**Access to Finance Lead****About Palladium**:Palladium is a global company working to design, develop, and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 3,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.**This Opportunity**:The Private Sector Led Growth, Resilience and Response (PSLGRR) Activity in North Macedonia will leverage and empower key actors in the business ecosystem to sustainably unlock the growth, productivity, and employment potential of North Macedonian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), thus strengthening the ecosystem in the process. Interventions will be co-designed, led, and owned by resource partners to ensure solutions are embedded in the local context and anchored by local actors for sustainability, greater success, and replicability. The Activity will be implemented across the following four Objectives:- ** Objective 1. **Increased Productivity of MSMEs: Improve investment readiness and facilitate partnerships with the private sector and training institutions to help MSMEs take advantage of key market opportunities.- ** Objective 2.** Improved MSME Capacity to Access Finance: Collaborate with resource partners to increase the use of the available commercial and alternative sources of financing.- ** Objective 3.** Strengthened Public-Private Dialogue (PPD): Implement a prioritized PPD activity agenda that will tackle firm-level productivity, access to finance, and regional economic integration.- ** Objective 4. **Improved Regional Economic Integration: Prioritize policy level activities supporting regional economic integration, while reducing entry costs for MSMEs interested in entering markets across the Western Balkans region.**Location**:This position is based in Palladium's Skopje, North Macedonia office.**Reporting and Supervision**:This position reports to the Chief of Party (COP).**Primary Duties and Responsibilities**:- Design and lead interventions to improve MSME capacity to access finance under Objective 2.- Oversee alternative sources of financial and business management services for MSMEs and start-ups and facilitate matchmaking opportunities.- Facilitate MSME finance and investment readiness.- Promote MSME utilization of alternative financial instruments.- Support scaling of business service providers, development of new financial products, uptake of existing products, and technical guidance for resource partners.**Key Competencies Required**:- 10+ years of banking and finance experience in North Macedonia and the Western Balkans.- Experience with innovative financing funds and product development for start-ups and MSMEs.- Strong understanding of MSME financing requirements and needs to drive productivity and investment.- Excellent written and spoken English.**Application Closing Date**:
