Investment Director – Fund for Nature

Drive investment strategy and execute transactions in nature-based projects across emerging markets.

Locations: The chosen candidate will join our team in Nairobi, London, or another CrossBoundary office (with frequent travel).

About CrossBoundary: CrossBoundary Group is a mission-driven investment and advisory firm that unlocks the power of capital for sustainable growth and strong returns in underserved markets. CrossBoundary Advisory provides transaction and investment advisory services having advised on over US$11bn worth of transactions across 75 countries globally, serving our clients from 20+ offices spread across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Our advisory clients include development finance institutions, private equity firms, Fortune 100 companies, governments, and research institutions. CrossBoundary’s Natural Capital Advisory practice focuses on unlocking private capital for nature-based solutions that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and address biodiversity loss. Our investment platforms, CrossBoundary Energy, CrossBoundary Access, CrossBoundary Real Estate, and Dhow Ventures, directly finance projects to bring cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable electricity, as well as education infrastructure, to developing countries. The Fund for Nature strategy is focused on high-quality nature-based projects in emerging markets, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Why join us? CrossBoundary’s people are genuinely excited by the opportunity to make a difference in some of the most challenging yet exciting markets in the world. Team members come from diverse backgrounds but share several qualities: curiosity, humility, integrity, a drive for excellence, and a bias for action. The chosen candidate will play an important role in a unique team with the opportunity to create impact on the nature-based solutions landscape in emerging markets.

What you'll do: The Investment Director will be a cornerstone of our investment team, taking primary ownership of deal origination, structuring, and portfolio management across our target markets. Reporting directly to the Head of Fund, the Investment Director will bring seasoned judgement to complex, often first-of-kind transactions, and will play a central role in fund strategy and the development of our junior team members. This role is suited to an investor who thrives in ambiguity, is energized by working at the frontier of sustainable finance and natural capital, and brings both rigorous analytical discipline and the relational skills to close deals and add value in challenging market environments.

• Primary Responsibilities
• Dealsourcing & pipeline development: Proactively identify, originate, and qualify investment opportunities across reforestation, blue carbon, and sustainable agriculture and land use in emerging markets. Build and maintain a high-quality proprietary pipeline through a network of on-the-ground relationships with project developers, government bodies, and ecosystem intermediaries. Develop and apply a rigorous screening framework to assess opportunities against the fund's financial and impact criteria.
• Investment execution & due diligence: Lead end-to-end investment assessment for corporate and project-level opportunities, including financial modelling, carbon methodology review, legal and regulatory analysis, community and environmental safeguards, and country/political risk. Structure and negotiate investment terms, and prepare investment committee materials with a clear and well-reasoned recommendation. Ensure all investments align with portfolio return requirements, impact objectives, and risk appetite.
• Portfolio management & value creation: Take active ownership of portfolio investments post-close, including performance monitoring against KPIs, identifying risks early, and providing hands-on support to investees where needed. Work with project teams to strengthen operational resilience, improve carbon credit issuance outcomes, and unlock follow-on value creation opportunities.
• Strategic partnerships: Lead the identification and cultivation of key strategic partnerships – including carbon credit off-takers, co-investors, and technical or research partners – that strengthen the fund's investment proposition and de-risk individual transactions. Serve as a senior relationship manager with partners across the deal lifecycle.
• Investor relations (supporting): Contribute to investor reporting and engagement by providing accurate, timely, and insight-rich updates on deal progress and portfolio performance. Support fundraising conversations with credible deal-level evidence of the fund's thesis in action.

Who you are:

• Experience: 10+ years of experience in investment roles, with a meaningful portion in emerging markets; prior experience in infrastructure, project finance, and/or private equity preferred. Demonstrated track record of independently leading investments end-to-end, from origination through execution and post-investment management. Hands-on experience working in or with emerging market contexts, with an understanding of the political, regulatory, and operational complexities involved. Preferred: Graduate degree in business, finance, environmental science, or a related field; CFA or equivalent is a plus but not required.
• Technical Skills: Strong financial modelling skills, including project finance. Ability to assess environmental and social safeguards, including community engagement and land tenure considerations relevant to nature-based projects. Preferred: Familiarity with voluntary carbon markets, including carbon methodology frameworks, MRV processes, additionality and permanence considerations, and credit issuance risk is a strong advantage.
• Relationships & Networks: Established network across relevant emerging market geographies. Preferred: Existing or developing relationships with carbon credit off-takers, project developers, and co-investors in the nature-based solutions space is a strong advantage.
• Communication & Judgment: Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to synthesize complex, ambiguous situations into clear investment recommendations for senior stakeholders and investment committees. Sound commercial judgment, with the ability to balance financial return requirements alongside genuine impact objectives. Preferred: Language skills relevant to target geographies (particularly French, Spanish, and Portuguese) are a strong advantage.

Equal Opportunity Employer: CrossBoundary is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to our People team at recruiting@crossboundary.com.