Performance Specialist

Be the engine of a high-performance culture at CrossBoundary by owning and evolving our performance management process to help every team member thrive.
**Performance Specialist

CrossBoundary Group
About The Firm**
CrossBoundary Group is a mission driven investment and advisory firm dedicated to unlocking the power of capital for sustainable growth and strong returns in underserved markets. CrossBoundary Advisory has advised on over US$12 billion of closed transactions in underserved markets across a broad range of impactful sectors, including agriculture, health, education, manufacturing, ICT, infrastructure, and clean power. Our investment platforms drive impact by directly deploying capital. CrossBoundary Energy develops, owns, and operates distributed renewable energy solutions for businesses, offering cheaper and cleaner energy through power purchase and lease agreements. CrossBoundary Access uses blended finance and an innovative project financing structure to unlock capital for mini-grids with a mission to bring electricity for the first time to more than 1 million people. CrossBoundary Real Estate seeks to provide affordable housing and related infrastructure in East Africa. The Fund for Nature is scaling investment into nature-based solutions in emerging and frontier markets. For additional information, visit

Job Description
We're looking for a Performance Specialist to own, run, and improve our performance management process. You'll be at the center of building a high-performance culture, ensuring every team member has the feedback and resources to thrive. This role blends operator and designer: you'll deliver a smooth, reliable process every cycle and refine it to make it better each time. If you love running systems as much as building them, this role is for you.

Who You Are

• A systems improver who sees how each part of a process contributes to the whole and is constantly on the lookout for better ways.
• An operator at heart, who takes pride in running great systems smoothly and reliably, cycle after cycle.
• A wrangler who keeps many detailed tasks driving forward and collaborators acting in concert.
• A fairness advocate who builds inclusive, trusted, and transparent processes.
• A data translator who turns trends into insights leaders can act on.
• A learner with curiosity and openness to test, adapt, and improve both your work and your personal growth

Primary Responsibilities

• Refine our performance review design

• Translate our performance goals, philosophies, and frameworks into simple, consistent processes that strengthen culture and business needs.

• Apply human-centered design to our performance process to reduce friction and improve user experience.

• Configure and optimize our learning and performance platforms to support the process

• Deliver a seamless performance review process

• Design our schedule in advance and ensure buy in and commitment across all key contributors

• Prepare all tools and materials needed to make the cycle successful, including:
• Resources and guides for team members
• Data on each team member's career progression and performance metrics, and qualitative feedback to inform the benchmarking process
• Structuring feedback questionnaires in our Performance Management System
• Communicate and shepherd all participants through the multi-step process:
• Ensure participants across the firm have clear and advance communication about the cycle timing and steps
• Conduct training to ensure that everyone understands and can get the most out of the process
• Deliver seamless customer support, rapidly troubleshooting individual issues as they arise
• Serve as the primary administrator of our performance management system, ensuring the platform is easy to use, data is accurate, and issues are resolved quickly
• Project manage the contributors involved in each cycle, keeping timelines on track and resolving bottlenecks

• Facilitate the Career Management Council (CMC) sessions, ensuring that we use our time efficiently without compromising the goal of benchmarking performance consistently across all cohorts

• Constantly iterate on the process

• Capture feedback from managers, employees, and leadership to identify improvements.

• Track and analyze participation, feedback quality, and process data to refine future cycles.

• Enhance system configuration, reporting, and automation.

• Connect the outcomes of the process to firmwide initiatives to improve performance

• Use feedback and data insights to inform and adapt learning and development offerings.

• Partner with leaders and individuals to link review outcomes to career growth and firm-wide performance initiatives.

Qualifications
Required skills and qualifications:

• Experience: 4 years in People Operations, HR, or a related field, with a strong focus on performance management, talent development, or people processes.
• Process management: Proven ability to design and run structured processes end-to-end, balancing meticulous attention to detail with efficiency.
• Project management: Skilled at managing timelines, tracking key dependencies, coordinating stakeholders, and keeping complex initiatives on track.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communicator who can distill complex concepts into clear, practical guidance.
• Facilitation: Comfortable leading discussions with senior leaders and ensuring balanced, constructive dialogue.
• Analytical skills: Ability to work with data, identify trends, and translate insights into recommendations.
• Tools: Familiarity with performance management platforms (e.g., Engagedly, Lattice, Culture Amp, BambooHR) and general HR systems.
• Mindset: A blend of operator and designer — excited both to build systems and to run them with consistency, cycle after cycle.

Location
Nairobi, Kenya or Cape Town, South Africa

Interested in applying?
Think you have what it takes but not sure you check every box? Research shows that while men apply to roles when they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women often only apply when they meet every requirement. If you're passionate about what we're building, we want to hear from you
Equal Opportunity Employer
CrossBoundary is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to