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Position title: Project Finance Officer, WWF-Laos

Location: Salavan District, Salavan Province with required traveling to other places

Contract Duration: 1 year and renewable

Background:

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has had a presence in Laos since the late 1980s, when it contributed to some of the first biodiversity surveys that established Laos’ protected area system. The office in Laos was officially established in 2001. Today, our main office for WWF-Laos is in Vientiane Capital, with field offices in multiple provinces.

WWF-Laos works with government, civil society, the private sector and other partners to address the drivers of biodiversity loss and to move towards a greener nature-based future where the people of Laos can thrive and live in harmony with nature.

Our vision is “a vibrant and sustainable future for Laos, shaped by inclusive conservation that protects biodiversity, ensures equitable benefits, and nurtures harmony between people and the environment”. Conservation is WWF’s core work, and our programmes in Laos are implemented under four broad thematic areas: Forests, Wildlife, Freshwater and Circular Resilience. As outlined in WWF-Laos’ 2026-2030 strategic plan, we focus our conservation efforts in three main landscapes, eight priority sites and three cities.

Major Functions:

The Project Finance Officer provides support to all financial requirements of the assigned projects based in provinces to ensure transparency, accuracy and compliance with WWF Laos and WWF network financial systems, policies and procedures as well as local legal requirements.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ensure accurate data entry in Oracle and GMS, including project coding and financial uploads following steps and timelines as guided by the regional finance team as well as line manager;
• Assist in the development, monitoring, review and update of project finance and accounting activity work plans;
• Provide technical guidance, capacity building, coaching to project staff, project partners and Government counterparts on all aspects of finance to ensure compliance with finance policies and procedures, and legal requirements;
• Support the project team to ensure and manage third party contracts following the organisation’s and legal requirements, procedures on contracts;
• Support the management of contracts and keep line manager informed of the closing date and follow up with extensions;
• Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports for project teams and management;
• Ensure staffs submit time sheets, and maintain the monitoring sheets of the project up to date (e.g. prepayments, outgoing contracts);
• Record daily transactions and prepare calls for funds;
• Prepare bank transfer and ensure timely processing of payments in line with WWF-Laos policies;
• Support the project team members on annual budget preparation including project staff cost allocation;
• Creating task code in the Grant Management System (GMS);
• Support Senior Project Finance Officer (SFO) in conducting due diligence/ Bridger insight (Compliance gap analysis);
• Assist SFO with internal control spot checks and expenditure cross-checks ‘Lead the project financial audit;
• Monitor outstanding advances and follow up for clearance;
• Ensure proper filling of all original finance related documents at field office and regularly upload them into the SharePoint;
• All others in fulfilling the departmental functions especially in peak reporting seasons and tight deadlines.
• Assisting with ad hoc tasks as assigned by line manager/supervisor

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting, Business Management, Business Administration, or in relevant fields;
• 3 years of working experience in finance and accounting administration, particularly in budgeting, with international NGOs is desirable;
• Proficiency in accounting software (Oracle) is preferred.

Required Skills and Competencies:

• Thorough understanding of local finance and accounting systems and laws and regulations;
• Basic knowledge of international finance and accounting standards;
• Advanced or excellent proficiency in MS Excel functions.
• Good understanding of finance and accounting practices in INGOs in Laos
• Demonstrate good command in English both written and verbal communication.

Working Relationships:

Internal: Work closely with finance and accounting team of WWF-Laos and Project Managers. Interact with finance and accounting teams of country and regional. Engage with and support project staff.

External: Interact regularly with government and co-executing partners, banks, tax agents, external auditors, consultants, suppliers.

WWF-Laos can offer you:

Contract duration: 1 year initial with possible extension with industry leading benefit and salary package and ample opportunity for professional development.