Job Information
CrossBoundary Senior Engineer – Project Management and Operations in Lagos, Nigeria
Senior Engineer – Project Management and Operations
CrossBoundary Access
About the Firm
Founded in 2011, CrossBoundary is a mission-driven investment firm committed to unlocking the power of capital for sustainable growth and strong returns in underserved markets. CrossBoundary provides transaction and investment advisory services, having developed a specialized expertise in unleashing investment across all sectors in these markets. Our advisory clients include governments, development finance institutions, private equity firms, Fortune 100 companies, and research institutions. Learn more at www.crossboundary.com
In 2019 CrossBoundary launched CrossBoundary Access, Africa’s first project finance fund for mini-grids. Building on the success of this first raise, CrossBoundary Access, closed $25 million in new funding commitments from ARCH Emerging Markets Partners Limited, Bank of America, and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund in 2022. In September 2023, the platform secured an additional $10 million from AfDB’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA). CrossBoundary Access continues to raise and deploy a total of $150 million of blended project finance over the next three years to bring clean energy to one million people in Africa.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the solar mini-grid sector needs $187 billion to achieve universal energy Access by 2030. CrossBoundary Access believes project finance is key to unlocking the long-term, infrastructure-type capital that the mini-grid sector needs.
More information on CrossBoundary Access can be found at https://crossboundary.com/access/
Job Description
CrossBoundary Access is recruiting a full-time Senior Engineer for Project Management and Operations. The Senior Engineer will be a core part of CrossBoundary Access's growing in-house technical team. CrossBoundary Access works with Developer Partners who are contracted to undertake development, engineering, procurement, construction, operations, and maintenance of mini-grids and energy access projects.
The role will involve providing technical oversight, supervision, and operational management to CrossBoundary Access projects, serving as CrossBoundary Access's on-the-ground representative to Developer Partners and other stakeholders in Nigeria. The role will entail ensuring mini-grids and energy access projects are built and operated in line with CrossBoundary Access standards and existing project development and operating services agreements. This includes, but is not limited to, validating engineering designs, project management, overseeing the progress of construction works, confirming acceptance tests, and managing the operations and maintenance of projects post-construction.
The successful candidate will need to demonstrate an ability to use sound judgment to make decisions about assets being built in a challenging environment. Experience in developing countries, particularly in Africa, will be regarded extremely favorably. The selected candidate will report to the Senior Technical
Manager. The role will be remote (based in Nigeria) from the rest of the team (based in Nairobi) and will require frequent travel around Nigeria and occasional travel to Nairobi. Qualifications in engineering and project management are required.
CrossBoundary is not a development firm and is not seeking typical development skills – CrossBoundary Access will look to you for practical insights on how to make discrete business decisions that will directly affect our financial outcomes.
Who We Are
The chosen candidate will play an important role in a unique team with the opportunity to make a significant impact on the energy access and renewable energy landscapes in Africa, bringing first-time grid-quality power to 1 million people. Team members come from diverse backgrounds but share a number of qualities: curiosity, humility, integrity, a drive for excellence, and a bias for action.
CrossBoundary Access is a small team, so we are looking for someone with a flexible skill set that can be adapted to add value across all of the team’s various activities. The ideal candidate is comfortable with ambiguity, able to build and maintain strong internal and external relationships, and passionate about energy access and renewable energy.
Who You Are
A self-starter who is passionate about creating lasting change within the energy sector in Africa
A project manager who can oversee multiple 3rd party workstreams and ensure compliance and delivery
Interest in or willingness to learn about mini-grids and the off-grid energy sector
Willingness to take on new types of work, even without prior experience or direct supervision
Willingness to work and live in a sometimes-challenging environment
A flexible, utility player
Primary Responsibilities
Engineering and Construction
Oversee project implementation milestones and ensure timely acquisition of permits and licenses.
Review and approve engineering designs for power generation plants and MV/LV power distribution networks to ensure compliance with CrossBoundary Access standards.
Monitor and track project activities and milestones during procurement and construction phases, providing project management oversight.
Provide technical oversight to ensure mini-grid sites are constructed according to CrossBoundary Access standards
Oversee project completion, commissioning, acceptance tests and certify projects to start-up operations.
Demonstrate the ability to use sound judgment to make decisions about assets being built and operated in challenging environments.
Manage multiple mini-grid projects simultaneously, ensuring they are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget.
Ensure application CrossBoundary Access HSES policies are applied to construction and operations and maintenance of mini-grids.
Operations and Maintenance
Ensuring that internal and external system alerts from our asset monitoring platform are addressed by operators, including flags from the Odyssey and inverter/equipment monitoring systems (e.g., Uptime, Renewable Energy Fraction, Voltage Drops, SoC, battery temperature, diesel threshold, active meter count etc), and ensuring that the developer takes necessary actions.
Ensuring efficient day-to-day operations by aiding operators in resolving significant incidents that impact daily activities, such as outages in billing payment integration.
Ensuring day-to-day maintenance is carried out by operators, including scheduled and breakdown maintenance tasks such as solar panel cleaning, distribution pole inspections, and performing inverter and battery maintenance on-site, to ensure efficient operations.
Providing oversight for major maintenance activities, such as inverter or battery replacements carried out by operators
Overseeing demand stimulation by ensuring the provision of quality and reliable electricity to productive users. This includes oversight of appliance financing and retrofitting programs carried out by operators.
Qualifications
Ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualifications:
Strong quantitative skills.
Excellent analytical ability and discipline; ability to think clearly, structure problems logically, and then design and implement solutions that focus on the core issues
Ability to analyze large data in Excel
Ability to interpret, review and approve civil and electrical engineering designs including Single Line Diagrams and Power Distribution Network drawings.
Ability to build strong relationships with partners and colleagues in challenging environments
Excellent presentation skills: ability to communicate clearly and effectively with diverse audiences
Comfort with ambiguity; ability to operate effectively in a changing context
Required skills and qualifications:
4+ years of experience in construction project management of distributed assets (telco towers, renewables, or other distributed assets). Experience in solar mini-grids is an added advantage
2+ years experience in oversight of operations and maintenance of distributed assets or renewable energy projects
Strong understanding of AC/DC and MV/LV Electrical Power Systems, Power Electronics, and/or Solar Energy
Experience in quality assurance/supervision of solar PV systems and power distribution network designs, bill of materials, technical specifications, construction, testing and commissioning
Experience in mini-grid site assessments including end-user surveys, demand assessment, productive use, etc will be an added advantage
Work experience or demonstrated familiarity with distributed assets or renewable energy systems and oversight of operating assets.
Proficient in data acquisition systems and monitoring systems
Bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering field required; other advanced degrees and project management courses will be regarded favorably
Demonstrated ability to independently supervise multi-stakeholder projects
Location
Lagos, Nigeria (with travel around Nigeria and to other African countries)
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 human.resources@crossboundary.com
Contact
Interested candidates should apply at https://www.crossboundary.com/careers/.
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