Impact and Gender Manager

Full time Persistent Nigeria or Kenya

Application Deadline – 05 September, 2025

We are Persistent in our quest to build climate ventures in Africa

Persistent is the leading climate venture builder in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We are pioneer investors, thought leaders and venture builders driving climate friendly investments in, amongst others, the distributed renewable energy (DRE), e-mobility, energy efficiency, eco-system enablers and and other climate technologies.

We believe that building commercially successful climate impact ventures in emerging markets can both make the world a better place and provide attractive financial returns.

We believe that climate change is the biggest challenge of our time and therefore focus on companies that proliferate renewable energy and other climate-mitigating solutions to customers in emerging markets.

Our model is simple. We bring expertise and experience, as well as the right financial capital to start-up companies. The Persistent team can provide business and financial modeling, fundraising, legal and tax structuring, technology architecture, digital strategy, and HR management expertise.

Our model is unique for two reasons. First, we go beyond boardroom advice, roll up our sleeves and fill operational roles. Our sector experience helps companies avoid making mistakes we have already seen in the sector.  Second, due to our close involvement and deep experience, we can provide risk-tolerant capital to our companies in the most flexible way.

Your Role: 

We are looking for an exceptionally entrepreneurial person with significant experience (ideally 7+  years) in Impact Management on topics, such as climate, gender impact and social-economic impact assessment, due diligence, monitoring and evaluation, portfolio management and reporting in Sub-Saharan Africa. You will play a leading role in impact management and ensuring compliance and reporting on Persistent’s Impact, as well as, in relation to our investments, assessing, managing, monitoring and evaluation, Venture Building and reporting on Portfolio company Impact.  The role will primarily be linked to Persistent direct investments, focused on our $70M Africa Climate Venture Builder (“ACV”) Fund.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Impact and Data Management
    • Oversee the management and quarterly collection of impact data, including gender data, ensure that company data is received, quality assured, and accurately reported.  Manage Internal Impact reporting systems and  compile this data for easy reporting to investors.
    • Ensure that Impact calculations methodologies are standardised within the portfolio and they are being used in the DD process as well as impact reporting to understand and assess company level targets and progress in achieving impact targets.
  • Policies and organisational training – Regularly review and update our Impact Framework and Gender policies, ensuring they reflect any changes in Persistent’s approach and ensure the team is up-to-date on policy adherence.
  • Impact assessment and DD – Establishing/defining the baselines and impact data required from potential investee companies, undertaking impact and gender related assessment and DD for prospective investee companies and recommend actions/ next steps in the investment process.
  • Investment Management and Venture Building – Designing Impact and gender reporting training and capacity building for portfolio companies and venture building.
  • Impact Reporting (Investors) – Designing and implementing an efficient Impact and gender reporting process,  and preparing reports to investors on a quarterly and annual basis.
  • Impact Reporting (Portfolio) – Ensuring efficient impact and gender reporting from the Portfolio and reviewing/following up on requisite reports.
  • Impact studies and evaluations (Portfolio and Thematic) – Oversee and manage portfolio level, thematic studies and evaluations (e.g., ex-post mid/end evaluations, socio-economic, gender equality studies) as required and agreed with the investors and stakeholders.

Your profile

  • You have significant (7+ years) experience in Impact, gender and ESG matters in SSA. (e.g. startup, another investment fund, etc.
  • Experience working with DFI’s, NGO’s, UN agencies, MDB’s, Investment Funds and/or other development actors.
  • Entrepreneurial mindset/experience: you learn quickly and get your hands dirty; you can operate in a fast-paced environment; you’re a self-starter; you take full ownership of assigned tasks/ projects and deliver on time and on quality. You are a team player and know how to motivate yourself and can collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams,  investors and investees.
  • You have experience working within the framework UN SDGs and in the Climate sector, for example:  Energy Transition, Agricultural Transition, Resource Transition and associated ecosystem enablers.
  • You have experience working on EU-style fund reporting and disclosures, including under EU SFDR Article 9, the EDFI Harmonised Indicators, and also have strong training and certifications.
  • You have substantive experience in Gender mainstreaming, including under the 2x Criteria, and also have related training and certifications.
  • You have experience and impact related training and qualifications (e.g. degrees, diplomas or certifications such as ESRA, IRIS+, among others.
  • You have advanced data management, excel modeling skills and analytical thinking
  • Location & Travel: You are based in Africa (preferably based in Nigeria or Kenya) and are able to travel as needed.

Build with us

Our culture at Persistent is entrepreneurial, collaborative and flexible. We seek talented people who are passionate about climate and impact and have a drive for excellence. We offer a diverse team and a dynamic work environment that is required to work closely with our fast-moving partner companies that are located in more than a dozen countries in Africa.

Join us at Persistent and benefit from:

Impact: An opportunity to work directly with start-ups in underserved markets and create lasting social and environmental impact.

Steep learning curve: You will join a small, but experienced team that will enable you to become a multi-skilled professional in a short period of time and build the confidence to embrace and tackle most business challenges.

Opportunity to take initiative: Leverage your expertise to create practical and relevant solutions for companies on the frontline and see concrete outcomes of your work.

Flexibility: Exercise a significant amount of discretion in determining what you do and how you do it. Persistent is a workplace that gives you the flexibility to balance the requirements of work and private life. While you will frequently travel to our partner companies and be with your colleagues, you will also be able to work from home when necessary and make use of flexible hours and family-focused leave policies. We also offer attractive compensation that is designed to reward your performance and impact over the long term.

Applications to be sent to join@persistent.energy

 

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