NextBillion - A WDI Publication

British International Investment (BII) is the UK’s leading development finance institution, wholly owned by the UK Government. Our primary mission is to address global development challenges through strategic investments that promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

BII focuses on catalysing economic development, creating jobs, and building resilient economies in some of the world’s most complex and underserved markets. We invest in businesses and projects that prioritise inclusive development, environmental sustainability, and innovation.

Our approach is characterised by rigorous investment standards, high governance principles, and a commitment to delivering measurable development impact. Our team consists of highly skilled and passionate professionals dedicated to making a tangible difference globally.

We foster a collaborative and intellectually stimulating work environment that values curiosity, innovation, and professional growth. Our culture balances high performance with a strong emphasis on wellbeing, ensuring our employees can achieve their full potential while contributing to our mission.

BII at a glance:

Over 75 years supporting sustainable business growth in developing and emerging markets

More than £9.9 billion in net assets

1,600+ businesses invested in

950,000+ workers in the businesses we support

650+ people in our diverse global team

3 key development objectives: Productive | Sustainable | Inclusive

Team and role overview 

Our teams are sector led. This helps us spot opportunities and trends ahead of the curve, thus giving us the competitive advantage. Our teams have been classified into 3 with clearly identified focus areas;  

1. Infrastructure and Climate (On-grid renewable energy generation, Transmission & distribution, Energy access – mini-grids and solar home systems, Commercial & industrial power, Ports & logistics, Toll roads, Water and sanitation, Resource efficiency,  

1. Financial Services (Development of capital markets, improving reach to MSMEs through financial intermediaries, supporting specialised financial service providers to meet people’s ‘basic needs’, digital financial services) 

1. Industries, Technology and Services – ITS (Food and Agriculture, Sustainable Industrials, Technology, Telecom) 

All the three sector teams have embedded Development Impact teams who work with the investment team members to assess the potential of the potential investments and ensure effective monitoring of the envisaged impact. These impact professionals are referred to as DI-I (Development Impact – Investment) professionals. 

Purpose 

BII’s Development Impact Investment (DI-I) team is market-leading and provides technical expertise to investment teams on how to assess, manage and evaluate the impact of our investments. We take an active approach to impact management (in consultation with the Central Team which is known as the Development Impact Management Team), utilising a framework aligned with the Operating Principles for Impact Management. While this team is embedded within the sector team, it works closely with other teams within BII’s impact group and works closely with other areas of impact such as Climate, Gender, ESG and others 

Responsibilities 

We are currently recruiting for a role within the DI-I ITS team. The candidate/s will be responsible for assessing potential impact of our investments and manage effective achievement of the same. The selected Candidate will report to the Development Impact Head – ITS. The candidate will play an active role in deploying the lens of BII’s impact management frameworks on investments, contribute to thought leadership, and contribute to ITS systems and processes in order to deepen the impact on people and planet. The responsibilities will include the following (not exhaustive): 

Delivering impact management for the relevant part of the investment portfolio: 

• Assessing development impact as part of origination and due diligence process. Working seamlessly with ITS investment team colleagues to inform the investment decision and define the impact objectives and appropriately escalating issues. 

• Developing a high-quality development impact dashboard and Impact Score for each investment based on the Impact Management Project’s consensus which will involve desk research, facilitating discussions, due diligence and managing external suppliers where necessary. Liaise with other Impact Group teams (e.g. E&S, Climate Finance and Gender & Diversity etc) during the investment process where relevant. 

• Defining the monitoring plan for the investments and post investment, collecting the impact metrics to track actual impact of investments, ensuring analysis is timely and high quality. 

• Assessing how investments are performing against their initial development objectives, determining when course corrections are required and completing exit reviews, feeding back learnings to the organisation. 

• Actively managing investments to enhance the impact by participating in the design and implementation of initiatives and partnerships. 

• Developing and delivering strategies for the sector ensuring consistency with BII wide strategies and frameworks. 

• Developing sector framework and tools (e.g. benchmarks) ensuring consistency with BII wide strategies and frameworks. 

Relationship & Stakeholder management: 

• Contact point for the relevant sector team within ITS, attending and representing development impact in relevant meetings  

• Engagement with investees on impact management activities and data 

• Ensuring appropriate communication of priorities, changes to processes and frameworks etc to internal teams 

• Manage sector-specific relationships including with experts, peers and suppliers. 

Support and contribute to the wider Development Impact team: 

• Support the Impact Management Team (Central Team) in the continual development of BII’s impact management framework ensuring tools, systems, policies and capabilities remain world class. 

• Support other team members to ensure all activities within the sector are consistent with sector approach. 

• Developing the overall capability and team effectiveness of the Development Impact team and sharing learnings within the team, the broader Impact Group and the organisation.   

The candidate 

Background 

Strong work experience managing impact processes or systems in Africa within a Fund/Foundation, or an impact manger within an investment setting or, with a good grounding in development impact assessment with a private sector mindset.  

Strong academic credentials. Preferably a Master’s in Economics/ MBA/ Development Economics or equivalent analytical post graduate degree. 

Skills 

• Practical understanding of impact management, private sector development and how to achieve development outcomes through investment. 

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. Confident dealing with complexity and can combine objective quantitative analysis with expert qualitative judgment. Confident in managing data and collating and presenting evidence. 

• Knowledge and network of third parties in impact management and measurement space who can be leveraged to help deliver enhanced impact with our investee companies. 

• Strong project management, analysis and reporting skills, with the ability to deliver data and insights informed strategic approaches. Able to prioritise tasks and manage multiple work streams simultaneously in a complex and fast-moving environment. 

• Strong communication skills: the ability to describe complex development impact scenarios with accuracy and concision and the ability to explain development impact to non-professionals and across a range of cultural backgrounds. 

• Self-starter with a bias for action and problem-solving approach. 

• Resilient to time pressures and competing priorities, confident in prioritising and taking decisions with imperfect information.  

• Proven capability of effective teamwork and strong stakeholder/relationship management. 

The role will require travel to our regions (UK, South Asia and within Africa) to support the due diligence process. 

• Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous executive or non-executive activity.    

• Over time, the candidate should oversee team members and offer support in technical matters, emotional wellbeing, and career development. 

Our cultural values  

We look for team members who aspire, as we do, to work at our best and to be: 

• Impact-led, commercially rigorous 

• Tenacious in the face of challenges 

• Collaborative and caring  

British International Investment is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation or educational background.