Principal Impact Analyst - (Secondment)

Shape the Future with the National Wealth Fund

At the National Wealth Fund, our mission is to swiftly and effectively mobilise trusted sector insights and investment expertise to unlock billions in private finance for projects across the United Kingdom. Providing £27.8bn of capital and an expanded mandate, we are ready to help the market invest with confidence, continue to drive forward the Government's growth ambitions.

We are looking for skilled and results oriented individuals who are motivated to help us build the National Wealth Fund into an industry-leading institution.

Job Purpose

Location: Hybrid working with a minimum of 3 days per week in the Leeds office. 

Salary: 1–2-year secondment, remaining on current terms and conditions.

Deadline to Apply:  24th November. Early submission is encouraged, and applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

Job Purpose

We are recruiting for a Principal Impact Analyst to join our team on a secondment, in this role you will lead the Impact team’s work for the NWFs sectors, working with Policy, Banking and Risk to understand and assess the impact of our investments; before, during and after we invest in projects. The candidate will also make a meaningful contribution to NWF’s climate analysis, particularly managing our emissions modelling, climate risk analysis and disclosure.

Our Principal Analysts play a critical role in understanding each of the NWFs sectors, assessing how the NWF can be ‘additional’ in its investment strategies, e.g. addressing an undersupply of capital or market barrier over time. They also lead the due diligence process for potential lending and equity deals (both private and Local Authority) – including producing impact, additionality and ESRG (environmental, social, resilience and governance) analysis from early inception through to final investment decision.

They ensure appropriate monitoring and evaluation arrangements are in place to track the impact of our investments over time, and work with the communications team to ensure clear and robust evidence contributes to the NWF’s overall impact story. Principal analysts work closely with senior managers across NWF, including supporting the Chief Impact Officer during the Investment Committee process.

Principal analysts also play a key role in developing NWF’s analytical capability and evidence base, working with analysts in the Impact team and others in NWF on a range of cross cutting research, modelling and other analytical projects. They peer-review the analysis and assessment undertaken by other analysts in the function, and support and oversee the work of colleagues in the team, either directly or indirectly as part of a matrix management structure.

 We are particularly looking for someone to specialise in climate data, including emissions modelling, climate risk analysis and management, to support NWF in meeting our objectives and the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure. Over the next year NWF will refresh our climate scenario analysis and implement tools at the asset level to help us assess risk. The successful candidate will help translate both climate data and financial sector best practice to create meaningful analysis for NWF, including supporting our Board’s understanding of the issues.

Key Accountabilities

• Expertise and Sector Leadership: Help set the direction of potential investments within NWF's key sectors, as the impact team's sector lead. Develop and build sector knowledge by immersing yourself in the latest policy, technological and market trends, working with government analysts and external experts to continually sharpen your expertise and lead with confidence.
• Stakeholder Engagement:  Develop strong connections with NWF's Banking, Policy, and Risk teams to deeply understand the impact of potential investments.  Engage with relevant external organisations and government departments to understand your sectors. Assess whether NWF is truly 'additional,' by addressing capital undersupply or breaking down market barriers over time.
• Due Diligence and Analysis: Take the lead on the due diligence process for potential lending and equity deals, whether private or Local Authority. Deliver comprehensive impact, additionality, and ESRG (environmental, social, resilience, and governance) analysis to guide NWF's Investment Committee in making informed decisions. Evaluate potential investments against realistic counterfactuals to estimate their net impact on carbon emissions, local employment, and productivity.
• Feedback Loop and Narrative Development: Establish a robust feedback loop to integrate learnings into new deals. Craft evidence-based narratives for each deal, working closely with the Impact, Banking, and Policy teams to ensure the content, format, and style tell NWF's impact story.
• Emissions and climate risk analysis: Enhance NWF’s approach to greenhouse gas emissions and climate risk analysis and modelling. This includes projects to improve our avoided emissions modelling and climate scenario testing and develop the wider Impact team’s capability. Work collaboratively across NWF, including with Impact, risk and financial teams, to translate climate and emissions analysis into information that is relevant to our strategy and decision making.
• Collaboration: Be a proactive team player by peer-reviewing the analysis and assessments conducted by other analysts. Support and oversee the work of colleagues in the team, either directly or indirectly, as part of a matrix management structure.

Key Experience, Knowledge & Skills

Essential Experience:  

• Use and application of analytical techniques in appraisal, monitoring and evaluation in a policy and delivery environment, undertaking analysis using a range of data and evidence and communicating this in a clear and succinct way. 
• Experience of climate change in economic or risk analysis, potentially from experience in economic appraisal, climate modelling, greenhouse gas emissions accounting, climate risk scenario analysis. Understanding of sources of information, from climate risk information to emissions inventories, and core concepts in emissions modelling.
• Proven ability to work with, influence, and navigate stakeholders including commercial partners, academia or government departments. 
• Outstanding communication skills, both in writing and in person, including the ability to write concisely and compellingly; able to synthesis complex issues and data in an easy-to-understand manner and focus on the most relevant information.
• General analytical techniques, including use of excel. 
• Excellent inter-personal skills and the desire to form and maintain high quality relationships to shape policy decisions. 

Desirable skills and experience 

• Experience and/or knowledge of investment and financing of NWF’s sectors, including (but not exclusive to) clean energy, advanced manufacturing, transport, defence and life sciences. Experience of providing analytical advice and technical support to investment decision making activities for an organisation. 
• Experience of analytical model development, assurance and maintenance, preferably with some emissions or climate relevance.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, including the ability to respond to problems with an open mind and propose pragmatic solutions. 
• Excellent research skills, experience of undertaking research in NWF’s sectors, and the ability to deliver high-quality outputs using the best available evidence. 
• Line management or broader task management experience 
• An ability to balance longer term strategic analysis with short term workload in the context of a scale up environment that is not always set in stone. 
• Resilience and the ability to remain calm in changing situations. 
• Experience of presenting data and analytics through relevant packages e.g. Power BI.

Professional Qualifications 

• Must hold a 2:2 degree or above, in subject with a significant quantitative element, including economics and data analytics or equivalent professional experience. 

A career with us offers a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact and work on cutting-edge technologies that will drive the UK’s future. We value diversity in our people and inclusion is at the heart of what we do.

We offer competitive benefits and unique learning opportunities from combining both private and public sector skills and experience. Please note, referencing and background checks are carried out for all roles here at the National Wealth Fund.