Closing Date 2021/06/17
Reference Number DBS210525-3
Job Title Product Development Specialist (Midrand)
Job Grade 16
Job Type Classification Permanent
Location - Town / City Midrand
Location - Province Gauteng
Location - Country South Africa
JOB DESCRIPTION
1. The purpose of this role is to create and define the technical and other structural aspects underpinning new financial products and solutions that have been created by the Unit.
2. The Product Development Specialist is responsible for structuring, validating and executing these products in support of the DBSA’s overall mandate and business strategy.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Conceptualisation and Development of New Products
1. Advise on the proposed Structured Products’ technical specifications and hands on the creation of models and/or samples of the product
2. In conjunction with Lead Product Specialist review, refine and modify the initial designs until they are ready for release into the market to ensure they meet real market needs and will add value to the identified client as well as the DBSA
3. Responsible for the management of product development projects to ensure completion within time and budget
4. Compile product design documentation in consultation with the Product Implementation Specialist. Drive the development and implementation of these solutions and products in accordance with DBSA’s governance processes and systems
5. Work closely with internal stakeholders to analyse product development procedures and features and forecast potential issues. Design appropriate mitigating plans in response to the identified issues
6. Testing the solution with potential end-users to ensure it addresses their specific needs and to test the market appetite for this type of solution
7. Identify and engage with other suitable financiers who would add value or play a critical role in the proposed Structured Product or Solution
8. Responsible for the assessment of performance and risk of the new Structured Products
Execute Transactions & Portfolio Management
1. Conduct deal assessment and structuring with regards to ensuring that new business written is of acceptable risk
2. Ensure ratings and LGDs together with return on investments proposals are acceptable to the Bank
3. Close deal / transactions by obtaining the relevant internal approvals for the transactions and leading or actively participating in the successful conclusion of negotiations.
4. Actively manage the transaction to drive the credit approval process in its entirety from early review to the relevant approval committees.
5. Ensure proposals submitted to these committees are well structured and documented for effective decision making.
6. Implement transactions by facilitating the preparation or managing the preparation of complex multiple jurisdiction documents and compliance with all required procedures, laws and regulations.
7. In liaison with the Head: Product Innovation resolve any potential constraints in the lending/investment value chain.
8. Manage all risk aspects of the continent-wide financing delivery function, in terms of ensuring appropriate structuring of investment risks and on-going mitigations of operations-related risks. • Continuously monitor country, industry and client performance.
9. Form part of the deal closing that negotiations covenants and legal conditions with potential clients and co-lenders.
10. Reviewing and signing off covenants and annual reviews, keeping up to date on other credit risks
11. Monitor and ensure divisional compliance to risk management policies and all other applicable legislation and regulation
12. Take group risk management policies and interpret, customise and implement them within the Division, consistent with the DBSA’s risk profile and appetite as defined in the group policies and guidelines
Key Measurements of Outputs
Job Category KPIs:
1. Number of new structured products developed and adopted by clients
2. Financial closure (commitment) of structured products
Unit KPIs:
1. Number of structured product proposals worked on during early concept phase
2. Number of structured product proposals approved by Unit’s Deal Screening Committee
Team Behavioral KPIs:
1. Effective and productive relationships with Structured Products team members
Key Internal Liaison Relationships
1. CIO
2. Executives
3. Board Investment Committee
4. Head Product Innovation
5. Innovation, PIU, Client Coverage, Transacting, IDD, Project Preparation, Risk, Treasury, Finance
6. Management
7. Staff Key
External Liaison Relationships
1. National Government
2. Provincial Government
3. Local Government
4. Sovereigns
5. Private Companies
6. SMME’s
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EXPERTISE & TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES
Minimum Requirements
1. Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Financial Engineering, Finance or similar.
