Operations Officer - Portfolio- Nairobi, Kenya

Job #:	130245
Title:	Operations Officer - Portfolio
Job Stream:	Technical Assistance & Advisory Services
Location:	Nairobi, Kenya
Closing Date:	02/11/2013
Background / General description:
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, pursues its mission of creating opportunities for people to escape poverty by promoting private sector development through investment and advisory services.  IFC’s Sustainable Business Advisory (SBA) team in Africa works with companies to adopt environmental, social and governance practices and technologies that create a competitive edge. SBA seeks the broad adoption of these practices to transform markets and improve people’s lives. Our work covers agribusiness, manufacturing, infrastructure, oil, gas, mining, services, and other sectors. Our programs also promote good corporate governance and strategic community investments; advance women in business, small scale farmers, and small firms; and engage the private sector in climate-change solutions. Africa SBA’s portfolio of projects is at different project phases: some at pipeline, mobilization, implementation, while others are approaching close out. While each phase places unique needs to the project management team, there is the need to continually ensure that the portfolio is aligned to, and on target towards achieving global SBA and IFC strategic objectives. To coordinate these requirements, SBA is seeking to recruit an Operations Officer based in Nairobi, Kenya to standardize the way the portfolio is managed, .monitor and propose project amendments for the SBA portfolio that ensure that the strategic business line and corporate objectives are achieved. The successful candidate will approach the portfolio projects and teams with a clear value proposition in the broad context of operational sustainability among and between the SBA team and their clients as well as other IFC departments – Investment, Advisory and Support.
Duties and Accountabilities:
Reporting to the SBA Business Line Manager through the Sector Lead for Portfolio and Operations., the Operations Officer will have the following main responsibilities: Portfolio Management: •Work with Sector leads to ensure compliance with quality at entry requirements regarding: i) budgets; ii) indicators and targets; iii) Integrity Due Diligence (IDD) and other relevant areas prior to Concept Review discussions;  •Coordinate a schedule of upcoming project discussions – pre Concept Review Meeting (CRM), pre Project Supervision Reports (PSR), and pre Project Completion Reports (PCR); •Provide high-level review of pipeline projects to ensure key elements to project success are included during design, and managerial review. Such elements include baseline survey, budget, work plan, monitoring framework, risk and mitigation plan; •Implement an effective system that identifies real time portfolio maintenance tasks on: i) Periodic monitoring reports on budgets and performance; ii) PSRs”); iii) Client Survey reports; iv) PCRs and v) Project termination/droppage as needed.  •Work with project teams to ensure approved projects remain aligned to SBA strategic objectives;  •Monitor projects approaching closure and provide tactical support to transaction leaders to ensure projects close out smoothly. Moreover, ensure financial and operational closure requirements are satisfied.  Portfolio Quality Assurance: •Collate quarterly data from COGNOS or other corporate sources for Regional Business Line Manager (RBLM) and region review to ensure timely response to current and future portfolio, region and global business line needs; •Collate the current data quality requirements, standardize requirements and communicate with SBA team to ensure consistent application; •Work with Task Leaders to ensure that at project level, accurate data facilitates timely project review and meaningful interpretation; •Set up and maintain a comprehensive SBA portfolio database linked to a similarly current IFC investment client portfolio in CAF;  •Design an alert system that identifies and monitors projects that fall out of Process and Information Quality (PIQ) requirements. Work with task leaders to remedy the shortcomings.  Portfolio Reporting: •Coordinate and recommend quarterly SBA portfolio reviews and ensure lessons drawn are effectively shared for real time portfolio improvements; •Monitor on a monthly basis portfolio performance against projected targets. Business Line score card should be designed and used to track among other attributes financial and development impact achievement;  •Prepare scheduled portfolio reports as well as occasional ad hoc reports as may be required and electronically publish reports on i-collaborate, ASBAN and or others as needed.  The Operations Officer may be required to undertake occasional field visits for portfolio monitoring purposes.
Selection Criteria:
•Minimum of a Masters degree in relevant field •Minimum of 6-8 years of experience in Project development and management. •Strong skills in project management, financial projections, scenario analysis as well as a good knowledge of Monitoring and Evaluation.  •Ability to work with minimal supervision and to demonstrate autonomy and initiative. •Exceptional ability to rapidly gain knowledge about IFC’s programs, to function in a fast-paced high-performance environment, to manage multiple tasks, and to deliver under tight deadlines with very short notice. Women are strongly encouraged to apply

*** Applications must be submitted online. Only those candidates selected for interviews will be contacted. Candidates can check the status of their applications by visiting www.ifc.org/careers.