Head: Legal (IPPO) (Fixed Term Contract Appointment until 31 March 2031) Gauteng

Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is actively recruiting for a Head: Legal (IPPO) (Fixed Term Contract Appointment until 31 March 2031) position in Gauteng. This is an excellent opportunity for professionals in the Legal sector looking to advance their careers.

• Experience Level: 15 years • Educational Background: Others or equivalent • Industry Focus: Legal • Location Preference: in Gauteng

Legal professionals like Head: Legal (IPPO) (Fixed Term Contract Appointment until 31 March 2031) ensure justice and compliance. This role is essential for organizational and societal legal frameworks.

This role in Legal offers valuable career progression opportunities aligned with your experience level and professional aspirations.

When applying for this Head: Legal (IPPO) (Fixed Term Contract Appointment until 31 March 2031) position, ensure your CV highlights: • Relevant experience matching the 15 years requirement • Educational qualifications in line with Others • Specific achievements in the Legal field • Any certifications or specialized training

The Legal sector in South Africa continues to show strong demand for skilled professionals. This position represents a valuable opportunity in the current job market.

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Job Description    

The Head: Legal, a member of the IPPO Executive Management Committee (Exco), serves as the IPPO’s General Counsel and legal authority, leading the Legal function and providing independent, commercially informed legal advice across the full lifecycle of energy and transmission programmes. The role develops and executes the Legal Strategy in alignment with the IPPO Strategy, DEE priorities, the Integrated Resource Plan, the Gas Master Plan and relevant stakeholder mandates. The role safeguards the legality, integrity, bankability and defensibility of procurement and implementation programmes across renewable energy, battery storage, gas-to-power, hybrid and flexible generation, transmission and emerging technologies. It enables procurement, financial close, legal assurance, risk management and dispute resolution while supporting security of supply, investment mobilisation, transformation, localisation and a just energy transition.

Key Responsibilities    

Develop and execute the Legal Strategy aligned with the IPPO and DEE strategic mandate

Develop and maintain the Legal Strategy, annual plan, budget, workforce plan, policies, systems and service standards aligned to IPPO and DEE priorities. Integrate legal priorities across procurement, implementation, monitoring, contract management, advisory services and transmission programmes. Maintain regulatory horizon scanning and ensure legal advice supports security of supply, affordability, investment mobilisation, transformation and a just transition.

Lead legal governance, assurance, compliance and enterprise legal risk

Maintain risk-based legal-assurance frameworks, review gates, policies, controls and the enterprise legal-risk register. Provide independent advice, protect privilege, manage conflicts and escalate material legal, regulatory, procurement, contractual and litigation risks. Oversee legal clearances, external legal service providers, budgets, records, technology and service-delivery standards.

Provide transaction structuring, project-finance and financial-close legal leadership

Lead legal due diligence, transaction structuring, risk allocation and bankability advice for generation, storage, gas, transmission and other energy-infrastructure programmes. Draft, review, negotiate and clear procurement, project, financing, security, direct agreement and government-support documents. Track legal issues and conditions precedent, support preferred-bidder milestones and financial close, and update standard documentation and precedents.

Ensure procurement integrity, legality and administrative-law defensibility

Provide legal assurance that procurement is lawful, fair, transparent, competitive, cost-effective and compliant with applicable requirements. Advise on procurement documents, evaluation governance, bidder communications, probity, conflicts, confidentiality, complaints and administrative records. Manage legal strategies for bidder challenges, judicial reviews and procurement disputes, and update procurement controls for legislative changes.

Lead contract lifecycle management, claims, disputes and enforcement

Provide post-financial-close legal oversight of amendments, waivers, refinancing, change in law, force majeure, defaults, lender consents, step-in, termination and other material events. Maintain registers for obligations, claims, disputes and legal decisions, with clear ownership, escalation and reporting. Lead dispute strategies and external counsel management, using lessons learned to strengthen future documentation and controls.

Provide legal leadership for electricity-market reform, transmission and grid-access programmes

Advise on electricity market reform, SAWEM, Market Code, TSO/NTCSA interfaces, open network access, licensing, grid access, connection, curtailment and wheeling. Provide legal leadership for independent transmission and grid-expansion procurement, financing, construction, operation, concession and availability-payment models. Coordinate complex legal issues with government, regulators, utilities, DFIs, lenders, investors and advisers, and update legal positions as reforms evolve.

