Team Leader - UK-Nigeria Growth Programme
Recruiting now, an exceptional Team Leader for the UK-Nigeria Growth Programme.
This flagship programme will support mutual economic growth between the UK and Nigeria by unlocking opportunities for trade, investment and private sector development. The programme is expected to operate through two complementary pathways: first, enabling direct private investment and trade in high-potential non-oil sectors; and second, addressing the policy, regulatory and institutional barriers that constrain business growth and investment.
The programme is currently scoped as a five-year FCDO-funded intervention with an estimated value of £10 million.
We are looking for a commercially credible, politically astute and delivery-focused leader with a strong track record of converting strategy into practical action and tangible economic outcomes. The successful candidate will bring the judgement, networks and leadership needed to identify viable opportunities, work through constraints, build trusted relationships and maintain momentum from early engagement through to implementation.
This is a senior role requiring regular engagement with high-level stakeholders across government, investors, firms, regulators, industry bodies and development partners in both Nigeria and the UK. It will suit a candidate who combines strong commercial instincts with sound judgement, credibility, pragmatism and a clear focus on delivery.
Job purpose
The Team Leader will provide overall leadership for programme delivery, ensuring the intervention delivers credible and measurable results across trade, investment, private sector development and enabling environment reform.
The role will be responsible for translating programme ambition into a strong pipeline of opportunities, interventions and results. This will include leading delivery across both programme pathways: supporting direct investment and trade opportunities in priority sectors, while also shaping practical reforms that remove barriers affecting firms, investors and market actors.
The Team Leader will lead a multidisciplinary team, manage senior stakeholder relationships, oversee programme performance and ensure that delivery remains commercially grounded, politically aware and closely aligned with FCDO priorities.
This role is open to Nigerian and International candidates.
Key responsibilities
- Provide overall leadership, direction and day-to-day management of the programme.
- Lead engagement with FCDO and other senior stakeholders, maintaining trusted, constructive and solutions-oriented relationships throughout implementation.
- Drive delivery across the programme’s two core pathways: unlocking direct private investment and trade opportunities, and supporting reforms that strengthen the business and investment environment in Nigeria.
- Identify, assess and help progress commercially viable opportunities with the potential to generate investment, trade, jobs and wider economic impact.
- Oversee the development of robust commercial diagnostics, opportunity assessments, feasibility work and implementation support.
- Ensure that enabling environment activity is practical and targeted, with reform priorities shaped by live constraints affecting trade, investment and business growth.
- Build and maintain strong relationships across the UK and Nigerian public and private sectors, including businesses, investors, regulators, trade bodies and relevant delivery partners.
- Work closely with institutions such as DBT, UKEF, BII and other relevant actors to strengthen coordination, unlock opportunities and support delivery.
- Oversee programme strategy, workplanning, risk management, performance monitoring, adaptive delivery and value for money.
- Ensure strong integration between political economy analysis, stakeholder engagement, commercial opportunity development and delivery support.
- Lead and motivate a high-performing team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, sound judgement and problem-solving.
- Ensure consistently high-quality technical delivery across programme activities and outputs.
- Represent the programme externally in senior meetings, events and strategic discussions.
- Ensure delivery remains aligned with the programme mandate, FCDO priorities and the wider UK-Nigeria trade and investment relationship.
Person specification
Essential
- Significant senior experience in trade, investment, private sector development, economic growth or related fields.
- Demonstrated track record of helping originate, structure, negotiate or enable significant commercial deals, investments, partnerships or market opportunities.
- Strong understanding of the Nigerian political and economic context, including the practical barriers and opportunities affecting trade, investment and business growth.
- Strong understanding of the UK context and the UK-Nigeria trade and investment relationship.
- Credibility and experience operating at senior levels across both the public and private sectors.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build trust across government, business, investors and development actors.
- Experience leading complex programmes, portfolios or initiatives with multiple workstreams and senior external stakeholders.
- Strong delivery focus, with the ability to convert strategy into practical actions and results.
- Experience managing multidisciplinary teams and working through adaptive, problem-solving approaches.
- Strong understanding of how to balance commercial realism, development impact and political economy considerations.
Desirable
- Experience leading or managing large donor-funded programmes, ideally FCDO-funded.
- Experience working in Nigeria and the UK, with established networks across relevant public and private sector institutions.
- Experience in trade facilitation, investment promotion, regulatory reform, enabling environment programming or market systems approaches.
- Familiarity with UK Export Finance, British International Investment or similar institutions relevant to trade and investment mobilisation.
- Knowledge of the UK-Nigeria Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership and its priority areas of co-operation.
- Experience in one or more ETIP-relevant sectors, including financial services, legal services, customs and trade facilitation, clean growth, education, export diversification, environment and sustainability, health and life sciences, investment, creatives, regulatory co-operation, or agriculture, food safety and food security.
Personal attributes
- Commercially minded and opportunity-oriented
- Politically aware and credible
- Strategic, but highly practical
- Delivery-focused and outcomes-oriented
- Strongly collaborative, while able to make decisions and maintain momentum
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity and navigating complex stakeholder environments
- Resilient, adaptable and solutions-focused
- Committed to high standards of professionalism, integrity and delivery
Why this role matters
This is an opportunity to lead a strategically important programme at the intersection of trade, investment and economic transformation. The successful candidate will play a central role in helping unlock more productive UK-Nigeria economic partnership, support private sector growth and contribute to more diversified and sustainable development outcomes in Nigeria. The role offers the chance to shape delivery from the outset and to work with influential stakeholders across government, business and finance in both the UK and Nigeria.
Applications
This is a rare opportunity for a senior leader with the networks, judgement and delivery capability to help shape a flagship UK-Nigeria growth programme from the ground up. If you have the credibility to operate at senior levels, the commercial instincts to spot and unlock viable opportunities, and the leadership ability to turn ambition into results, we would be very keen to hear from you.
This role is open to Nigerian and International candidates.
Please apply with your CV and a short covering note setting out your relevant experience and why you are well placed to lead this programme.
DAI is committed to attracting outstanding candidates with the experience, judgement and diversity of perspective needed to deliver meaningful and lasting impact.