Land & Permitting Lead, DRC

About the Company 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on the manual techniques of yesteryear – even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality discovery.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, StepStone, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About the Role

KoBold holds over 3,000 km² of exploration rights across numerous Research Permits in the DRC and is constantly growing the portfolio. You will be responsible for obtaining new Research Permits through the mining cadastre (CAMI), which registers tenure and provides opinions on which the Minister of Mines grants the licence. Once granted, you will manage the PAR (environmental permit) process, a separate approval process involving CAMI, DPEM, and ACE, before exploration activity can begin. Every licence will also require ongoing engagement with provincial governors and their administrations, Administrateurs de Territoire (ATs), provincial CAMI offices, provincial mining divisions, and the Geology Department, which have both authorisation and periodic reporting requirements tied to exploration activity. You will serve as the primary liaison with these groups and build effective working relationships with these offices.

Our DRC compliance register spans dozens of distinct obligations (9 external registers and over 10 actions per license annually) across water protection, buffer zones, rehabilitation, community consultation, work program adherence, and statutory reporting, and is submitted, per licence, to the relevant provincial, territorial, and national authorities. You will be responsible for ensuring our portfolio is properly monitored, documented, and compliant across all licences.

Responsibilities

• Primary in-country contact for CAMI, DPEM, ACE, Direction des Mines, the Geology Department, provincial CAMI offices, provincial mining divisions, provincial governors, and Administrateurs de Territoire
• Research Permit applications, renewals, fee payment, and deadline management,  including all CAMI coordination to Direction des Mines licence grant and in-country due diligence for new permit acquisitions
• PAR coordination with selected Study Office, managing local authority sign-offs, agency lodgement, and follow-up across multiple departments
• Statutory and compliance reporting per licence to provincial and territorial authorities
• Compliance coordination with HSE, Community Relations, and Field Operations to verify activities stay within permit conditions and work program commitments
• Chain-of-custody management for all original permit documents and certified records
• DRC mining legislation monitoring and flagging of compliance implications to leadership
• Support for new permit applications through in-country due diligence and stakeholder engagement

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years in mineral tenure, land permitting, or operational compliance in Sub-Saharan Africa. DRC experience and direct familiarity with CAMI, DPEM, ACE, and Direction des Mines processes strongly preferred
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships with government officials at national, provincial, and territorial levels, traditional authorities, and community stakeholders, and to represent a company's interests in-country independently
• Practical experience with environmental permitting and regulatory approval workflows, with a demonstrated ability to absorb and navigate evolving compliance frameworks
• Experience with land tenure management systems and record management across a multi-licence portfolio
• Proficiency in GIS principles and software applications for mapping land holdings and permit boundaries
• Intellectual curiosity, a drive to learn across all aspects of mineral exploration, and enthusiasm for taking on an evolving range of responsibilities in a fast-growing company
• A strong communicator who enjoys working on technical problems with colleagues across the company
• Both French and English fluency required

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.

Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lubumbashi preferred

This position is Full Time Exempt

LEAP Program Description

Global Solutions Ventures (GSV) – a joint-venture partnership between ZemiTek, LLC and Dexis Consulting Group – is implementing the Long-term Exceptional Technical Assistance Project (LEAP Global), a mechanism originally used by USAID to battle against infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, and pandemic influenza. As of July 1, 2025, LEAP Global transitioned to the U.S. Department of State (DOS). This initiative aims to address the complex human resource challenges faced by national infectious disease programs in the USA-supported countries.

The intervention of this project is to hire and embed technical expert advisors and subject matter experts within government entities. By directly embedding the technical expertise within the national programs, LEAP provides long-term, sustainable lifesaving support to empower host governments to lead and manage key aspects of their infectious disease portfolios and improve coordination between the U.S. Government and the host country.

About the Position

The Senior Human Resources for Health Advisor will support the Office of Foreign Assistance of the U.S. Department of State Embassy Kinshasa carrying out the America First Global Health Strategy. The primary focus of the Advisor will be technical support to develop a Political Economic Analysis of  Frontline health workers management and payment transition operational plan in alignment with the U.S,-DRC Health Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on February 26, 2026.

