View Vacancy - AUS (Sydney or Brisbane) - Finance and Operations Manager, B3 (L)

To provide finance, planning and operations support to the Country Director for Trade for Australia and New Zealand who is responsible for the UK Department of International Trade’s (DIT) work on exports and overseas direct investment in Australia & New Zealand.  This role is key to the smooth running of the DIT back office in Australia and will provide vital underpinning to the DIT operation across the network. 

Roles and responsibilities:

• Deliver a high level of financial and budget management and support for business planning to the Country Director and the wider DIT network.  Including day to day financial planning, monitoring and forecasting.  Working with colleagues in Brisbane/Sydney and DIT team leaders across ANZ to ensure the smooth running of budgets, forecasting and reporting to the Regional team based in Singapore, to the Finance hub in Manila and to DIT HQ in London.
• Provide monthly reports to the Country Director and Consul General for Sydney; monitor expenditure on a weekly basis and provide management information performance against targets.  Ensure regular communication to the network, including monthly calls with London on budget issues.
• Support the Country Director on operational matters including HR, recruitment, internal communications, admin support and team management.  Monthly monitoring of performance scorecard, gathering information from DIT data sources and compiling reports.
• Assist the Country Director co-ordinating visit programmes across the ANZ network, in the Asia Pacific region and to the UK.
• Provide support for the wider team and Australia network on arranging programmes and logistics for Ministerial, VIP and other official visits.
• Working with DIT colleagues and others in Sydney/Brisbane to support event management for British company events, round tables, trade missions, exhibitions and conferences and other internal and external DIT events. Organise annual DIT Trade & Investment conference.
• Provide research support as necessary on commercial, economic and political issues for speeches, analysis or operational business.
• Act as L&D champion for the network.  Responsible for DIT induction for new staff, coordinating with colleagues in Canberra, the wider Asia Pacific region and back to HR in London; making sure the ANZ DIT team is aware and take advantage of L&D opportunities on offer locally, through the Diplomatic Academy and DIT

• Self Starter – must be able to work at a high level of intensity on own initiative using judgement, strong problem solving skills, and displaying resilience.
• Strong financial and budget management skills, direct experience on managing, forecasting and monitoring of budgets and expenditure.  Experience of business planning;
• Excellent interpersonal skills – ability to work closely with team leaders and help senior management drive accountability, deal with any difficult situations with tact and diplomacy and a high degree of confidentiality when required to achieve desired outcomes.
• Strong, proven adminstrative skills and programme arranging for visitors.
• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines.
• Must be confident in dealing with business, senior figures, Ministers and VVIPs and their offices. 
• Good desk research skills and excellent writing skills
• Tertiary Qualifications and/or appropriate experience
• It is essential the job holder is a proficient and confident user of Microsoft Office software – particularly Outlook and Excel