Senior Analyst

Pathfinders Consulting Pty Ltd; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Pathfinders Consulting Pty Ltd is recruiting a Senior Analyst to lead projects on tariffs, regulation, SAWEM reforms and the financial analysis that underpins advisory work.

The role requires a rigorous quantitative economist with at least five years’ experience in regulatory or economic consulting within the energy sector, and proficiency in Excel and Python. Hybrid work in Cape Town is available, with opportunities to shape policy and market design outcomes.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in economics, finance, engineering or a related quantitative discipline.
• Minimum five years' relevant professional experience in regulatory, economic consulting or energy market work.
• Fluent in Excel; Python or comparable language preferred.
• Experience presenting to clients, regulators and boards.

Responsibilities

• Lead Tariff and regulatory economics projects, including design of cost-of-supply, cost-reflectivity and regulatory submissions.
• Analyse wholesale electricity market reform and implications for clients and the public interest.
• Build, own and quality-assure financial and tariff models underpinning the firm’s advice.
• Research and interpret energy policy and regulation, draft policy briefs and expert reports.

Skills

Regulatory economics

Financial modelling

Quantitative analysis

Excel

Python

Education

Master's degree in economics/finance/engineering

Tools

Python

Proprietary modelling suite

Job description

South Africa's electricity market is being remade. Our Client helps the country understand what that means.

Our Client, a respected boutique energy economics consultancy and think tank at the centre of South Africa's power sector transition, is looking for an experienced Senior Analyst to lead projects on tariffs, regulation, wholesale market design and the financial analysis that underpins them. The firm publishes a subscription market intelligence product built on its own proprietary modelling suite, advises investors, developers, banks and large energy users, and produces independent research that shapes national energy policy. With Eskom being unbundled, the South African Wholesale Electricity Market (SAWEM) being established and the sector's tariff and regulatory architecture being redesigned, every market participant needs to understand what these reforms mean for prices, revenues, risk and investment. Much of that understanding is produced by Our Client, and this role will help produce it.

Who you are

A rigorous regulatory and financial analyst who already knows South Africa's electricity sector: its institutions, tariff structures, regulatory processes and reform agenda. You will have at least a Master's degree in economics, finance, engineering or a related quantitative discipline, and a minimum of five years' relevant professional experience, typically gained in regulatory or economic consulting, the regulatory, tariff or commercial team of a utility or municipality, an energy regulator, an independent power producer or trader, a bank or infrastructure investor, or an energy policy research organisation.

The Role

This is a senior technical role, not a management seat. You will take ownership of projects from first framing to final delivery: framing the problem, designing the analysis, building and owning the models, directing the work of analysts, and presenting conclusions to clients, funders, regulators and the public across the firm's advisory and public interest portfolios. You will work with the Head of Advisory Services and the Head of Policy and Public Interest, and directly with the Managing Director, on the firm's most consequential regulatory and market reform work. As the firm becomes AI-native, you will be expected to put AI tools to work in your own analysis.

You will lead work in four connected areas:

• Tariff and regulatory economics: analyse and shape the design of electricity tariffs and the regulatory frameworks that govern them, including cost-of-supply and cost-reflectivity, the unbundling of generation, transmission, distribution and retail tariffs, wheeling and network charges, and the NERSA methodologies and determinations that set them, and prepare expert regulatory submissions and evidence.
• Wholesale electricity market reform: analyse the design, rules and roll-out of SAWEM and the wider market reform programme, including market structure, transmission unbundling, system operator arrangements, trading and settlement, and the transition from single-buyer contracts to a competitive market, and translate these reforms into concrete implications for clients, subscribers and the public interest.
• Financial and tariff modelling: build, own and quality-assure the financial models behind the firm's advice, including tariff and cost-of-supply models, utility and municipal revenue models, PPA and project finance models, and the revenue and risk analysis that connects them to power system modelling. Rigour, transparency and reproducibility are the standard.
• Policy and regulatory analysis: research and interpret energy policy and regulation in South Africa and internationally, draft policy briefs, public submissions and expert reports, support litigation and regulatory proceedings, and engage directly with stakeholders across government, the regulator, industry and civil society.

In each of these areas you carry the project: scoping and proposals, client and funder relationships, plan and budget, the quality of every number and every paragraph, and the final presentation. You will also mentor analysts and help build the reusable models, methods and data that let the firm deliver bespoke work faster and more consistently.

Requirements

• A rigorous quantitative analyst: you build financial and tariff models that others can trust and audit, you are fluent in Excel and ideally in Python or a comparable language, and you know when a number is wrong before anyone tells you.
• A regulatory economist by instinct: you understand cost-of-supply, cost recovery, incentive regulation and market design, and can hold your own in a debate with a regulator, a utility or counsel.
• A project leader: you have led analytical projects end to end, including scope, team, budget, quality and delivery, and can run several at once without dropping the standard.
• A clear and persuasive communicator: you write briefs, submissions and reports that decision-makers actually read, and present complex analysis to boards, regulators and public audiences with clarity and authority.
• An independent and critical thinker: you form your own view from the evidence, defend it under scrutiny, and change it when the evidence changes.
• AI-fluent, or determined to become so: you already use AI tools to accelerate research, modelling and writing, and are curious about how they will change expert work rather than threatened by it.
• A constructive colleague: you work well across disciplines with economists, engineers and modellers, develop the people around you, and bring energy rather than ego to a small, exacting team.

Benefits

Our Client offers a front-row seat, and a hand on the controls, during the biggest structural change in South Africa's power sector in a century. You will lead work that shapes national tariff, regulatory and market design decisions alongside some of the sharpest minds in the sector, in a firm small enough that your contribution is visible and prominent enough that it matters, with a clear path to greater leadership as the firm grows. The position is based in Cape Town with hybrid flexibility.