CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER
CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACK
North West Hospital & Health Service
North West Hospital and Health Service would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our services are located across the North West and Lower Gulf region. We pay our respects to the Elders both past and present and acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the state.
Executive Summary
- Live and work in a vibrant, welcoming, close-knit community surrounded by stunning landscapes
- Be a part of a dynamic executive team serving the health needs of a unique and diverse community
- Lead a dedicated team in a diverse role to support the delivery of quality health services
THE OPPORTUNITY
The North West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS) is seeking an experienced Chief Finance Officer (CFO) to be part of their executive leadership team.
The North West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS) is responsible for delivering public hospital and health services across north-western Queensland and the Gulf of Carpentaria. With a budget of approximately $288m, NWHHS is committed to serving a population of approximately 32,000 people distributed over a vast area of 300,000 square kilometres. The region includes communities such as Mount Isa, Burketown, Camooweal, Cloncurry, Dajarra, Doomadgee, Julia Creek, Karumba, Normanton, and Mornington Island.
The service area is noted for its cultural diversity, with approximately 31.1% of the population identifying as First Nations peoples. Additionally, 44% of residents live in very remote locations.
The CFO position is based in Mt Isa which is a welcoming and multicultural city and a fantastic place to live. The city offers a unique blend of opportunities and lifestyle in the heart of Queensland’s rugged outback. Known as the "oasis of the outback," Mount Isa boasts a welcoming and close-knit community with a rich cultural heritage and vibrant local events. The town is surrounded by stunning landscapes, including picturesque sunsets, rolling red hills, and access to Lake Moondarra for outdoor activities like fishing, boating, and picnicking. With a relatively affordable cost of living, a great choice of public and private schools and a relaxed pace of life, it’s a place where professionals can make a real impact and families can embrace a lifestyle filled with adventure and connection.
THE ROLE
The CFO is a key member of the executive leadership team, collaborating with clinical and corporate leaders to enhance relationships and identify, lead and support innovative ways to deliver high quality patient care, in a cost effective manner. The role drives all aspects of the organisation’s financial and commercial strategy, and is responsible for the financial direction and oversight of the organisation’s budget across a diverse portfolio of clinical and corporate streams.
The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their capabilities aligned with the selection criteria in the role description:
- Strategy and performance
- Expert and authoritative advice, analytics, decision making and reporting
- Innovation and transformation
- Culture and capability
- Commercial leadership
- Compliance and assurance
- Team leadership and business partnering
To learn more about this opportunity, please contact Principal Search Consultant Janine Hammat for a confidential discussion.
Janine Hammat
HardyGroup Principal Consultant
M. +61 (0)488 555 858
The North West Hospital and Health Service is responsible for the public sector health services in the North West region.
The NWHHS covers an area of approximately 300,000 square kilometres and services many of the remote communities within North Western Queensland and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The Health Service is responsible for the promotion and wellbeing of people within the service area and ensuring that health services are of a high quality, accessible to all and effective.
Services include:
Hospitals:
Doomadgee
Mornington Island
Mount Isa
Normanton
Primary Health Facilities:
Burketown
Camooweal
Dajarra
Karumba
Community Services:
Cloncurry
Doomadgee
McKinlay Clinic
Mornington Island
Mount Isa
Normanton
Multipurpose Health Service:
Cloncurry
Julia Creek
Vision and Values
The North West Hospital and Health Service is responsible for providing high quality hospital and healthcare to the communities of North West Queensland. We embrace the need for change and make it work efficiently for the people of our region and our staff. The efficient delivery of our core hospital and health business services is guided by the North West Hospital and Health Service mission:
To be Queensland’s leading Hospital and Health Service delivering excellence in remote healthcare to our patients
Role Specification
The CFO is a key member of the executive leadership team, collaborating with clinical and corporate leaders to enhance relationships and identify, lead and support innovative ways to deliver high quality patient care, in a cost effective manner. The role drives all aspects if the organisation's financial and commercial strategy and is responsible for the financial direction and oversight of the organisation's budget across a diverse portfolio of clinical and corporate streams.
The CFO role will focus specifically on the challenges and opportunities of the organisation’s financial and commercial performance. This includes ensuring sound risk management of the health service’s financial performance including investments, cash and liquidity management.
