Support and progressively lead the execution of project development workstreams across Kwanza's pipeline — from origination through feasibility and into financial close.

About Kwanza

Kwanza Infrastructure Group (www.kwanzaig.com) is a project development platform focused on conceptualising, originating, developing, and structuring bankable clean energy and electricity infrastructure projects — including Independent Power Producer (IPP) and Independent Power Transmission (IPT) projects. We convert complex early-stage or greenfield opportunities into investment-ready assets. This requires simultaneous command of technical, commercial and regulatory dimensions across markets where the development is long, multi-stakeholder and unforgiving of gaps in judgement or follow-through.

We operate from Kampala, functioning through a lean, high-performance professional platform – not a large organisation with deep benches or rigid corporate structures. This work is intellectually demanding, the mandates are high-stakes, and the learning curve is steep. Our members are expected to think independently, undertake a deep dive on every work stream, come up to speed quickly, operate with consistent professionalism and maturity and contribute meaningfully from day one.

About the Role

Role Context

Kwanza Infrastructure Group currently carries an active project pipeline spanning three distinct development stages simultaneously — early-stage origination, active feasibility, and financial close. Each stage demands a different mode of thinking and execution. This role sits across all three.

The most time-critical workstreams are currently at financial close. The Platform has developed substantial project materials, but these require strengthening and repositioning to align with the investment frameworks, impact criteria, and decision-making processes of development finance institutions and impact investors. This is not a document formatting exercise. It requires a genuine understanding of what drives investment decisions: additionality, development impact, ESG and safeguard requirements, climate finance eligibility, SDG alignment, bankability, and the narrative architecture that links commercial viability to measurable development outcomes.

At the same time, the Platform has a project at feasibility stage requiring structured workstream management across technical, commercial, environmental, and regulatory dimensions — and an early-stage origination project that needs to be shaped from first principles.

The gaps this role is intended to close are clear: workstream ownership, execution discipline, and relentless follow-through. Kwanza Infrastructure Group does not need someone who waits for instructions or manages tasks passively. It needs someone who can identify the next action required, drive it to completion, coordinate stakeholders where necessary, and return with a solution, recommendation, or deliverable.

Role Purpose

The Associate, Project Development is responsible for supporting and progressively leading the execution of project development workstreams across Kwanza Infrastructure Group's active pipeline — from origination through feasibility and into financial close. The role requires the ability to shift between development stages fluidly, manage competing priorities across multiple projects simultaneously, and maintain rigorous follow-through on every open item across every active workstream.

The successful candidate will be expected to assume increasing ownership of project workstreams over time, ultimately becoming a trusted execution resource capable of independently advancing complex development activities with limited supervision.

Core Responsibilities

1. Project Origination and Opportunity Development

Objective: Build a robust and evidence-based foundation for new project opportunities by assessing their technical, commercial, regulatory, stakeholder, and strategic viability, and converting early-stage concepts into structured development opportunities capable of entering the project pipeline.

• Support the identification, screening, and assessment of new project opportunities, assembling and analysing the technical, commercial, regulatory, stakeholder, environmental, and market information required to support informed development decisions.
• Lead the development of comprehensive origination workstreams, including site assessments, resource evaluations, stakeholder mapping, regulatory pathway assessments, land and permitting considerations, commercial structuring assumptions, and preliminary development strategies.
• Coordinate engagement with government institutions, regulators, utilities, landowners, community representatives, technical advisers, and other relevant stakeholders during the origination phase — submitting discussion records, commitments, risks, and follow-up actions into the project records system.
• Prepare concept notes, investment teasers, project briefs, development memoranda, and presentation materials that clearly articulate the project's rationale, opportunity, development pathway, and strategic value proposition.
• Identify and escalate technical, commercial, regulatory, stakeholder, environmental, and execution risks at the earliest possible stage, together with recommended mitigation measures and proposed next actions.
• Support internal go/no-go decision-making by consolidating findings into concise and decision-oriented development assessments.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• No critical origination action item remaining unresolved for more than two (2) weeks without documented status, ownership, and next steps (tracked in the project system).
• Produce a comprehensive origination assessment or project opportunity memorandum within sixty (60) days of assignment, covering technical, commercial, regulatory, stakeholder, environmental, and development considerations.
• Ensure 100% of stakeholder engagements, meetings, site visits, and regulatory interactions are documented and filed within twenty-four (24) hours of occurrence.
• Identify and escalate all material project risks, critical dependencies, and development blockers within five (5) business days of becoming aware of them.

