Financial Modelling & Structuring Specialist

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Job Grade 00 Job Type Classification Permanent Location - Town / City Midrand Job Profile (Downloadable) Financial Modelling & Structuring Specialist _Job Profile November 2025 Final.docx.pdf (251.82 kb) - 11/26/2025 10:07:40 AM Job Description The Financial Modelling & Structuring Specialist is responsible for providing expert financial modelling and structuring, and advisory support for investment projects. This role focuses on supporting high-impact projects through to project financial closure by designing innovative financing solutions. Key Responsibilities Key Performance Areas: Financial Modelling - Build, update, and maintain complex, dynamic financial models for infrastructure and project finance transactions that are in different infrastructure project lifecycles/stages. - Lead the financial modelling component of Pre-feasibility and Bankable Feasibility Studies (BFS), ensuring alignment with project technical, environmental, social, regulatory, and commercial requirements. - Collaborate with technical engineers and sector specialists to assess project feasibility, risks, and development readiness. - Review, validate, and challenge technical and operational assumptions used within financial models. - Support preparation of technical and investment documentation for internal decision-making committees and external stakeholders. - Conduct scenario, sensitivity, and stress testing to evaluate project resilience and identify key value and risk drivers. - Assess financial performance indicators and recommend funding structures that align development impact with financial sustainability. - Present financial modelling outputs, results, and recommendations internally, to project sponsors, investors, and partners. Financial Structuring - Develop and implement innovative and sustainable financial structuring solutions to unlock and accelerate development projects. - Collaborate with project teams in the Unit to recommend suitable funding structures or financing mechanisms. - Develop and implement innovative financing instruments, including blended finance, PPPs, guarantees, local currency funding, derivatives, and other financial solutions. - Conduct detailed due diligence and appraisal of proposed transactions, including commercial, financial, risk, and institutional analysis. - Provide input into the preparation and negotiation of contracts, with a focus on financial structuring and implications. - Review and provide input for financial structuring sections of agreements, progress reports, project planning management, project management, disbursements management, waivers and amendments and contract management. - Facilitate project closure and provide strategic support to senior management as required. - Test market readiness of the Projects with developers, investors, DFIs and OEMs. - Facilitate engagements with project developers and financiers. - Provide transaction structuring inputs to ensure bankability of Projects. - Design of project finance models/structures. - Map financing options across commercial, concessional, blended-finance and climate-finance sources. - Design blended finance structures, combining concessional debt, commercial financing, grants, equity, and guarantees to de-risk the projects. - Engage DFIs and climate funders, prepare concept notes and pitch materials, and support project sponsors in funder outreach. Advisory Support - Engage emerging clients and project developers to understand project vision, context, constraints, and capabilities.. - Facilitate capacity-building to help the clients progress toward independence in information preparation, documentation, and negotiation readiness. - Provide step-by-step guidance to shape project assumptions, cost structures, revenue models, and timelines into credible financial frameworks. - Develop and refine financial models that incorporate realistic inputs, risk adjustments, and sustainability parameters suitable for early-stage initiatives. - Identify funding gaps, affordability considerations, and feasible financial structuring options (e.g., grants, concessionary finance, blended finance). Stakeholder Management - Build and maintain strong relationships with clients at global, regional, and local levels, including businesses, banking and multilateral partners and government officials to further develop specific financing opportunities. - Manage relationships at various levels with the relevant project stakeholders, partners, and lead promoters, in accordance with the project’s preparation objectives and products. - Identify key stakeholders and develop a pipeline of potential funders, contributors and partners for programme development initiatives. Key Measurements of Outputs - Number and quality of new innovative funding models and mechanisms designed - Quality and usability of financial models for screening, due diligence, and investment discussions - Quality and effective financial models and solutions - Financial structuring and capacity-building support provided on projects - Number of projects successfully prepared (structured) and that reach financial close for implementation - Value of infrastructure catalysed - Value of Private & Public Sector partnerships and funding - Management of relationships with new/existing clients and service providers Expertise & Technical Competencies Qualifications and Experience: Minimum Qualification - A Bachelor’s Degree in Business Science, Actuarial Science, Finance, Economics or related field. Minimum Experience - A minimum of 8 years’ experience in financial modelling within project finance, investment banking, infrastructure development, or corporate finance. - Advanced financial modelling capability. - Experience in project finance and/or infrastructure