Job Title: Programme Manager
Date Posted: 24/06/2026
Job Type: Full Time
Employer: AECEF
Industry: Project
Management
Salary: Open
Location: Nairobi
Country: Kenya
Deadline: 06/07/2026
The
Role
The Programme Manager provides strategic and operational leadership for the energy portfolio across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia – covering portfolio construction, investment management, financial performance, technical assistance, risk management, donor reporting, and stakeholder engagement.
The role leads and develops the Senior Portfolio Officer and Portfolio Officers ensuring consistent delivery standards and programme impact across all three countries.
Key Responsibilities
1.
Strategic Leadership and Programme Management
- Lead programme strategy, workplans, budgets, forecasts, and
performance targets across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
- Ensure alignment with donor agreements, investment principles,
impact targets, and AECF policies throughout the programme cycle.
- Identify emerging opportunities, risks, and implementation
challenges and recommend management responses.
- Support resource mobilisation and positioning for additional funding
for the energy portfolio.
2.
Portfolio Construction and Investment Selection
- Oversee competition design, market outreach, pipeline development,
eligibility criteria, due diligence, and investment appraisal.
- Provide quality assurance for application assessments, financial
analysis, risk reviews, and investment recommendations.
- Lead preparation and presentation of investment memoranda to
internal and external investment committees.
- Ensure investments are evidence-based, commercially sound, and
aligned with impact, additionality, and inclusion objectives.
3.
Team Leadership
- Provide strategic direction, technical guidance, and quality
assurance to the Senior Portfolio Officer and Portfolio Officers across
all programme countries.
- Convene regular portfolio performance reviews; agree and track
corrective actions.
- Build team capacity through coaching, mentoring, structured
feedback, and professional development.
- Promote collaboration, accountability, and consistent
portfolio-management practices across countries.
4.
Investment Management, Financial Oversight, and M&E
- Direct investee management across the full investment lifecycle –
contracting, onboarding, implementation, and exit.
- Oversee disbursements, milestone verification, compliance with grant
agreements, and resolution of investee-level performance issues.
- Provide financial oversight of programme budgets, burn rates,
commitments, and forecasts; address variances promptly.
- Oversee monitoring of programme and portfolio performance against
financial, operational, and impact targets; ensure corrective actions are
implemented and tracked.
5.
Technical Assistance, Risk, Compliance, and Reporting
- Support identification and coordination of bespoke technical
assistance for investees, including investment readiness and follow-on
investor facilitation.
- Maintain oversight of portfolio-level financial, operational, legal,
and reputational risks; ensure compliance with AECF’s environmental,
social, gender, safeguarding, and fiduciary requirements.
- Lead preparation of high-quality donor, governance, management, and
investment-committee reports.
- Serve as senior focal point for donor and stakeholder engagement;
represent AECF at sector events and strategic forums.
- Promote cross-country learning, knowledge sharing, and dissemination
of lessons and impact evidence across the portfolio.
Qualifications
Academic
and Professional Qualifications
- Master’s degree in finance, economics, business administration,
development studies, renewable energy, engineering, environmental studies,
or a related field.
- Professional project management, finance, renewable energy, or
climate finance is an added advantage.
Experience
- Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience in investment management,
challenge funds, private-sector development, renewable energy, climate
finance, development finance, or programme management.
- Demonstrated experience managing multi-country or regional
programmes and portfolios in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Strong experience in portfolio construction: competition design,
pipeline development, due diligence, investment appraisal, and
investment-committee presentations.
- Experience managing grants, results-based financing, milestone-based
financing, blended finance, or other catalytic instruments.
- Proven experience overseeing investee performance, disbursements,
compliance, risk management, technical assistance, and reporting across
the investment lifecycle.
- Demonstrated experience managing, supervising, or providing
technical leadership to portfolio teams.
- Experience in renewable energy, productive use of energy,
e-mobility, circular economy, or related sectors is highly desirable.
- Strong understanding of the commercial, regulatory, and operational
challenges affecting clean energy businesses in African markets.
Technical and Leadership
Skills
- Strong strategic leadership, portfolio management, investment
analysis, financial analysis, due diligence, and risk-assessment
capabilities.
- Ability to interpret financial statements, business models, budgets,
cash-flow forecasts, and investment performance data.
- Strong programme planning, budgeting, forecasting, monitoring, and
reporting skills.
- High standards of integrity, accountability, coaching, and team
development; ability to manage competing priorities across countries and
deliver within tight timelines.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to
present complex investment and programme information to technical and
non-technical audiences.
- Commitment to gender equality, inclusion, environmental
sustainability, and responsible investment.
How to Apply
