Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ promotes complex reforms and change processes, often working under difficult conditions. Its corporate objective is to improve people’s living conditions on a sustainable basis.

Within GIZ, the department International Services (InS) is in charge of clients such as intergovernmental organisations, development banks, governments and private companies. In implementing projects for this broad range of clients, InS follows the GIZ mission of sustainable development for a liveable future. We offer our clients highly competent and efficient teams of German, international and local professionals in more than 120 countries.

Our Private Sector Clients team works at the dynamic interface between the private sector and international cooperation. We support companies in the process of implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) worldwide with a focus on Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In doing so, we scale international cooperation solutions that have proven successful or test innovative approaches that are familiar to us in local contexts. We offer companies individual advice, from the idea to the conception, and project management up to the proof of measurable results and effects.

Cobalt for Development (C4D) is one of the projects we currently implement. It is a project aiming to improve working conditions in the cobalt artisanal mining sector in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is financed by a consortium of international companies from the battery value chain and potentially by the European Union. C4D works very closely with the Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC) in formalizing the artisanal cobalt sector.

We are looking for a Team Leader (m/f/d) Cobalt for Development based in Brussels, Belgium, with regular and frequent travels to southern DRC (Katanga & Lualaba). Irregular travel to GIZ headquarters in Eschborn, Germany, will also be required.

Tasks

C4D started in 2019 and is embarking on a new phase 2025, delivering a proof-of-concept of responsible ASM cobalt on legal pilot sites. Its primary focus is the improvement of occupational health and safety, the prevention of child labour, improvement of environmental management, and general management capacities on ASM sites together with EGC. Technical capacity building of both EGC and cooperatives are at the core of this work. Furthermore, C4D will provide technical assistance to EGC for organizational development and community engagement. Your tasks will be:

• Plan the field team’s priorities and tasks based on project and project partner priorities. Optimize resource investments for best outputs.
• Support the planning and the implementation of training and coaching programmes on ASM cobalt sites by the local team and perform quality control.
• Support the planning and the implementation of the risk management process on ASM cobalt sites by the local team, EGC, and cooperatives, and perform quality control.
• Support the preparation of the cooperative and its processes for the certification of the pilot site according to the EGC standard.
• Support EGC and the local team in scaling pilot site practices to other legal sites, including community engagement, environmental assessments, and geological exploration.
• Provide quality control on mine planning.
• Identify and implement options to increase miner productivity and safety, including through a gradual shift to semi-mechanized mining.
• Supervise project monitoring and evaluation.
• Collaborate closely with the project director on operations and strategy.
• Maintain and further develop relationships with key political, technical, civil society, and business stakeholders in southern DRC and internationally together with project director
• Provide input on project progress reporting to clients
• Liaise with GIZ bilateral projects in the mining sector to avoid duplication (cluster approach), and coordinate the action with common stakeholders
• Manage the field team and ensure their personal development
• Manage other subcontracted experts as required
• Follow national and international discussions on cobalt

The brief profile is not intended to provide a full and complete description of the tasks.

Your Profil

• Master’s level university degree in a field relevant to responsible mining, such as geology, natural resource management, earth sciences, supply chain or similar.
• At least five years of professional experience in responsible mining projects, ideally (in part) with private sector companies.
• At least three years of operational experience in projects working with improvements in ASM mining, particularly occupational health and safety.
• At least five years of experience in project management, such as developing project plans, managing procurement processes, and reporting.
• At least three years of leadership experience, preferably with experience in hybrid (remote and on-site) management.
• Experience in preparing ASM mines or cooperatives for certification is desirable.
• Experience in mine planning and exploration geology (in an ASM context) is desirable.
• Experience in facilitating the transition from artisanal to semi-mechanized mining is desirable.
• Strong and demonstrable interest in current trends and developments of sustainable development. High intrinsic motivation for responsible mining.
• Practical and problem-solving orientated mindset, structured approach to work.
• Business acumen and entrepreneurial mindset.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.
• Working experience in Africa, preferably in DRC. Willingness to take on frequent international business trips to DRC.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office tools, in particular Excel and PowerPoint.
• Full fluency in English and French is an essential requirement. Other language skills, especially in German, Swahili and/or Lingala, will be considered as assets.

Notes: 

• The position requires a work permit for Belgium, as the location of the work will be Brussels. Only applicants eligible to work in Belgium will be evaluated.  
• Your application and CV must not indicate your date of birth and must not include a photography. 
• Applications from persons with disabilities are most welcome.  
• Applicants are asked to submit their updated CV together with a one-page motivation letter in English. 

Those interested should send their application before 22 June 2025 to the following email address: ins.brussels.recruitment@giz.de indicating in the subject of the email your full name and “Team Leader C4D”

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