Associate — Legal & Regulatory

About the Platform

Kwanza Infrastructure Group and KK Advisors Africa are two distinct but deeply interconnected entities bound by a single purpose: making clean energy infrastructure a reality across sub-Saharan Africa.

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.

KK Advisors LLP (www.kkadvisors.africa) is our advisory arm providing commercial, technical, financial, and policy advisory services to governments, development partners, and private sector clients across the energy value chain. Our clients have included Development Partner-linked programmes, national governments, and private sector energy players. KK Advisors Africa has a deliberate expansion plan — business development is therefore not a peripheral activity. It is woven into how every team member is expected to think and operate. Building relationships, identifying mandates and contributing to the growth of the practice is an expectation of the role, not an occasional ask.

Both entities operate from Kampala, functioning through an integrated team structure, and draw upon the same institutional knowledge base and strategic vision.

This is a lean, high-performance professional platform – not a large organisation with deep benches or rigid corporate structures. We take on assignments that very few professionals in Uganda or across sub-Saharan Africa fully appreciate or are equipped to execute effectively. The 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

Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa's energy regulatory environment is evolving rapidly. Much of the work in this role involves operating in situations where legal, regulatory or institutional frameworks are still developing — requiring the ability to build pathways where none exist, interpret ambiguity, and exercise sound professional judgement in the absence of complete information, precedents, or regulatory certainty.

The Associate, L&R will operate across both entities simultaneously. Competing priorities, dynamic workstreams, and shifting timelines are therefore a normal part of the role, not the exception. This position is best suited to an individual who is comfortable working in high-accountability environments that require initiative, adaptability and independent thinking.

If you are motivated by the challenge of helping shape commercially significant infrastructure and energy transactions in emerging markets — and by the knowledge that your work can directly influence whether projects progress, achieve bankability, or reach financial close — this role offers a meaningful opportunity for professional growth and impact.

Role Purpose

The Associate, L&R is primarily responsible for supporting legal, regulatory and policy compliance across the platform's operations, project pipeline, and advisory mandates.

This role focuses on ensuring adherence to applicable legal and regulatory frameworks; undertaking detailed legal, regulatory, and policy research; conducting risk and compliance assessments; and proactively monitoring legal and regulatory developments affecting energy investments in Uganda and across East and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Associate, L&R will provide timely, evidence-based legal and regulatory insights to internal project development team and KK Advisors’ clients. The role will also support the development of internal legal knowledge systems, regulatory intelligence frameworks and compliance processes that will underpin the platform’s long term growth and execution capability.

Core Responsibilities

1. Legal, Policy and Regulatory Market Intelligence

Objective: Strengthen the Platform's ability to originate, develop, advise on, and execute complex energy infrastructure transactions by maintaining a deep understanding of evolving legal, regulatory, and policy environments across Ugandan and sub-Saharan African markets.

• Continuously monitor legal, regulatory, and policy developments affecting the Platform's project development activities, advisory mandates, and operations — particularly within the electricity supply industry segments, infrastructure investment, environmental and social dimensions, and project finance.
• Track and analyse regulatory instruments, licensing frameworks, sector directives and guidelines, grid frameworks, regional power market developments (EAPP, WAPP, SAPP), and sector policy shifts.
• Conduct detailed legal and policy research to support live transactions, active project development activities, strategic positioning, and advisory assignments across the Platform.
• Produce commercially relevant legal updates, policy briefs, internal memoranda, and research notes that clearly articulate practical implications, execution risks, approval pathways, and opportunities arising from regulatory or policy developments — submitted into the regulatory tracking system and knowledge repository.
• Support leadership and project teams in interpreting ambiguous or evolving regulatory positions where there is limited precedent, institutional clarity, or established market practice.
• Generate the legal and regulatory content that populates the Platform's internal legal knowledge systems — regulatory analyses, precedent notes, jurisdictional profiles, and compliance frameworks — for capture in the platform internal legal knowledge systems.
• Support internal corporate restructuring, governance optimisation, and institutional framework development through evidence-based legal and regulatory analysis.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Within the first quarter, populate the consolidated legal and regulatory risk register (system) with all applicable regulatory frameworks, approval pathways, compliance obligations, and key risk exposures across active projects, platform operations, and advisory mandates.
• Ensure material legal, regulatory, or policy developments relevant to the Platform's operations, projects, or advisory assignments are analysed and circulated to relevant teams within 48 hours of official publication or confirmation.
• Produce one substantive legal, regulatory, or policy insight paper, market note, or strategic briefing per quarter addressing a significant sector development, emerging risk, or commercial opportunity, together with clear and actionable recommendations.
• Provide a minimum of three implementable legal, regulatory, governance, or compliance improvement recommendations bi-annually, aimed at strengthening internal operational frameworks, execution capability, or institutional resilience across the Platform.
• Ensure the legal content within regulatory tracking systems, compliance records, and the legal knowledge repository is current and accurate — supported by the underlying systems and access control.

