Business Development Associate at Africa GreenCo · Johannesb…

Job Title: Business Development Associate

Department: Business Development

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

Contract Type: Full-time

Application Closing Date: 17 July 2026

About GreenCo

GreenCo acts as an intermediary offtaker and service provider, purchasing power from renewable IPPs and selling electricity to utilities and private sector offtakers (commercial and industrial users) and across SAPP markets. GreenCo mobilises private sector capital by enabling bankable structures, accelerating procurement and contracting, and supporting delivery of transformative energy capacity addition.

GreenCo’s vision is to lead innovation and sustainably transform renewable energy markets through:

• Market integration and scalable commercial structures that unlock investment in renewable generation.
• Innovative, financeable solutions that increase speed-to-market for new projects and customer supply.
• An agile, high-ownership culture with strong accountability and measurable delivery.

GreenCo offers a dynamic environment with strong potential for professional development and career advancement.

The Role in Context

The Business Development Associate will support revenue growth and market expansion in South Africa by originating and progressing commercial opportunities across corporate power procurement, IPP partnerships, and structured transactions. This role is execution-oriented: translating market opportunities into credible pipelines, investment-grade proposals, and bankable deals.

You will contribute to the full transaction lifecycle—from early opportunity assessment and stakeholder engagement to financial modelling, commercial negotiation support, and delivery coordination—working closely with internal teams and external partners.

Key Deliverables (Commercial & Execution Focus)

1. Market Development & Pipeline Creation

• Support refinement and execution of South Africa market-entry and growth strategy for C&I customers and IPP partnerships.
• Build and maintain a robust opportunity pipeline (customers, projects, partners), with clear qualification criteria and next steps.
• Develop customer sourcing strategy and account plans for priority sectors and counterparties.

2. Transaction Support & Deal Structuring

• Contribute to structuring of commercial transactions (e.g., supply agreements, offtake structures, term sheets, risk allocation options).
• Prepare high-quality materials for investment committees, partners, and customers: teasers, concept notes, term sheets, bid packs.
• Coordinate inputs across functions to support commercialisation (pricing inputs, risk considerations, operational feasibility, ESG requirements).
• Support development and review of PPA/CPPA commercial terms (pricing structures, indexation, volume/shape provisions, curtailment/availability allocation, change-in-law economics, credit/security packages), coordinating with internal specialists as required.

3. Financial Modelling & Commercial Analysis

• Build and maintain financial models for opportunities: pricing scenarios, margin/waterfall analysis, sensitivities, affordability, and risk-adjusted returns.
• Support evaluation of project finance implications (key assumptions, debt sizing logic, cashflow resilience), and articulate mitigation strategies commercially.
• Conduct tariff/pricing analysis and customer value propositions (cost-to-serve, pass-through logic, indexation, escalation).
• Model and compare common PPA pricing structures (fixed, escalated, indexed, blended) and incorporate relevant market interface costs/assumptions (e.g., wheeling/network components, losses, balancing/shape risk) into customer and IPP proposals.

4. Pricing, Margin & Risk Translation

• Support development and maintenance of a pricing stack for C&I supply opportunities (energy cost, losses, network/wheeling components, shaping/balancing, risk margin, overheads).
• Assist internal alignment on margin drivers and protections (tenor matching, indexation, caps/floors, appropriate pass-through where relevant).
• Work with Risk/Trading to ensure commercial terms reflect key exposures (imbalance, curtailment, force majeure, volume/shape risk) and are clearly communicated in proposals.

5. Project Management & Delivery Coordination

• Drive internal coordination to progress deals from opportunity to signing: workplans, timelines, responsibilities, approvals, and documentation readiness.
• Manage bid and proposal processes end-to-end: RFP/RFQ responses, data room coordination, partner inputs, and submission quality control.
• Track milestones and ensure disciplined follow-through on actions and deliverables.

6. Stakeholder & Partner Engagement

• Build and maintain relationships with key market participants: customers, IPPs, EPCs, financiers, advisors, industry bodies.
• Represent GreenCo at targeted industry engagements, supporting brand building through credible, commercially grounded messaging.
• Support engagement with utilities/regulators as required for transaction progression, in coordination with internal specialists.

7. Credit, Security & Bankability Support

• Support development of counterparty-facing and partner-facing bankability packages, including security structures (LCs, guarantees, prepayment/escrow, termination economics) in coordination with Finance/Risk.
• Assist early-stage counterparty assessment (credit profile, payment behaviours, decision process) and propose practical mitigants to protect deal economics.

