Innovative Finance Analyst (Part-time 50%/Home-based) [Open to all applicants]

Please note the appropriate Tier indicated in the vacancy title and ensure that you are holding the applicable contract as defined below:

• Tier 1: UNDP/ UNCDF/ UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed term (FTA) appointments (defined as “internal” candidates) 
• Tier 2: UNDP/ UNCDF/ UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA) and personnel on regular PSA contracts
• Tier 3: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Background

The Slovak Transformation Fund (STF), managed by the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH), supports sustainable and systemic transformation initiatives across Europe and Central Asia, focusing particularly on green, digital, and inclusive urban transitions. It leverages strategic innovation methodologies and innovative financial mechanisms to accelerate impactful urban solutions and strengthen resilience in local ecosystems.

The STF employs two interconnected components:

• BOOST: An innovation challenge and impact acceleration platform that identifies, supports, and scales innovative business models and solutions addressing critical development challenges. BOOST fosters ecosystem growth through strategic partnerships, capacity-building, and targeted financing, with an emphasis on inclusivity, particularly women’s economic empowerment and youth engagement.
• City Experiment Fund (CEF): A portfolio-driven initiative that brings cities together to collectively explore transformative urban solutions through co-learning, experimentation, and adaptive management. The CEF supports the activation of complex urban transformation portfolios, enabling cities to dynamically address local challenges in areas such as twin transition (digital and green), urban resilience, and innovative governance.

Central to STF’s approach is a robust exploration and deployment of innovative and alternative financing mechanisms designed to bridge traditional funding gaps and enhance the financial sustainability and scalability of urban transformation initiatives. The STF advances systemic finance logic, moving beyond traditional isolated project financing towards integrated portfolio financing frameworks. This approach emphasizes:

• Systems Finance: Utilizing financing to influence broader systemic outcomes, scaling the collective impact of interconnected initiatives within urban transformation portfolios.
• Portfolio Financing: Developing financial models that allow for adaptive and dynamic funding allocation across multiple projects, responding to real-time learning and evolving urban needs.
• Innovative/Impact Business Model Financing: Developing and testing funding and financing models that help scale high-impact innovations. 
• Alternative Financing Instruments: Including Social Impact Bonds, Green and Sustainability Bonds, blockchain-enabled solutions (tokenization, smart contracts), outcome-based payment models, and innovative risk management tools.

This position seeks an Innovative Finance Analyst to actively contribute to the STF’s innovative financing strategy by supporting the exploration, design, prototyping, and scaling of such financing models. The Analyst will engage with UNDP Country Offices, municipal stakeholders, private sector partners, impact investors, and international financial institutions to mobilize diversified funding and enhance local capabilities in financing urban transformations.

The role is important for STF’s mission of achieving tangible systemic transformation, improving regional urban resilience, and ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth through integrated and innovative financial solutions.

Duties And Responsibilities

The Innovative Finance Analyst will support the implementation of the STF’s strategic approach to innovative finance by identifying, co-designing, and enabling the testing and/or implementation of financing mechanisms that unlock, blend, and leverage new resources for urban transformation. This role bridges strategic innovation with systemic financing approaches and works closely with BOOST, City Experiment Fund (CEF), and country-level partners.

Key Areas Of Responsibility Include:

Innovative And Alternative Financing Exploration:

• Map and analyze funding opportunities from international, regional, national, and sub-national levels, including donors, IFIs, philanthropic actors, and private sector investors.
• Explore the application of innovative and alternative finance tools such as social impact bonds, blended finance, guarantees, tokenized instruments, and outcome-based payment models for urban and systems transformation.
• Contribute to the development and testing of financing models for initiatives supported under the BOOST acceleration platform and CEF portfolios.
• Support the creation of feasibility assessments and investment-readiness diagnostics for early-stage urban transformation initiatives.

Systems Finance and Portfolio Financing Development:

• Support the integration of financing logic into mission- and portfolio-based urban transformation strategies.
• Contribute to the design of systems finance strategies that link multiple urban interventions (grants, missions, experiments) with long-term, scalable financing structures.
• Work with the Innovation and BOOST teams to refine and apply portfolio financing models that allow flexible, learning-driven resource allocation.
• Help craft guidance and internal tools to operationalize portfolio-level financing approaches in collaboration with Country Offices.

Knowledge Development, Learning and Peer Exchange:

• Capture lessons from financial pilot initiatives and support the synthesis of learning into accessible case studies, policy briefs, or internal playbooks, with an aim for regional knowledge and practice sharing.
• Support the preparation and facilitation of regional peer exchange sessions, trainings, or workshops on urban and innovative finance.
• Engage in cross-team learning across IRH and COs to strengthen collective understanding of what works in city-level financing for green and digital transitions.