2. Legal Compliance, Risk Management and Due Diligence

Objective: Safeguard the Platform's projects, operations, and advisory activities from avoidable legal, regulatory, and operational disruptions through proactive compliance management, risk identification, and early-stage issue resolution.

• Identify all project licences, permits, approvals, environmental authorisations, regulatory filings, and statutory obligations across active projects and operations — submitting them into the centralised licence and permit tracking system so renewal triggers and compliance alerts function correctly.
• Prepare and submit applications, filings, and renewals on time, engaging with regulators as required to maintain full compliance continuity.
• Support internal project and operational teams in undertaking periodic legal and compliance health checks across project companies, advisory mandates, partnerships, operational processes, and active project sites.
• Work closely with the project development and investment teams to identify, assess, escalate, and help resolve legal, contractual, regulatory, land, permitting, and stakeholder-related risks before they impact project timelines, bankability, financing processes, or execution milestones.
• Conduct preliminary legal and regulatory risk assessments for prospective projects, transactions, and new opportunities, including identification of licensing requirements, permitting pathways, institutional approvals, jurisdiction-specific constraints, and potential execution risks.
• Support internal due diligence processes on partnerships, counterparties, consultants, contractors, project structures, and strategic transactions across both entities.
• Contribute to the strengthening of internal compliance discipline by providing legal substance — applicable regulatory frameworks, controls, and risk content — that feeds into the systems.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Within the first six months, ensure the centralised licence, permit, and regulatory compliance tracking system is fully populated for all active projects and operational entities, with renewal triggers correctly set at least sixty days prior to expiry dates.
• Achieve and maintain full compliance with all material legal, licensing, permitting, and statutory obligations across active projects and operational activities during quarterly internal compliance reviews.
• For each new project, transaction, or opportunity pursued by the Platform, prepare a concise legal and regulatory risk assessment memorandum outlining key risks, approval pathways, material constraints, and recommended mitigation actions within five business days of assignment.
• Ensure compliance records, permitting status, and the legal risk register are kept current through timely submission of legal content, maintaining system availability, search, and access.
• Proactively identify and escalate material legal, regulatory, or compliance risks with sufficient lead time to enable management intervention before they escalate into disputes, delays, or material operational disruptions.

3. Contractual, Governance and Advisory Support

Objective: Strengthen the Platform's contractual integrity, governance standards, and legal decision-making by ensuring that commercial arrangements, advisory activities, and internal operations are legally sound, commercially balanced, and operationally executable.

• Conduct detailed legal reviews of incoming and outgoing agreements across the Platform — including consultancy agreements, service contracts, vendor arrangements, client engagements, government support agreements, confidentiality agreements, partnership arrangements, joint development agreements, and project-related instruments.
• Identify, assess, and clearly communicate legal, regulatory, and execution risks arising from contractual provisions, ambiguities, liabilities, or non-compliance exposures, while proposing practical mitigation measures aligned with the Platform's commercial objectives.
• Support the drafting, structuring, negotiation, and revision of agreements and legal documentation required for project development activities, advisory mandates, partnerships, and internal operations across both entities.
• Prepare research-backed legal memoranda, governance notes, and advisory opinions on corporate governance, employment and labour matters, confidentiality obligations, data protection, regulatory compliance, and other operational legal issues affecting the Platform.
• Provide the substantive legal input for governance standards, contractual controls, and legal record-keeping. The contract repository, folder structures, version control, approval workflows, and document management infrastructure are.
• Develop internal legal guidance notes, briefing materials, and training content to improve legal awareness, contractual discipline, and compliance culture within project, operational, and advisory teams.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Complete standard contract reviews, legal assessments, and policy analysis assignments within two business days of instruction or document receipt.
• Within the first six months, develop and apply a standardised contract review and risk assessment framework tailored to the Platform's most frequently used agreement types, including consultancy agreements, government support agreements, advisory engagement contracts, joint development agreements and related frameworks.
• Deliver internal legal and compliance briefing or training sessions annually for project, operational, and advisory teams.
• Ensure the legal substance of executed contracts, governance records, and risk content is submitted into the contract repository.
• Ensure all material contractual risks, unusual liabilities, and regulatory concerns identified during contract review processes are escalated promptly with practical mitigation recommendations.