8. Market Intelligence & Strategic Support

• Provide periodic market intelligence on procurement trends, competitor activity, pricing drivers, customer demand, and bankability considerations.
• Contribute to 5–10 year growth planning (MW pipeline, customer segmentation, technology pathways) with data-driven inputs.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Strong commercial acumen with an ability to translate market opportunities into executable deals.
• Financial modelling proficiency in Excel (scenario analysis, sensitivities, cashflows, pricing/margin logic) with a clear audit trail of assumptions.
• Solid understanding of project finance concepts and transaction fundamentals (risk allocation, bankability, contract economics).
• Strong project management discipline: planning, prioritisation, stakeholder coordination, and delivery under deadlines.
• High-quality written outputs: structured proposals, presentations, and investment-grade narratives.
• Strong analytical ability, attention to detail, and comfort working across technical and commercial dimensions.
• Confident communicator with the ability to engage senior stakeholders and support negotiations.
• Proficiency with CRM tools and pipeline reporting (or willingness to learn quickly).

Commercial Market Literacy

• Ability to understand and explain how contracts, metering/settlement, and money flow together (at a commercial level).
• Working understanding of tariffs, pass-through items, indexation and escalation, and how these affect customer affordability and margin stability.
• Familiarity with key risk concepts in corporate power supply (volume/shape risk, imbalance exposure, curtailment, change-in-cost implications).
• Ability to connect PPA terms to market reality (how SAPP/SAWEM interfaces, scheduling/settlement assumptions, and imbalance exposure influence pricing, risk premiums and contract positions).

SAPP/SAWEM Exposure

• Basic-to-intermediate understanding of SAPP/SAWEM commercial mechanics and the ability to work with internal specialists to incorporate these into pricing, proposals, and execution plans (e.g., practical awareness of cross-border transaction interfaces, scheduling/settlement assumptions, and implications for timelines and risk).

Technical-commercial Awareness

• Working understanding of renewable energy and power markets, including basic yield/production concepts and their commercial implications.
• Comfort coordinating diligence inputs and data rooms (commercial assumptions, supporting documentation, consistency checks).
• Practical understanding of IPP project development and bankability drivers (capex/opex sensitivities, yields, availability, timelines, key counterparties and diligence requirements).
• Working familiarity with PPA/CPPA structures and key clauses from a commercial perspective (term, pricing/indexation, delivery obligations, performance/availability, curtailment, termination economics, security).

Behavioural Traits

• High ownership: takes responsibility for outputs end-to-end and follows through reliably.
• Speed with quality: delivers quickly without sacrificing accuracy and professionalism.
• Comfort with ambiguity: can structure messy problems, propose a path, and escalate appropriately.
• Stakeholder maturity: credible with senior counterparts; knows when to pull in specialists.
• Strong ethics, discretion, and sound judgement with commercially sensitive information.

Tools Preferred

• Advanced Excel; strong PowerPoint capability.
• CRM proficiency.
• Advantageous: comfort with dashboards/analytics tools (e.g., Power BI/Tableau) or data-driven reporting.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Engineering, Business, or related field.
• Master’s degree (Energy/Finance/MBA) or relevant professional qualification is advantageous.
• Minimum 4 years’ experience in South Africa in one or more of: energy commercial roles, infrastructure finance, corporate energy procurement, transaction advisory, renewables origination, trading/commercialisation, or related.
• Demonstrable experience in at least two of the following:
  • Commercial deal support / term sheet development
  • Financial modelling and investment analysis
  • Bid/RFP management and proposal development
  • Project management of multi-stakeholder workstreams
  • Customer acquisition / account management in B2B environments
• Existing network in South Africa’s energy market is advantageous.

Application Requirements Candidates must submit the following documents:

1. CV

2. Cover Letter addressing:

• Why you are interested in joining Africa GreenCo.

• What unique skills, experiences, and perspectives you can contribute to the organization.

Both documents are required for the application to be considered.

Time Commitment

This is a full-time role. While the standard working week is 40 hours, the ideal candidate must be willing to travel and work flexible hours to achieve GreenCo’s business objectives

Conflict of Interest

Potential conflicts of interest must be declared and discussed prior to this appointment

Reporting Lines

This role directly reports to the country Head of Business Development. The successful candidate will work closely with the office of the Managing Director, and the New Ventures and Business Development team, with work collaborations with the all the functional structures of GreenCo depending on the scope of work.