Stakeholder Engagement And Partnership Building:

• Support UNDP Country Offices and IRH Innovation and Digital Team in identifying and convening partners (e.g., IFIs, EU instruments, private investors) relevant for co-financing city portfolios.
• Help structure collaboration frameworks (e.g., MOUs, co-investment proposals, letters of intent) with partners interested in scaling transformation through innovative finance.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of financing pipelines and instruments relevant to the STF context and provide tailored advisory to COs and city partners.

Other Tasks:

• Contribute to STF-wide strategic planning and reporting processes with specific input on financing workstreams.
• Perform any other duties as required for the successful implementation of the STF’s financial innovation agenda.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation

Institutional Arrangement

The Innovative Finance Analyst will work under the direct supervision of the STF Regional Project Manager within the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH). The Analyst will collaborate closely with:

• IRH Innovation and Digital Team, specifically supporting BOOST and the City Experiment Fund (CEF) Projects;
• Sustainable-Finance Advisory team in the region whenever sustainability-, green- or social-bond concepts are considered, regarding design of instruments and interventions and engagement with public-sector counterparts;
• Country Office teams implementing STF-supported activities and other UNDP Offices in the region;
• Other IRH practice areas (Inclusive Growth, Governance, Climate & Environment, SDG Finance, Gender, etc.) and UNDP regional/global experts in development finance, urban transformation and systems innovation.
• Collaborate with AltFinLab team on broader Innovative Finance stream on co-design of city-focused, portfolio-level financing strategies and shared tools;

The role is home-based with possible travel for missions, workshops and peer-learning events, subject to UNDP travel policies.

The Analyst will contribute to regular planning meetings, results tracking, internal learning exchanges and partner-coordination calls. All outputs will be reviewed and validated by the STF Regional Project Manager, in consultation with IRH Innovation and Finance focal points as needed.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements 
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible 
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination 

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies:

• System Thinking:
• Portfolio design & management:
• Systems thinking & transformation:
• Alternative finance:
• Development finance expertise:
• Relationship management:
• Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system
• Ability to identify leverage points in systems and design interventions that address them. . The value of the interventions is determined not in isolation, but as part of the overall portfolio and their coherence. 
• Ability to design processes that extract learning on an ongoing basis from existing portfolios, so that learning accrues over time and new options for action are continuously generated.
• Build a learning ecosystem around a complex development challenge: being able to mobilise a variety of stakeholders and help them learn and work together. Understand key principles of systems and complexity theory.
• Understand that complex problems need a non-reductionistic, holistic approach. 
• Ability to explore challenges from multiple perspectives by zooming in and out, with a focus on relationships and flows rather than individual elements; understand how certain dynamics and conditions are driving and influencing an issue. 
• Ability to develop a collective understanding by a mapping systems and their dynamics (e.g. flows or resources, information; power relations); is able to handle ambiguity and can help others navigate it.
• Being able to identify intervention points to leverage change and system transformation by setting out a coherent collection of multiple interventions to probe the system for desirable effects.
• Understand that change is non-linear and unpredictable; being comfortable and able to work with emergence.
• Ability to identify potential alternative forms of finance and mobilise them for the purpose of addressing development challenges.
• Ability to review the skills, capacities, procedures and protocols that are needed to enable new financial mechanisms.
• Ability to assess the risks, limitations and implications of using new financial mechanisms.
• Set up the processes and structures to design, testing and implement new financial mechanisms. Managing outreach and stakeholder engagement
• Ability to develop and work with innovative financing mechanisms and instruments, e.g. social/development impact bonds, guarantees, climate finance, etc.
• Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in international development, development economics, urban studies, natural sciences or other relevant field is required, 
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the above fields in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of 2 years (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience working with innovative financing mechanisms, methods of development or relevant related fields is required

Languages:

• Fluency in written and spoken English

Required Skills:

• At least one year of working experience with different financing mechanisms is required.
• Working experience in the use of innovative mechanisms and methods in development
• Experience working on financing strategies or project preparation with or for public sector institutions, city governments, development agencies, IFIs, or impact-driven organizations.
• Experience in working with innovation is required.

Desired Skills:

• Proven experience in identifying, structuring, or testing innovative or alternative finance mechanisms (e.g., development impact bonds, guarantees, public-private partnerships, outcome-based finance, etc.).
• Experience in resource mobilization is desired.
• Experience in working with cities, municipalities or other local level actors is desirable.

Equal Opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam Alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.