4. Knowledge Generation and Institutional Resource Development

Objective: Strengthen the Platform's long-term institutional capability by generating robust internal legal and regulatory content that reduces dependency on individuals, preserves institutional memory, and improves the ability of teams to independently navigate complex legal, regulatory, and policy issues. The underlying knowledge repository, search, and access infrastructure is.

• Generate the legal and regulatory content for the Platform's central knowledge repository — including legislation summaries, regulatory instruments, licensing frameworks, policy updates and directives, research outputs, DFI compliance standards, transaction precedents, jurisdictional profiles, internal legal templates, and project reference materials.
• Define the structure, compliance logic, and content of internal legal tools — including compliance trackers, regulatory maps, decision trees, legal guidance notes, approval pathway frameworks, briefing memoranda, and operational playbooks — for build and deployment.
• Translate complex legal, regulatory, and policy concepts into practical internal guidance that enables project, operational, and advisory teams to independently manage routine compliance, permitting, stakeholder engagement, and documentation processes with greater confidence and consistency.
• Support cross-functional teams in understanding evolving regulatory, governance, contractual, and compliance obligations relevant to their respective assignments, projects, and operational responsibilities.
• Contribute to the preservation and institutionalisation of legal and regulatory knowledge generated through active projects, advisory engagements, negotiations, and transaction processes across both entities — captured in systems.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Within the first six months, populate the legal and regulatory knowledge repository with material covering the Platform's active operations and project pipeline.
• Develop the substantive content for practical internal legal or regulatory guidance tools annually — including playbooks, compliance maps, process notes, or decision-support frameworks — relevant to the Platform's active operations and project pipeline.
• Ensure all major legal research outputs, regulatory analyses, and advisory memoranda are submitted into the Platform's internal knowledge systems on finalisation.
• Support cross-functional internal capacity-building or knowledge-sharing initiatives annually, focused on legal, regulatory, governance, or compliance topics relevant to ongoing projects and operations.
• Contribute to reducing recurring legal and regulatory process inefficiencies through stronger institutional content, supported by the documentation and guidance systems.

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

• Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from a recognised institution.
• Admission as a practising advocate or equivalent professional legal qualification is highly preferred but not a requirement.
• A Master's degree in Law (LL.M.), Legal and Regulatory Policy, or Commercial Law is a significant added advantage.

Experience

• Minimum 2–3 years of professional legal experience, with a strong focus on legal research, policy analysis, regulatory compliance, or commercial contract review.
• Demonstrated experience interpreting, summarising, and synthesising complex legislation and commercial contracts.
• Regional experience in East or sub-Saharan Africa — including how Ugandan ministries make decisions, how DFIs process applications, and how ERA frameworks are applied in practice — is a strong advantage.

Skills & Competencies

• Research & synthesis: Ability to conduct deep, precise legal and policy research and distil complex information into clear, actionable recommendations for non-legal decision-makers.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication, with the capacity to explain complex legal concepts plainly to government counterparts, DFI representatives, project teams, and clients.
• Analytical thinking: Strong critical thinking paired with rigorous attention to detail — and the intellectual honesty to present uncomfortable findings without softening them.
• Execution: Ability to work independently, take ownership of tasks, manage competing priorities across two entities, and meet deadlines without requiring close supervision.
• Content discipline: Demonstrated ability or clear appetite to generate the legal and regulatory content that institutional systems hold — templates, regulatory maps, decision trees, playbooks — for the institutional systems.
• Tech fluency: Proficiency in legal research platforms and operational software. Comfort using AI-assisted research tools is an advantage.

Personal Attributes

• You are comfortable operating without a clear precedent. When the regulatory framework is incomplete or silent, you can formulate a reasoned position and stand behind it.
• You will tell leadership what they need to hear, not what they want to hear — especially when a legal risk is real and the commercial pressure to proceed is high.
• You take ownership of outcomes, not just tasks. When something falls in the gap between your responsibilities and someone else's, you pick it up.
• You are intellectually curious about African energy markets specifically — not as a generic interest, but as a genuine area of engagement that you pursue independently.
• You generate content that other people can use — not just complete work for yourself. You take ownership of the records and systems that hold the legal content you create.
• You can hold competing priorities from two entities without losing clarity about what matters most at any given moment.

Application closing date: Monday 13 July 2026.

Application Task

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