2. Feasibility Stage Management and Development Coordination

Objective: Drive the structured execution of feasibility-stage development activities by coordinating technical, commercial, environmental, social, legal, and regulatory workstreams toward a bankable project that can withstand investor, lender, and due diligence scrutiny.

• Drive the master feasibility workstream — sequencing, assigning, and actively progressing all technical, commercial, financial, legal, environmental, social, permitting, and stakeholder activities against project timelines and development milestones (action register and milestone tracking).
• Coordinate and manage the performance of external consultants, advisers, and service providers across engineering, environmental and social impact assessment, legal, financial, commercial, and regulatory workstreams, ensuring clear scopes of work, timely delivery, adherence to agreed standards, and effective communication across all parties.
• Review consultant outputs critically before submission to leadership, counterparties, investors, or regulators, identifying gaps, inconsistencies, unsupported assumptions, scope omissions, quality concerns, or issues that may affect project bankability or credibility.
• Track and actively manage interdependencies between workstreams, ensuring that delays, information gaps, approval requirements, or consultant bottlenecks in one area do not compromise progress in another.
• Capture all material technical, commercial, financial, environmental, social, legal, and regulatory issues, assumptions, decisions, and actions arising during feasibility — together with agreed resolutions, responsible parties, and implementation status — submitting them into the project records system.
• Coordinate permitting, licensing, land access, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory approval activities required during feasibility, maintaining clear awareness of submission status, approval pathways, regulatory dependencies, and outstanding actions.
• Support the consolidation of feasibility-stage outputs into coherent project development packages capable of supporting investment decisions, financing discussions, regulatory approvals, and progression toward financial close.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Active workstreams progressed every week, with current status, ownership, key risks, upcoming milestones, and next actions reflected in the project tracking system.
• Ensure that no consultant deliverable is submitted to leadership, regulators, investors, lenders, or external counterparties without prior review and quality assessment by the Associate.
• All material project issues, decisions, assumptions, and action items submitted into the project records system within forty-eight (48) hours of identification or resolution.
• Ensure no permitting application, regulatory submission, consultant deliverable, or critical project milestone is delayed due to internal coordination failures or inadequate follow-through.
• Escalate material schedule, quality, budget, stakeholder, or regulatory risks within five (5) business days of identification, together with recommended mitigation measures and proposed next steps.

3. Financial Close Support, Transaction Management and Impact Investor Positioning

Objective: Support the successful achievement of financial close by driving transaction workstreams, managing conditions precedent, coordinating investor and advisor interactions, and strengthening project positioning to align with the investment, impact, and due diligence requirements of development finance institutions, climate finance facilities, and impact-oriented investors.

• Drive the financial close workstream for each active transaction — including conditions precedent, financing requirements, regulatory approvals, transaction documentation, consultant deliverables, lender requests, and key closing milestones — using the financial close tracker.
• Coordinate information flows between Kwanza Infrastructure Group and external stakeholders, including investors, lenders, development finance institutions, technical advisers, legal counsel, government agencies, and transaction counterparties, ensuring that requests, queries, data-room requirements, and due diligence actions are managed promptly and systematically.
• Support the management and resolution of conditions precedent by tracking responsibilities, securing required inputs, coordinating counterparties, escalating delays, and ensuring that critical closing requirements do not remain unattended.
• Review, strengthen, and reposition project materials — including information memoranda, project summaries, financing presentations, executive briefs, investment teasers, due diligence responses, and transaction narratives — to align with the evaluation frameworks of target investors and financing institutions.
• Develop and continuously refine project impact narratives, clearly articulating development additionality, climate resilience, greenhouse gas reduction benefits, energy access outcomes, economic development impacts, ESG performance, and alignment with relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate finance frameworks.
• Support investor engagement activities by preparing briefing materials, presentation content, meeting notes, follow-up actions, due diligence responses, and transaction-related analyses required during financing discussions.
• Prepare concise and decision-oriented financial close progress narratives for leadership, highlighting transaction status, critical path items, emerging risks, stakeholder actions, and recommended interventions required to maintain momentum toward closing.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Ensure that no investor, lender, DFI, or advisor query remains outstanding beyond agreed response timelines without documented explanation, ownership assignment, and escalation where necessary.
• Deliver revised and investor-positioned project materials for each assigned financial close transaction within 60 days of assignment, incorporating relevant impact, ESG, climate finance, and development outcome considerations.
• Prepare and circulate structured weekly financial close progress reports to leadership every Monday morning, covering all active transaction workstreams, critical risks, and recommended actions.
• Ensure all material financial close risks, transaction bottlenecks, and conditions precedent delays are identified and escalated sufficiently early to avoid preventable impacts on closing schedules.