Embed transformation, localisation, socio-economic development and just-transition outcomes in legal frameworks

Translate transformation, localisation, industrialisation, socio-economic development and just-transition priorities into enforceable procurement and contractual obligations. Balance developmental outcomes with procurement law, competition considerations, affordability, value for money, deliverability and bankability. Advise on community participation, benefit-sharing, grievance mechanisms, blended finance and development safeguards.

Build and maintain strategic stakeholder partnerships

Build relationships with DEE, National Treasury, DBSA, regulators, NTCSA, Eskom, government entities, IPPs, sponsors, lenders, DFIs, investors, advisers and affected stakeholders. Represent the Legal function in executive, governance, industry and stakeholder forums while protecting the IPPO’s legal and institutional interests. Use stakeholder engagement to resolve cross-institutional issues, identify emerging risks and strengthen market confidence.

Enable people and build capability within the Legal function

Lead a high-performance, collaborative, ethical and professionally independent Legal function. Develop workforce, succession, scarce-skills and continuing-legal-education plans aligned to the IPPO portfolio. Set performance expectations, coach and mentor staff, manage resources and maintain knowledge-management, precedent and lessons-learned systems.

Expertise & Technical Competencies    

Minimum qualification and experience

LLB degree at NQF Level 8, or equivalent legal qualification recognised for admission as a legal practitioner in South Africa. Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, in good standing. Minimum 12 years’ post-admission experience, including infrastructure, public-sector procurement, commercial transactions or large-capital projects, preferably in energy. Minimum 5 years at senior management or executive level, leading a legal or transaction-advisory function in energy, project finance or investment. Mandatory: at least 5 years’ cumulative embedded DFI or government-owned institutional-investor experience with direct responsibility for infrastructure or energy transactions, legal due diligence, approvals, structuring, financing, risk allocation, financial close, monitoring or restructuring. Demonstrated experience in utility-scale energy or infrastructure projects, project finance, procurement law, regulatory compliance, contract management, claims, disputes and managing external legal advisers. Relevant postgraduate qualification in project finance, commercial law, energy law, public law, infrastructure finance, business administration or a related field will be advantageous.

Professional registration

Admission as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, in good standing.

IPPO mandate, operating model and programme lifecycle across procurement, financial close, implementation, monitoring, contract management and advisory services. South African energy policy, market reform, transmission, grid access and regulatory frameworks, including DEE priorities, IRP, Gas Master Plan, SAWEM, TSO and NTCSA reforms. Public-sector governance, constitutional procurement, administrative law, project finance, bankability, risk allocation and infrastructure contracting. Contract lifecycle, financing and security documentation, regulatory compliance, claims, disputes, transformation, localisation and socio-economic development requirements.

Strategic legal strategy, governance, assurance and enterprise legal-risk leadership. Strategic commercial, project-finance, procurement, regulatory and transaction advisory capability. Advanced drafting, negotiation, due diligence, risk allocation, bankability assessment and dispute management. Senior communication, stakeholder influence, people leadership, planning and external legal-service management.

Strategic, policy, legislative and regulatory knowledge applicable to the IPPO, including:

Constitutional, public-finance, procurement, administrative-justice, access-to-information and supply-chain-management requirements. Electricity, energy, environmental, climate, competition, companies, privacy, financial-sector and anti-money-laundering legislation relevant to infrastructure and project finance. Energy-market, grid, licensing, connection, curtailment, transmission, gas, renewable-energy, storage and just-transition policy frameworks. IPP procurement and contracting frameworks, including PPAs, implementation agreements, direct agreements, government-support instruments and standardised programme documentation. Development-finance, blended-finance, credit-enhancement, guarantee, environmental and social safeguard, and development-impact requirements.

Required Personal Attributes    

Behaviours

Independent judgement, integrity, ethics and accountability. Commercial pragmatism, solution orientation and delivery focus. Analytical rigour, resilience, discretion and sound judgement. Collaborative, inclusive and stakeholder-oriented leadership.

Deadline:7th September,2026