2. + 7 years’ work experience preferably across multiple areas of the business ecosystem
3. Demonstrable experience developing new products and solutions (preferably within the financial sector)
4. Comprehensive knowledge of the complex financial and regulatory environments of municipalities, state-owned enterprises and other government entities in South Africa and in the rest of Africa
5. Experience in organizing and facilitating brainstorming workshops to bring new ideas to fruition
6. Experience in working on new and innovative projects and proven ability to bring ideas from conception to completion
7. Curiosity to pursue new avenues and directions; the ability to simplify complex ideas; and the resilience and vigor to defend your ideas in the face of rigorous examination by the Team
8. Making sense of ambiguity. The ability to keep the whole and the parts in mind at once. The ability to connect the levels between the abstract and the concrete, the big picture and the minor details.
9. Ability to ask tough and insightful questions while still prioritizing team work
10. Being aware of, and working to mitigate, cognitive biases that seep into observation, interpretation and decision making
11. Willingness to work in a fun and challenging environment
Desirable Requirements
13. Post graduate qualification in Development Finance or Finance.
TECHNICAL
Solution Focus:
1. Identifies broad, highly complex problems based on a multitude of factors, many of which are complex and sweeping in nature, difficult to define and often contradictory.
2. Creates procedures to articulate the nature of problems and to identify and weigh alternate solutions.
3. Evaluates the effectiveness of solutions using approaches tailored to the situation.
Financial Acumen
1. Effectively provides financial management for divisional or national programmes, or multiple divisions.
2. Skilled in the use of various financial modelling tools and techniques.
3. Can define long-term financial plans to ensure that various high-level business-wide financial targets (e.g. Economic Value Added, Return on Investment) are achieved.
4. Ensures framework is in place for sound financial planning, management, control, and reporting (spanning pay, capital, O&M costs, and revenues).
Financial Analysis
1. Serves as subject matter expert.
2. Evaluates and determines fiscal, operational, and service impacts; analyses and evaluates legislation; and implements and evaluates statistical models in their subject areas.
3. Demonstrates in-depth technical and administrative knowledge of the rules and regulations in the subject area and to defend analyses, testimony, and recommendations relating to a variety of issues before management and commissions.
Deal Syndication
1. Demonstrates an understanding of the key principles of deal syndication and carries out some aspects, such as preparing information memorandums.
2. Assists in the co-ordination of engagements and manages relationships with syndicate funding partners.
3. Possesses a network of relationships with other syndicate banks and financial Institutions.
4. Able to generate leads from relationship with syndicate banks and financial institutions.
5. Identifies and acts on opportunities to syndicate loans and obtain internal contracts from internal units in the department.
6. Understands where to locate debt capital market information and data.
7. Collects, collates and interprets simple/readily available internal and external data.
8. Able to successfully raise equity capital in line with the Mandated Lead Arrangement.
9. Broad knowledge of credit distribution techniques.
10. Prepares standard documentation such as mandate letters, non-disclosure agreements and term sheets with guidance.
11. Compiles comprehensive specialist reports as required for inclusion into credit committee submissions.
Deal Structuring
1. Uses credit enhancement techniques to structure deals and optimise pricing in terms of Basel principles.
2. Has an in-depth and practical understanding of how to optimise the Capital Structure, collateral package, and debt repayment profile.
3. Interrogates financial models, including those with a high degree of complexity, to develop an optimal structure.
4. Identifies complex structural issues that need escalation and proposes appropriate bankable structures.
5. Demonstrates knowledge on advanced structuring including the use of derivatives, syndicated loans, synthetic loans, securitisations, Inflation linked debt, credit default swaps and subordinated debt.
6. Prepares specialised or tailored reports relating to new innovative instruments, gather information from a variety of sources, analyse and include in a report to new products approval committees.
7. Compiles comprehensive specialist reports as required for inclusion into credit committee submissions.
Deal Origination
1. Formulate and develop new and alternative financing mechanisms and concepts that can be replicated elsewhere within and outside SA.
2. Conceptualise and develop innovative funding instruments (equity, venture capital, mezzanine, debt, securitisation of projects, etc.) to finance infrastructure that would otherwise not be possible relying on the market only to develop and propose these investment opportunities.