finance, financial modelling and project finance/investment banking experience. - Experience in working on investment projects through an established approval process. - Experience in successful investment, appraisal, analysis and implementation is required. - In-depth knowledge of the financing of Infrastructure and Industrial Sector projects. - Proven ability to negotiate and close infrastructure deals. - Experience in supporting the preparation of projects resulting in the implementation of projects on a Corporate Finance, Project Finance or Structured Finance basis. - Demonstrated experience and understanding of the project preparation cycle and requirements to prepare bankable projects. Desirable Requirements - A post-graduate qualification/ honours degree in Finance, Business, Accounting or Economics. - Development finance experience. Technical Competencies: Business Acumen - Deep understanding of commercial drivers and can make decisions based on an assessment of alternatives concerning complex business situations. - Deep understanding of the economic priorities of South Africa and Africa and how they can be implemented to meet an organisation's strategic objectives. - Deep understanding of the need to coordinate efforts with many government entities, the private sector, community groups and individuals to ensure effective implementation of new policies and regulations. - Takes actions to fit business strategy. - Assesses and links short-term tasks in the context of long-term business strategies or perspectives. - Reviews own actions against the organisation's strategic plan; includes the big picture when considering possible opportunities or projects, or thinks about long-term applications of current activities. - Anticipates possible responses to different initiatives. - Understands the projected direction of the industry and how changes might impact the organisation. Deal Structuring - Uses credit enhancement techniques to structure deals and optimise pricing in terms of Basel principles. - Has an in-depth and practical understanding of how to optimise the Capital Structure, collateral package, and debt repayment profile. - Interrogates financial models, including those with a high degree of complexity, to develop an optimal structure. - Identifies complex structural issues that need escalation and proposes appropriate bankable structures. - Demonstrates knowledge on advanced structuring, including the use of derivatives, syndicated loans, synthetic loans, securitisations, inflation-linked debt, credit default swaps and subordinated debt. - Prepares specialised or tailored reports relating to new innovative instruments, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses and includes in a report to new product approval committees. - Compiles comprehensive specialist reports as required for inclusion in credit committee submissions. Financial Analysis - Serves as subject matter expert. - Evaluates and determines fiscal, operational, and service impacts; analyses and evaluates legislation; and implements and evaluates statistical models in their subject areas. - Demonstrates in-depth technical and administrative knowledge of the rules and regulations in the subject area and to defend analyses, testimony, and recommendations relating to a variety of issues before management and commissions. Financial Acumen - Makes sound financial decisions after having analysed their impacts on the organisation, partner agencies, and community. - Effectively prepares budgetary submissions and forecasts for own department. - Knows the internal and external factors that impact resource and asset availability. - Can interpret management account reports in an operational/commercial context and take action as appropriate to maximise revenues and control costs. Project Preparation - Demonstrates a sound understanding of limited recourse and balance sheet funding, the process required to prepare projects, and financing documentation required to present projects for investment decisions. - Leads an internal team of sector specialists and analysts to appraise and present transactions to internal committees. - Appoints and leads a team of external consultants/advisors (technical, environmental, financial and legal) to prepare and present the Project Information Memorandum (PIM) to prospective financiers. - Analyses sponsors’ financial statements, understands and reviews financial models. - Demonstrates a sound understanding of the water, transport and energy sectors to identify potential fatal flaws generally associated with these sectors in projects presented and key risks to be mitigated Solution Focus - Identifies broad, highly complex problems based on a multitude of factors, many of which are complex and sweeping in nature, difficult to define and often contradictory. - Creates procedures to articulate the nature of problems and to identify and weigh alternate solutions. - Evaluates the effectiveness of solutions using approaches tailored to the situation. Risk Management - Drives integration and standardisation of risk management processes across the organisation. - Advises on the application of the organisation’s risk management policies, industry best practices and constructs organisation guidelines. - Analyses trends in risk management and internal control, evaluates implications, defines, and implements organisation-wide response. Negotiation - Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences. - Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation. - Can take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy. - Can place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of DBSA. Commercial Awareness - Deep understanding of commercial drivers and can make decisions based on an assessment of alternatives concerning complex business situations. - Deep understanding of DBS