions, foundations and governments to design, test and grow new approaches to mobilising investment, strengthening markets, and building more inclusive and resilient value chains across emerging economies.
The Principal – Impact-Driven Finance is one of two founding commercial roles in SNV Proximate, responsible for shaping how SNV engages the growing market for impact-driven finance from
blended finance facilities and development finance institutions through to impact funds and technical assistance providers.
Business development
Build and manage a pipeline of IDF engagements across target geographies — Sub-saharan Africa (East, West, South) and Asia (South and Southeast).
Identify, qualify and convert opportunities with impact investors, blended finance facilities, DFIs and technical assistance providers.
Lead proposal development for IDF mandates, from scoping through to submission and negotiation.
Open doors from day one. This role does not have a long relationship-building runway; the successful candidate will already know a meaningful number of the active DFI and impact investor decision-makers in this market.
Apply a strict bid/no-bid filter. You are accountable for pipeline quality, not just pipeline volume.
Represent SNV Proximate at sector events and in client meetings as a credible peer with proof points. Conferences are positioning events, not prospecting events.
Maintain a live, qualified pipeline in the CRM and own your numbers.
Delivery
Serve as delivery lead on engagements — accountable for quality, client relationship and outcomes through to final sign-off.
Manage specialist sub-contractors and technical inputs to high quality standards.
Conduct quality reviews on every engagement and feed findings back into the pipeline.
Ensure every engagement produces a reusable asset — a framework, a dataset, a methodology or a case study.
Work comfortably across a mix of shorter, staged assignments and longer-term mandates, building toward larger engagements through smaller early wins.
Market and thought leadership
Stay close to developments in impact investing, blended finance and development finance. Know what clients are buying and what they will pay for, who the active buyers are, and which instruments are in market.
Contribute to how SNV thinks about the sector, not only how it sells to it. This role requires genuine views on where impact capital is going, expressed in writing, in rooms and in front of clients. Thought leadership here is a commercial asset.
Identify gaps in SNV’s IDF offer and propose new products or service lines based on market demand.
Build a set of reusable methodologies and tools from delivered engagements that make the practice more efficient over time.
Required
At least 10 years of experience at the intersection of finance and development — in impact investing, blended finance, DFI advisory or related fields. Prior work specifically in impact or blended finance is required; a pure-play investment background without that exposure is too steep a learning curve for this role.
Fluency in the language and mechanics of fund structuring and capital raising, and the ability to evaluate a pipeline company quickly for investment readiness — equity versus debt fit, term sheet literacy, deal structuring logic.
A track record of originating and closing commercial mandates. You have won work, not just delivered it.
Experience working in or with emerging markets, particularly sub- Saharan Africa and/or South and Southeast Asia. Frontier and fragile market experience counts for more than regional breadth.
Demonstrated ability to manage client relationships at senior level — with fund managers, DFI directors or equivalent.
Experience delivering technical assistance, transaction advisory or investment structuring engagements.
Experience designing and leading multi-month advisory or implementation engagements, not just contributing to them.
Experience navigating matrix organisations and working across country teams and geographies without direct line management authority. This role requires influence without hierarchy.
Preferred
Strong commercial instinct. Ability to read a client’s buying signals and know how to position an offer.
Fluency in the language of impact finance: blended finance instruments, impact measurement, capital mobilisation, DFI mandates.
Ability to write compelling proposals under time pressure.
Strong analytical skills — comfortable with financial models, business cases and investment logic at a working level.
Strong written and verbal communication in English. Additional languages an advantage.
Comfort with CRM and pipeline management tools; you keep your own records current without being asked.
Leadership competencies
Commercially driven. Motivated by closing deals, building partnerships, and creating something from the ground up. Measures success in mandates won and clients retained.
Dual fluency. Equally credible with commercial and development sector clients, and able to move between both worlds without losing authority in either.
Rigorous. Holds self and others to a high standard; work leaves the team only when it is genuinely excellent.
Honest and pragmatic. Clear-eyed about what is working and what is not and uses evidence and experience to inform decisions.
Patient with cycles, impatient with bureaucracy. Comfortable with long sales cycles and complex investment deals; little tolerance for inefficient processes.
Builder mentality. Energised by taking ideas from concept to execution and comfortable with the ambiguity of building something new inside an established organisation.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Research shows that individuals from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply for roles unless they meet every listed qualification. At Millar Cameron, we are committed to supporting our clients in building diverse and inclusive teams. If you’re enthusiastic about this role but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply - you could be exactly what our client is looking for, either for this position or another.
Please note that due to the high volume of applications we receive, we are only able to respond to candidates who are shortlisted for the next stage of the process. We sincerely appreciate your interest and the time taken to apply.
Since 2007 Millar Cameron has specialised in sourcing leadership and keyperson talent across a number of industries, including agribusiness, international development, industrial, consumer, financial and professional services, private equity, and technology, media and telecommunications. Our mission and purpose is to positively contribute to the development of Africa, and other emerging markets, through the provision of people.