Investment Director – Fund for Nature Job Crossboundary
Looking for a finance job in Kenya? CrossBoundary is recruiting an Investment Director for its Fund for Nature. Based in Nairobi, it requires senior expertise in private equity, project finance, or climate investment.
What you’ll do
The Investment Director will be a cornerstone of our investment team, taking primary ownership of deal origination, structuring, and portfolio management across our target markets. Reporting directly to the Head of Fund, the Investment Director will bring seasoned judgement to complex, often first-of-kind transactions, and will play a central role in fund strategy and the development of our junior team members.
This role is suited to an investor who thrives in ambiguity, is energized by working at the frontier of sustainable finance and natural capital, and brings both rigorous analytical discipline and the relational skills to close deals and add value in challenging market environments.
Primary Responsibilities
- Deal sourcing & pipeline development: Proactively identify, originate, and qualify investment opportunities across reforestation, blue carbon, and sustainable agriculture and land use in emerging markets. Build and maintain a high-quality proprietary pipeline through a network of on-the-ground relationships with project developers, government bodies, and ecosystem intermediaries. Develop and apply a rigorous screening framework to assess opportunities against the fund’s financial and impact criteria.
- Investment execution & due diligence: Lead end-to-end investment assessment for corporate and project-level opportunities, including financial modelling, carbon methodology review, legal and regulatory analysis, community and environmental safeguards, and country/political risk. Structure and negotiate investment terms, and prepare investment committee materials with a clear and well-reasoned recommendation. Ensure all investments align with portfolio return requirements, impact objectives, and risk appetite.
- Portfolio management & value creation: Take active ownership of portfolio investments post-close, including performance monitoring against KPIs, identifying risks early, and providing hands-on support to investees where needed. Work with project teams to strengthen operational resilience, improve carbon credit issuance outcomes, and unlock follow-on value creation opportunities.
- Strategic partnerships: Lead the identification and cultivation of key strategic partnerships – including carbon credit offtakers, co-investors, and technical or research partners – that strengthen the fund’s investment proposition and de-risk individual transactions. Serve as a senior relationship manager with partners across the deal lifecycle.
- Investor relations (supporting): Contribute to investor reporting and engagement by providing accurate, timely, and insight-rich updates on deal progress and portfolio performance. Support fundraising conversations with credible deal-level evidence of the fund’s thesis in action.
Qualifications
Experience
- 10+ years of experience in investment roles, with a meaningful portion in emerging markets; prior experience in infrastructure, project finance, and/or private equity preferred
- Demonstrated track record of independently leading investments end-to-end, from origination through execution and post-investment management
- Hands-on experience working in or with emerging market contexts, with an understanding of the political, regulatory, and operational complexities involved
- Preferred: Graduate degree in business, finance, environmental science, or a related field; CFA or equivalent is a plus but not required
Technical Skills
- Strong financial modelling skills, including project finance
- Ability to assess environmental and social safeguards, including community engagement and land tenure considerations relevant to nature-based projects
- Preferred: Familiarity with voluntary carbon markets, including carbon methodology frameworks, MRV processes, additionality and permanence considerations, and credit issuance risk is a strong advantage
Relationships & Networks
- Established network across relevant emerging market geographies
- Preferred: Existing or developing relationships with carbon credit offtakers, project developers, and co-investors in the nature-based solutions space is a strong advantage
Communication & Judgment
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to synthesize complex, ambiguous situations into clear investment recommendations for senior stakeholders and investment committees
- Sound commercial judgment, with the ability to balance financial return requirements alongside genuine impact objectives
- Preferred: Language skills relevant to target geographies (particularly French, Spanish, and Portuguese) are a strong advantage
How to Apply
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