National Empowerment Fund (NEF) Investment Associate Vacancy 2026

Opportunity Overview

The National Empowerment Fund (NEF) is inviting applications for an Investment Associate position based in Sandton. This is a fixed-term contract opportunity within the financial services industry.

The role involves conducting preliminary technical, commercial, financial, compliance, and risk screening of funding applications. The goal is to strengthen investment readiness and prepare well-packaged opportunities for progression to the various NEF funds and regions. This ensures that NEF focuses its capacity on high-potential transactions and that only investment-ready and strategically aligned opportunities move forward for advanced due diligence and Investment Committee consideration.

Minimum Requirements

To be considered for this role, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Minimum of 4–7 years of proven deal-making experience in corporate finance.

Key Responsibilities

The successful candidate will be responsible for a range of tasks, including:

• Assessing funding applications against NEF's mandate, product criteria, and sector priorities.
• Evaluating the operational feasibility of proposed projects, including capital expenditure, implementation timelines, and infrastructure readiness.
• Conducting commercial and market assessments, analysing industry outlook, market demand, and business model resilience.
• Developing and interrogating financial models to assess revenue, costs, cash flow sustainability, and funding structure suitability.
• Performing preliminary compliance and governance checks, including legal entity verification and identification of potential conflicts of interest.
• Identifying key credit, operational, and market risks, and proposing mitigation strategies.
• Preparing comprehensive Pre-Investment screening reports and structuring transactions in accordance with NEF requirements.
• Presenting vetted transactions at internal forums and providing recommendations on application outcomes.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted online through the NEF careers portal.

• Application Link: https://nefcareers.ci.hr/applicant/index.php?controller=Listings&method=view&listingid=51c48e30-e885-4d76-aea0-1df04b4c6c9b
• Application Deadline: 28 July 2026