4. Portfolio Coordination and Institutional Knowledge Build

Objective: Maintain alignment and execution discipline across the Platform's project portfolio while systematically contributing the institutional knowledge, development frameworks, and lessons learned that improve execution capability over time.

• Monitor cross-project dependencies, resource constraints, stakeholder overlaps, regulatory interactions, and strategic risks that may affect multiple projects simultaneously, proactively identifying issues and recommending mitigation measures before they impact execution.
• Ensure that key project decisions, development assumptions, stakeholder intelligence, regulatory precedents, transaction insights, lessons learned, and execution methodologies are captured and submitted into the Platform's institutional knowledge systems.
• Lead structured project reviews and debrief sessions at key development milestones, including feasibility completion, regulatory approvals, financing milestones, and financial close, translating lessons learned into practical improvements in project development processes and execution frameworks.
• Support the continuous refinement of project development playbooks, templates, and checklists that improve consistency and execution quality across the Platform's project portfolio.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Conduct and document structured project review or debrief sessions at each major development milestone across active projects, with agreed actions and lessons learned incorporated into future project processes.
• Ensure that all material project decisions, stakeholder intelligence, regulatory insights, transaction learnings, and development precedents are captured and submitted into the Platform's knowledge management systems within thirty (30) days of generation.
• Identify and escalate material cross-project risks, resource conflicts, and strategic dependencies before they adversely affect project timelines, development outcomes, or financial close objectives.

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

• Open to applicants aged between 24 – 30 years of age.
• A Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Economics, Finance, Business Administration, Environmental Science, Public Policy, Law, or a related discipline. The specific field of study is less important than the analytical rigour, intellectual curiosity, and structured problem-solving capability it demonstrates.
• A postgraduate qualification relevant to infrastructure development, project finance, energy economics, public policy, or project management is an advantage.
• Formal project management certification — PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent — is an advantage. Demonstrated ability to manage complex multi-stakeholder workstreams to the same standard is equally valued.

Attributes

We are not primarily screening for years of experience or a specific career path. We are looking for a particular type of professional — someone whose effectiveness is defined less by what they have done previously and more by how they approach problems, ownership, and execution.

The right candidate for this role:

• Takes ownership instinctively. When assigned responsibility for a workstream, project activity, or deliverable, you assume full accountability for its progress and completion. You do not wait to be reminded, chased, or supervised.
• Learns quickly and independently. You will encounter unfamiliar project structures, financing mechanisms, regulatory frameworks, stakeholder environments, and technical concepts. You are comfortable teaching yourself, conducting independent research, and becoming productive in new subject areas without extensive handholding.
• Demonstrates strong judgement under uncertainty. Project development frequently requires decisions to be made with incomplete information, evolving stakeholder positions, and changing circumstances. You are able to assess available information, identify risks, and recommend practical next steps without becoming paralysed by ambiguity.
• Communicates with clarity and precision. You are capable of distilling complex issues into concise, structured, and actionable communication. Whether in writing or verbally, you communicate in a manner that helps others make decisions rather than creating additional complexity.
• Thinks commercially as well as analytically. You recognise that project success is not determined solely by technical feasibility. You understand the importance of commercial viability, stakeholder alignment, financing considerations, and execution practicality.
• Understands the importance of narrative. In the context of development finance and impact-oriented investment, the strength of the project story matters alongside the financial case. You appreciate concepts such as development additionality, climate impact, ESG performance, and sustainable development outcomes, and can contribute to articulating them effectively.
• Treats commitments seriously. You view deadlines, action items, and stakeholder commitments as obligations rather than aspirations. Where timelines are at risk, you escalate early, propose mitigation measures, and actively work toward recovery.
• Brings structure to complexity. You enjoy organising fragmented information, coordinating multiple stakeholders, and transforming loosely defined workstreams into clear, trackable, and executable plans.
• Maintains resilience and professionalism. You remain composed when managing competing priorities, tight timelines, demanding stakeholders, and evolving project requirements. You understand that complex infrastructure development requires persistence, adaptability, and attention to detail over extended periods.
• Cares about outcomes, not activity. You focus on advancing projects, solving problems, and achieving tangible progress rather than simply completing assigned tasks.

Application closing date: Monday 13 July 2026.

Apply online at https://kwanzaig.com/job?slug=associate-project-development