This position specifically supports Section 2.4 of the MOU, with human resources for health responsibilities spanning all health service delivery areas (HIV, TB, malaria, maternal and child health, nutrition, global health security including polio eradication) to strengthen the entire health system rather than individual disease programs.

The Senior Advisor will support the Ministry of Health, Hygiene, and Social Security (MOH) for improving performance and retention of human resources for health of front-line health workers, including community health workers.  The Senior Consultant will identify policy and practice bottlenecks and facilitate solutions through coordinated technical support and facilitation of effort through the Ministry’s programming and administration efforts along with the health donors group members.

The Senior Advisor will identify technical and skills bottleneck and facilitate solutions through close mentorship. S/he will be based at the MOH Human Resources Division Office. The Senior Consultant will receive day to day direction from the Division head. S/he will be reporting to U.S. Embassy Public Health Advisor and Frontline Health Workers workstream Lead bi-weekly. The Advisor will support the MOH in carrying out life-saving humanitarian assistance (LHA) service delivery in full alignment with the new Presidential Executive Order (EO) directives. 

Responsibilities

• Support the MoH General Secretary to manage and coordinate efforts to process with employees hiring plan, set up HR data systems, review and update salaries and allowances payroll as well as retirement plans.
• Provide technical assistance in the compilation of a valid, up to date registry of front-line health workers in collaboration with the MOH and the Ministry of Public Works.
• Advise the MOH General Secretary on health policy and strategy gaps and make recommendations for remedial actions.
• Coordinate with the U.S. Government and the Global Fund to list staff receiving bonuses and ensure that they are `national staff register or private sector entity payroll systems.
• Develop a risk mitigation and communications plan to maintain performance and retention of health workers transitioned off of bonuses by January 2027.
• Support U.S. Government implementing partners to create a plan for transition CHWs to monthly stipends by domestic health resources per the MOU.
• Participate as a resource member to the GIBS Sante Health Workers and Service Delivery Working Group to support implementation of the 2026 priority action plan and improve coherence of related health donor actions to strengthen human resources of health policy and practice.
• Support the MOH to ensure workforce strategies support integrated health service delivery across all MOU Areas of Cooperation rather than vertical program structures.
• Coordinate with the LEAP Health Finance Advisor and Health Governance Advisor to align workforce transitions with co-investment tracking and financial oversight.

Reporting:

The Advisor will submit a monthly report to designated officer at the U.S. Embassy Office of Foreign Assistance by the 5^th day of the following month. Reports should demonstrate how workforce activities support integrated health system strengthening across all MOU Areas of Cooperation. Additionally, the Advisor will submit a weekly progress report to U.S. Embassy/Department of State (and participate in weekly calls) to include a short paragraph about main successes for that week. 

Qualifications

• Advanced Academic Credentials: Master’s degree or higher in Public Health, Health Policy, Health Economics, Public Administration, or related field.
• At least seven (7) years of relevant experience in the following areas:
  • HRH Policy & Regulatory Leadership: Led formulation/revision of national HRH strategies, regulatory frameworks, and workforce policies aligned with UHC and Ministry of Health priorities.
  • Workforce Planning & Operations: Designed staffing norms, deployment strategies, HRIS systems, and performance management frameworks in decentralized health systems.
  • Risk Management in Fragile Settings: Conducted operational risk assessments and developed mitigation plans addressing attrition, payroll integrity, donor dependency, and emergency surge capacity.
  • Donor & Stakeholder Coordination: Aligned HRH investments across government, World Bank, USG, and implementing partners; facilitated multi-partner consensus.
  • Institutional Capacity Strengthening: Led technical assistance, change management, and M&E systems to strengthen sustainable HRH governance.
• Full Professional Fluency: Bilingual English and French (written and oral), with experience leading high-level policy dialogue and technical drafting in both languages.
• Experience with IRIS is desirable.