International Finance Manager - Papua New Guinea

Contract: Full time, permanent

Location: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG)

Salary: Competitive, subject to experience

Start date: July 2025

Accommodation: Exact location to be confirmed, likely an air-conditioned room in HALO rented accommodation within a compound

Reporting to: HALO Papua New Guinea Programme Manager

About Us

HALO is seeking an experienced and motivated International Finance Manager (IFM) to join its new programme in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the development of a humanitarian programme from its inception. The successful candidate will play a key role in the start-up and delivery of donor-funded projects, ensuring financial integrity and contractual compliance. The role requires a proactive, adaptable finance professional who can operate effectively within a small and evolving team in a complex operational environment. A collaborative mindset and the ability to support cross-functional teams will be essential.

HALO has operated in the Pacific region since 2023 and has an established programme in Solomon Islands, employing 30 staff conducting a survey of the scale of remaining World War II contamination. This work is funded by the U.S. State Department and supported by a regional leadership team, with additional ongoing collaboration with HALO’s larger programmes in Laos and Cambodia which conduct unexploded ordnance survey and clearance activities at scale. HALO is now expanding its scope of work to PNG with additional funding from the U.S State Department. The programme is currently in the start-up phase. Initial activities include registration and permissions processes, followed by non-technical and technical survey operations, with a view to expanding into clearance and explosive ordnance disposal activities.

About the Role

The International Finance Manager (IFM) is a key member of the senior management team and will work closely with programme leadership and regional counterparts to establish financial systems, build and develop a programme finance department, support donor reporting, and contribute to strategic planning. The role will be based in PNG, with initial onboarding, training and programme familiarisation expected to take place with the HALO Laos programme.

The IFM is responsible for ensuring daily, monthly and annual financial duties are carried out in compliance with HALO’s policies, donor contracts and national finance and tax regulations. Alongside the Programme Manager, the IFM is responsible for ensuring short- and long-term financial planning is in place and for the successful delivery of donor contracts on budget. The IFM is responsible for the strategic leadership of the finance team, developing business plans, budgets, and strategies to support the programme’s funding and overarching strategy. In addition, the IFM will ensure that the right procurement and accounting systems are in place, monitored and improved as necessary.

*Please note that this role is based full-time in PNG, and cannot be conducted remotely*

Role and Responsibilities

Financial planning and monitoring:

• Supportthe Programme Manager in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of annual business plans and project budgets.
• Analyse and report on the programme funding position, working collaboratively to produce scenarios that ensure ongoing financial stability.
• Lead the financial monitoring and review of grants/contracts, working closely with operations to forecast and report on project costs to completion.
• Collaboratively produce project/programme budgets and forecasts utilising HALOs financial planning system (Adaptive Insights).
• Support the Programme Manager in the management of financial risk in the programme, escalating and addressing any emerging risks.

Accounting and Financial Control:

• Provide financial oversight and support to the programme, ensuring transactions are fully reconciled and discrepancies identified and corrected.
• Ensure implementation of HALOs financial and logistics policies and procedures, reviewing and reporting on compliance against same.
• Oversee all financial accounting matters, closing the country books in accordance with agreed deadlines.
• Ensure that direct and indirect costs are allocated appropriately to projects, identifying and reporting on any shortfalls in both direct and indirect cost coverage.
• Oversee the financial management of delivery partner contracts, ensuring compliance with HALOs contractual obligations.
• Supervise the production of the payroll cycle, ensuring donor funding allocations are accurate, and calculations for salary, income tax, social security, severance, and other government levies are in accordance with legislation.
• Support the Programme Manager in ensuring compliance with all statutory legislation, e.g. tax, registration, labour law.

Cash Management:

• Ensure that adequate banking and cash provisions are in place, set up in accordance with HALOs financial policies and that delegations of authority enable the programme to operate efficiently, particularly during periods of leave etc.
• Manage the short-term cash flow requirements of the programme, liaising with HALO HQ to facilitate cash transfers. Manage the effects of exchange rate fluctuations between local and contract currencies.

External Reporting and Audit:

• Lead the preparation of country financial statements and donor financial reports.
• In collaboration with HALO HQ finance department, review and report on compliance against HALO policies and procedures.
• Lead the preparation for external audits, preparing schedules and documentation as and when required by auditors and/or HALO HQ finance department.

Staff Management and Development:

• Ensure that financial staffing capacity is fit for purpose for the needs of the programme.
• Support the recruitment, onboarding, capacity development and career planning for finance staff, ensuring financial consistency and quality across the programme.

Requirements

Essential Experience:

• Experience in financial management experience overseas
• Experience of managing personnel, mentoring and advising senior management
• Experience developing the capacity, structure and capability of teams
• Experience of ERP systems

Essential Skills and Knowledge:

• Financial planning and reporting
• Good understanding of financial risk management in developing countries
• Ability to implement and monitor policies and procedures in challenging environments
• Proven ability to lead, manage, motivate, and develop a team
• Interpretation and implementation of donor/client contract requirements
• Sensitivity to cultural differences and the ability to work in a wide variety of cultural contexts
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to coordinate activities
• Excellent literacy, numeracy, and IT skills, including data manipulation
• Fluent spoken and written English language skills
• Ability and willingness to work strategically and undertake routine administrative tasks

Qualifications:

• Professional accounting qualification or clearly demonstrable qualified experience

Desirable

• Previous work experience in the Pacific or Southeast Asia region
• Experience in humanitarian mine action

Benefits

• Local overseas allowance of $350 per month
• Shared accommodation in HALO accommodation provided at nil cost.
• 49 days of leave annually (weekend inclusive equivalent to 7 weeks of pay leave), increasing to 56 days after two years of service
• Three economy return flights to the member’s official home address (or an alternative location up to an equivalent cost)
• Comprehensive insurance package: life assurance, private medical insurance and emergency medical insurance, including evacuation and repatriation.

To apply, please submit your CV (no more than 2 pages) and a cover letter (no more than one page) in English outlining how your experience matches the key skills and competencies required by 30th May 2025.

We reserve the right to close the advert earlier than the advertised closing date.

The HALO Trust is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any applicant for employment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

The HALO Trust is committed to a culture that is both diverse and inclusive and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.

The HALO Trust is committed to ensuring that it provides a safe and trusted environment which safeguards and promotes the welfare and wellbeing of anyone who comes into contact with, or is part of, the Charity, with a zero-tolerance approach to behaviours which challenge this.