Business Development Director

Job Purpose

The Group Business Development Director - MENA is responsible for identifying, originating and securing major infrastructure investment opportunities across Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The role leads deal sourcing and relationship development with government entities, strategic partners, project developers, current asset owners and operators, and co-investors. The role drives revenue generation through direct deal origination and supports opportunity assessment, commercial negotiation, diligence, transaction structuring and closing in collaboration with the investment deal team.

• Lead deal origination across Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, building and maintaining a robust pipeline of investment opportunities across ports, airports, power generation, oil and gas, refinery, water, agriculture, real estate, mining and pipeline sectors.

• Establish and nurture strategic relationships with government officials, regulatory bodies, public-sector stakeholders, asset owners and operators to understand priorities and secure direct access to investment opportunities.
• Manage relationships with current asset owners and operators, identifying partnership, acquisition and investment opportunities, with deal-team support for detailed technical and financial diligence.
• Build and maintain relationships with co-investors and strategic co-investment partners.

• Identify and qualify investment opportunities through market research and direct stakeholder engagement, assessing commercial and structural feasibility.
• Prepare investment opportunity assessments and memoranda for the Investment Committee, detailing market context, opportunity characteristics and proposed structure.

• Partner with sector verticals to design and implement stage-gate processes for capital investment project maturation, establishing clear quality gates, decision criteria, and approval protocols aligned with sector-specific requirements.
• Support sector implementation of cost estimation methodologies and documentation standards aligned with best practices; establish guidance frameworks that enable sector teams to manage cost estimate progression from preliminary Class 4 to Class 1 bankable estimates, including audit trail, assumptions documentation, and risk registers at each gate.
• Develop sector-specific project governance templates and escalation protocols defining roles, approval authorities, and documentation requirements; support sector adoption and provide Bridge Holding governance interface for alignment with investor and lender requirements.
• Establish bankability assessment frameworks and gate-review criteria in partnership with sectors; support readiness validation for Investment Committee approval and third-party financing; ensure best in class capital project development standards are met.
• Build and maintain project intake, tracking, and documentation systems that support sector pipeline visibility, stage-gate compliance, and Bridge Holding oversight; generate quarterly reports on project maturation progress by sector, gate approval rates, cost estimate confidence evolution, and bankability metrics; serve as primary interface between sector origination teams and central Investment Committee.

• Lead commercial negotiations of term sheets, framework agreements and transaction arrangements with governments, current asset owners, project developers and co-investment partners, with support from legal and transaction teams.
• Collaborate with financial analysts,…