Key responsibilities:

Origination

• Build and own a pipeline of gold financing opportunities with producers across Africa: producing and near-production mines, mid-tier and junior listed companies, licensed aggregators and exporters, and refiners.
• Lead the commercial conversation from first contact: size the producer's need, propose the structure (prepayment, offtake with embedded finance, stream, royalty, inventory or consignment line, or a combination) and agree indicative terms that work for company before the counterparty anchors the discussion.
• Screen every counterparty and project before a term sheet goes out: technical (reserves, mine plan, cost base), legal (title, permits, capacity to grant security), country (FX and repatriation rules, mining code, fiscal terms) and compliance (origin and ownership).

Structuring

• Structure each transaction end to end: advance amount and tenor; repayment in ounces or cash; pricing mechanics (fixed or floating, reference price, quotational periods, discounts); delivery schedules with shortfall and catch-up mechanics; security package (offtake assignment, collection and escrow accounts, share and asset pledges, parent guarantees); covenants, events of default and step-in rights.
• Build the deal model and the credit paper: mine cash flows, debt sizing and coverage, price and production sensitivities, downside cases, and the return on company's capital on a risk-adjusted basis.
• Design the hedging program for financed ounces with the trading desk and Risk, so the book's price exposure is known and inside limits from the first drawdown.
• Negotiate term sheets and long-form documents with counterparties and external counsel: prepayment agreements, offtake and purchase agreements, stream and royalty agreements, security documents, intercreditor and account bank agreements.

Leading and syndicating

• Lead each transaction as deal captain: own the timetable, the data room, the due diligence workstreams, the approvals and the closing.
• Syndicate: bring banks, trading houses, development finance institutions, export credit agencies, credit funds and insurers in alongside company's balance sheet; structure risk participations, sub-participations and co-lending; negotiate intercreditor terms; place credit and political risk insurance.
• Build and maintain a lender and investor network that can fund gold flows out of Africa at scale, and keep company's own facilities (trade finance lines and borrowing bases) drawn efficiently, compliant and reported.
• Take every transaction through company's Investment Committee and, where required, the board, with a complete and candid credit paper. No transaction proceeds because a partner is keen; each must stand on its own economics.

Portfolio management and delivery

• Run the book after closing: deliveries against schedule, outstanding balances, quotational period and hedge positions, covenant and reporting compliance, mine performance and developments in each country.
• Act early on problems: restructure, extend, enforce or exit, and manage workouts with Legal.
• Monetize delivered ounces with the trading desk: refining, hedging and sale to refiners and bullion banks, with shipment, assay and settlement coordinated through Operations.
• Report monthly to the Trading CEO and the Investment Committee on exposures, returns, covenant status and pipeline.

Compliance and responsible sourcing

• Finance or buy only from counterparties that have passed KYC, sanctions and responsible sourcing due diligence by the Compliance function.
• Build provenance into the structure: chain-of-custody documents, mine-site visits, and the right to stop deliveries and advances on any red flag on origin, ownership, payment or transport.
• Never sign, advance or release a transaction that Compliance has not cleared.
• Support audits, regulatory reviews and reporting, and complete mandatory training on time.

Team and firm-building

• Set the standards for the function: term sheet, model, credit paper and due diligence templates; approval workflow; portfolio reporting.
• Hire and develop a small structuring team (analyst and associate level) as the book grows, and coach trading and finance colleagues on structured products.
• Work with Trading, Risk, Finance, Legal, Compliance and Operations as one team, and treat the control functions as partners rather than obstacles.

Must have:

• 10 or more years in structured commodity finance, metals origination or mining finance, including at least five years at a tier-one commodity trading house in a structured finance, origination or metals finance role. Bullion bank or mining finance bank experience alongside this is welcome; the trading-house years are not optional.
• Precious metals as a core product: gold prepayments, offtake-backed financings or streams that the candidate structured and closed personally, not supported from the side.
• A named track record: at least three closed transactions as lead structurer, with a reference-checkable role in each, at sizes relevant to company (USD 25m to 250m and above per transaction).
• Syndication: has brought banks, DFIs, funds or insurers into transactions as arranger or lead, and has negotiated intercreditor, risk participation and credit or political risk insurance terms.
• Command of gold mechanics: LBMA pricing, quotational periods, fixed against floating pricing, discounts, assay and refining, logistics, delivery and settlement, and hedging of financed ounces.
• Credit and modelling strength: builds mine cash flow models, sizes debt, stress-tests price and production, and writes a credit paper an Investment Committee can act on.
• Documentation fluency: prepayment, offtake, stream and royalty, security and intercreditor documents; comfortable instructing and managing external counsel.
• Africa: has closed transactions in at least two African jurisdictions and understands FX and repatriation regimes, OHADA security, mining codes and political risk mitigants.
• Working knowledge of KYC, AML, sanctions and responsible sourcing requirements for gold, including LBMA and OECD due diligence principles.
• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, law, engineering or a related field.
• Fluent English, written and spoken. French strongly preferred, given the francophone footprint.
• Proven integrity and the maturity to stop a transaction when compliance or credit concerns arise.

Preferred:

• Experience at a streaming or royalty company, or on a mining finance desk that writes streams and royalties.
• Established relationships with development finance institutions and export credit agencies active in African mining and trade (Afreximbank, AfDB, IFC, TDB, DFC, UKEF and similar).
• Experience in the Dubai or wider UAE gold market, including DMCC and UAE-licensed refiners and dealers.
• Experience with the credit and political risk insurance market (Lloyd's syndicates and private CPRI insurers).
• CFA, a legal qualification, or the LBMA Diploma in Global Precious Metals.