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Innovative Finance Portfolio Lead – World Food Programme, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 24 December 2025, 23:59 GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Berlin).

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to equal employment opportunity for all employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP: The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. The WFP Innovation Accelerator (INNA) provides funding, hands-on support and access to WFP’s global operations to employees, entrepreneurs and start-ups, leveraging digital innovation and new business models to transform how it serves vulnerable communities.

WHY JOIN WFP: WFP offers an inclusive, diverse and multicultural environment with opportunities for development, internal mobility, and a global footprint across country, regional and global offices.

Job title: Innovative Finance Portfolio Lead

Type of contract: Consultancy

Unit/Division: WFP Innovation Accelerator (INNA)

Duty station: Munich, Germany

Duration: 6 months, extendable

The World Food Programme is the United Nations frontline agency fighting hunger. WFP reaches more than 100 million people daily by delivering food assistance in emergencies and by working with smallholder farmers, communities and governments to improve nutrition and resilience. The WFP Innovation Accelerator, based in Munich, identifies, nurtures and scales disruptive start-ups and innovations to end global hunger and supports pathways to scale through funding, hands-on support and access to WFP’s global operations.

Reporting to the Head of Innovative Finance, Frontier Innovations and Venture Launchpad, the Innovative Finance Portfolio Lead is expected to lead the development and implementation of the Accelerator’s innovative financing models. Key focus areas include building impact investing mechanisms to fund impact at scale, developing new investment mechanisms to attract funding for investable innovations, and managing processes and tools for impact investing, including impact measurement and reporting.

Responsibilities include developing a robust pipeline of investable innovations, contributing to the Innovative Finance Strategy, conducting landscape mapping to inform activities, supporting fundraising efforts and external partnerships, and guiding the adoption of an investment readiness toolkit across the Accelerator and related teams.

Additionally, the role involves leading a team of Innovative Finance Consultants, coaching staff through ideation to implementation, fostering a collaborative, high-performing culture, and supporting resource mobilisation opportunities for innovative finance ventures and instruments.

• Lead development and implementation of the Accelerator’s innovative financing models and impact investing mechanisms to fund impact at scale.
• Develop new impact investing mechanisms to attract funding for investable and scalable innovations with social impact.
• Design and manage processes and tools for impact investing, including measurement, reporting and monitoring of investments.
• Build a robust pipeline of investable innovations from market research to investment proposal; support the Innovative Finance Strategy implementation across WFP.
• Conduct landscape mapping to inform impact investing activities and support relationships with external investor partners.
• Drive adoption of the investment readiness toolkit by innovations and Accelerator teams; develop toolkit processes and documentation as appropriate.
• Provide investment readiness advisory, lead toolkit refinement, and offer capital raising guidance to secure funding through internal mechanisms or external partners.
• Share knowledge and best practices to promote investment readiness activities across the Accelerator and WFP teams.
• Lead and grow a team of Innovative Finance Consultants, establishing priorities and coaching for value creation.
• Foster a collaborative team culture, manage performance, and support external and internal resource mobilisation opportunities.
• Engage with internal and external stakeholders to gather input, secure support and approvals, and launch/scale innovative finance ventures and instruments.
• Develop outreach campaigns and communication plans to amplify the impact of innovative finance ventures.

• New Innovative Financing and Impact Investing Mechanisms, with documentation and partnerships.
• Investment Readiness Toolkit and engagement approaches.
• Realised resource mobilisation opportunities.
• Team of Innovative Finance Consultants led and developed.
• All work and materials documented for the WFP Innovation Accelerator team.
• Operational support for the Accelerator.

Education: Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business Administration or equivalent; Master’s degree is a plus.

Experience: At least 7 years in international, start-up leadership roles or accelerator/innovative finance ventures within humanitarian or international development contexts. Experience in innovative finance and microfinance is a plus, as is experience leading a team.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Proven track record in fintech projects and/or innovative finance venture building, preferably in impact/humanitarian contexts.
• Experience in microfinance and crowdlending platforms.
• Interest in financial inclusion, microfinance and resilience programmes.
• Knowledge of technology innovations and business model innovation (e.g., digital payments, crypto assets, impact bonds).
• Experience across the innovation project lifecycle from ideation to implementation.
• Ability to work cross-functionally in an agile, hands-on environment.
• Experience in large-scale organisations or collaborations with them.
• Strong conceptual thinking, stakeholder engagement and communication skills; ability to develop strategies and partnership documents.
• Collaborative, credible and diplomatic; self-motivated with autonomy.
• Commitment to UN World Food Programme aims.

Fluency in English (spoken and written) is mandatory. Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language or Portuguese is a plus.

WFP Leadership Framework outlines the standards of behavior for how we work together to accomplish our mission.

WFP provides reasonable accommodations in the recruitment process; contact us for accessibility needs.

The United Nations does not charge any application processing or training fees. Do not pay to apply.

• Ensure your profile is accurate and includes employment records, qualifications, language skills and UN Grade if applicable.
• Upload your CV in English; the required documents at this time are CV and Cover Letter.
• Additional documents may be requested later.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, merit and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to an inclusive work environment and will conduct rigorous checks. No appointment under certain bodies within the UN system will be offered during service or within three years of ceasing service.