3. Proactively develop impact concepts to take to the market.
4. Leads and mentors project teams.
5. Formulate new products.
Risk Management
1. Drives integration and standardisation of risk management processes across the organisation
2. Advises on the application of the organisation’s risk management policies, industry best practices and constructs organisation guidelines
3. Analyses trends in risk management and internal control, evaluates implications, defines and implements organisation-wide response.
Attention to detail
1. Quickly identifies relevant and irrelevant information to support accurate decision making.
2. Maps out all the logistics and details of a situation to ensure smooth and flawless implementation.
3. Consistently identifies all relevant details that are not obvious in complex situations.
4. Requires the highest standards for accuracy and quality for their work.
5. Establishes processes to ensure accuracy and quality of services delivered by the team.
Negotiation
1. Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences.
2. Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation.
3. Is able to take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy.
4. Is able to place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of DBSA.
Commercial Awareness
1. Deep understanding of commercial drivers and is able to take decisions based on an assessment of alternatives concerning complex business situations.
2. Deep understanding of DBSA economic priorities and how they can be implemented to meet DBSA's strategic objectives.
3. Deep understanding of DBSA's core sector role in achieving DBSA's strategic objectives.
4. Deep understanding of the need to coordinate efforts with many government entities, private sector, community groups and individuals to ensure effective implementation of new policies and regulations.
Research
1. Demonstrates expert skill levels in strategic and operational research techniques, including process analysis, modeling and forecasting.
2. Adapts, creates and designs new research techniques to meet the organisation requirements.
3. Provides specialist coaching and guidance to researchers and other the organisation employees.
4. Promotes the professional reputation of the organisation by maintaining a respected profile with relevant external organisations and the research community in general.
Project Management
1. Defines, plans and manages large and/or strategic projects, including those with a high degree of technical complexity, with impacts across the organisation and/or with national implications.
2. Assembles and leads diverse and multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring maximum effective resource utilisation.
3. Successfully manages substantial project budgets, and reports directly to senior managers on the progress and results of projects.
4. Identifies complex issues that need escalation and proposes appropriate corrective actions.
Communication and Reporting
1. Able to communicate complex problems or concepts, by making them simple and understandable for others.
2. Adapts language to the level of the audience in order to ensure that the message has a positive impact and is interesting to the audience.
3. Is articulate, demonstrates a wide range of vocabulary, and is confident when talking to large/high level audiences.
4. Designs / customizes reports to meet user needs.
5. Prepares complex or tailored reports, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses and includes in a report. Keeps standard reports under review and proposes improvements to meet user needs
Innovation
Develops innovative business solutions that shape industry practices
REQUIRED PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES
LEADERSHIP
Achievement Orientation
1. Focuses on new or more effective ways of improving own work and meeting targets.
2. Focuses on raising quality, customer satisfaction and revenues.
3. Makes specific changes to systems and processes in order to improve efficiency and quality.
4. Formulates own objectives and action plans in order to achieve a measurable improvement in the future.
Analytical Thinking
1. Identifies multiple elements of a problem and breaks down each of those elements in detail, showing causal relationships between them.
2. Uses several analytical techniques to identify several solutions and weighs the value of each
Conceptual thinking
1. Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others and not learned from previous education or experience to explain situations or resolve problems.
2. Looks at things in a significantly novel way—breakthrough thinking
Strategic and Innovative thinking
1. Recognizes opportunities or problems emerging in patterns and trends, and their impact on the business and profitability drivers.
2. Applies learning from previous situations and experiences.
3. Sees underlying causality in current situation. Applies business acumen to make sound decisions
4. Recognizes opportunities or potential problems, before they become obvious, by seeing the connections in a range of sources of information, including insights from outside DBSA.
5. Restates complex knowledge in a way that makes it easier for others to understand.
Commercial Business Acumen
1. Understands business fundamentals.
2. Analyses and comprehends organisational goals and strategies.
3. Understands tactical business fundamentals in the public sector environment and incorporates them into decision-making.
Team work
1. Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale, and resolves conflicts.
2. Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.
3. Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience.
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