Political Risk Insurance Projects Director

About the Position

The Political Risk Insurance Projects Director supports a U.S. Government Agency in managing complex international risk mitigation initiatives. This role operates within a specialized function responsible for evaluating, structuring, and underwriting political risk solutions for investments in emerging and developing markets. 

The Director serves as a senior specialist leading the assessment and execution of highly complex insurance transactions. The position requires deep expertise in political risk analysis, underwriting, and international investment environments, as well as the ability to engage with senior stakeholders across public and private sectors. This position is based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and is contingent upon award.

Responsibilities

• Evaluates projects proposed by investors and designs the insurance coverage, personally handling unusually complex and significant issues as well as representing the Agency at the highest levels in negotiations with investors and foreign government representatives. Projects include the most complex issues and conditions and require the conduct of sensitive negotiations and original underwriting techniques performed with authoritative technical independence. 
• Reviews formal applications for political risk insurance. Analyzes the nature of investment, equity and loan instruments, project agreements, and related documents. Determines the level of concentration risk in the industry or country. Reviews laws and practices regarding investment and foreign exchange in country of proposed investment, as well as the investment conditions and political climate in order to assess political risk and anticipate and deal with problems that might arise. Reviews and works with other relevant departments to determine appropriateness of foreign government approval of the project and the investment's contribution to economic development in the project host country; the effect on U.S. balance of payments and employment; and the projects' environmental implications. Reviews final insurance applications and, when needed, requests supporting information and documentation. 
• Advises investors on whether the proposed project is insurable. Determines whether there are problems or restrictions that would make the project, investment, and/or investor ineligible and suggests, if possible, reshaping to achieve eligibility. Performs risk evaluation and proposes pricing. 
• Develops concepts and innovative approaches to provide and support political risk coverage. 
• Assists in maintaining and expanding the business pipeline for risk mitigation services, working with U.S. and foreign private sector and government officials, as well as with representatives of multilateral and bilateral development finance institutions. 
• Develops and sustains relationships with corporate, multilateral, and bilateral representatives to ensure early identification of future projects with potential for enhanced participation. 
• Negotiates and confers with senior officials and/or counsel of the investors regarding character of investment, the appropriate insurance coverage(s), and provisions of the contract. Provides suggested language for adaptations, changes in, or addenda to the standard contract and determines need for and obtains advice or clearance from legal counsel and other relevant parties. 
• Prepares or oversees the preparation of the insurance contract in final form, ensuring that it correctly reflects the investor's application and supplementary data, and after appropriate clearance, transmits it to the investor for execution and payment of fees. 
• Prepares staff memoranda and papers for presentation to approval committees, management, and senior leadership; coordinates presentations of projects for approval, as needed. 
• Work may include overseas travel to conduct due diligence about the current political situation in a country where issues are affecting the client's operations, conducting special negotiations, and working with local U.S. Embassy staff to deal with specific country issues. 
• Performs other related duties as assigned

Qualifications 

• Minimum of a master’s degree in international business/studies, international relations, finance, business, economics, political science, or a related field. 
• Minimum of 8 years of experience working at a political risk insurance firm, commercial bank, consulting firm, investment bank, international project development company, international financial institution, or multilateral organization within the last 10 years. 
• Experience independently completing the full range of origination of international political risk insurance contracts. 
• Experience conducting political risk analysis of investments in developing countries. 
• Experience identifying issues in at least two of the following three areas: political, economic or credit risks (e.g. due diligence, risk exposure, detailed credit analysis, market analysis, private investments). 
• Experience analyzing the underlying causes of changes in investment conditions and political climate in a developing country. 
• Experience guiding potential clients through the eligibility requirements, application process, investment policies requirement and approval process at a political risk insurance company. 
• Experience identifying pertinent host country political risks related to projects and applying these analyses to determine what risks should be covered and excluded in a political risk insurance contract. 
• Experience developing networks and customer contacts to identify new business opportunities. 
• Excellent English speaking, reading, and writing skills. 
• Demonstrated ability to produce written materials that are clear and succinct. 
• Must be a U.S. Citizen or Foreign National with the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or higher-level clearance.