The CFO role is accountable for the leadership of the following areas:
- Financial Strategy, Performance and Sustainability
- Asset Strategy and Management
- Commercial Strategy, Management, Stakeholder Management and Benefits Realisation
- Procurement Strategy and Performance
- Revenue Strategy and Performance
- Funding and Costing
- Health Records, Information and System Support Services including Right of Information
- Building, Engineering and Facilities Management and Staff Accommodation Tenancy Management
- Financial and Activity Analytics, Reporting and Governance
- Legal and Statutory Compliance related to the portfolio’s functions.
The Chief Finance Officer is accountable for:
Strategy and Performance
- Leads planning, development, implementation and ongoing improvement of the financial and commercial framework, strategy, systems and capability to ensure that the NWHHS delivers sustainable health services, which are productive and efficient.
- Leads the development of the Service’s long term financial and commercial strategy and practice and associated organisational change and engagement strategies with key stakeholders, so that financial performance is commensurate with a complex, evolving organisation.
- Lead the development of the long range financial master plan, multiyear and annual budgetary cycles, implementing budget/fiscal control functions, and developing long-term financial projections consistent with the health service’s strategic plan and goals.
- Leads all aspects of the organisation’s budget cycle, ensuring the integrity of budget planning and development, reliability of assumptions and forecasting, scenario modelling, monthly and full year projections and analysis, and risk management.
- Ensure cash flow is appropriate to the organisation’s operations.
- Identify and champion strategies to drive increased efficiencies and productivity, return on public investment and revenue optimisation.
- Lead capital and asset strategy, planning and management so that assets are planned, maintained and financially provisioned.
- Leads the financial / commercial analysis of new and complex services, operating models and initiatives.
- Is the Executive portfolio holder for ICT
Expert and Authoritative Advice, Analytics, Decision-making and Reporting
- Provide strategic recommendations to the HSCE, Board and members of the Executive Team.
- Lead planning and negotiations with key stakeholders regarding the HHS Service Agreement and other funding instruments related to resourcing of the HHS.
- Lead the Finance and Commercial portfolio, strategy and operational performance so that NWHHS realises its goal of delivering its services within a fiscally responsible way, in an environment which supports shared governance with clinical and corporate divisions.
- Provide expert and authoritative financial and commercial analysis and reporting to the Board, HSCE and the Executive Team regarding financial and commercial performance and trends, proactive identification of risks, issues and mitigations and scenario planning and modelling.
- Lead the implementation of enhanced analytical capacity to provide quality reporting to Board and the Executive regarding financial, productivity and efficiency performance as part of an integrated reporting framework.
- Deliver executive level, authoritative briefings to the Board and the HSCE, and participate in Board and Board Sub- Committees relevant to the role’s accountabilities.
- Represent the HHS at Queensland Health and other significant stakeholder engagements.
Innovation and Transformation
- Drive business improvement, including productivity, efficiency, cost reduction, procurement, pricing execution and other process improvements that add value to the service.
- Lead the successful delivery of new financial and commercial systems and technologies, in alignment with wider Queensland Health enterprise solutions and HHS initiated priorities.
- Drive the planning and delivery of contemporary systems and practice, which support reliable coding, costing and counting, as part of a proactive performance reporting and analytics function.
- Drive the development of improved and rigorous financial and business analytics.
- Provide financial stewardship of capital projects, ensuring a proactive and disciplined approach to financial delivery and governance.
- Ensure the fidelity and reliability of funding and costing information and modelling as a key part of service planning and performance governance.
Culture and Capability
- Lead and contribute to the development of a positive and productive organisational culture, including a mindset which values sustainability through productivity and efficiency improvements.
- Lead the development of strategies to elevate the financial and resource management capability across the organisation, with a specific focus on elevating literacy of health finance for organisational leaders, managers and business managers.
Commercial Leadership
- Lead relationship management with commercial partners to ensure value for public money, delivery of performance standards, issue resolution and risk management.
- Lead commercial negotiations to ensure value for public money, and ensure the procurement and contracts function fulfils legal, statutory and policy requirements, whilst being responsive to HHS needs and priorities.
Compliance and Assurance
- Lead the annual financial audit process and audited financial accounts.
- Ensure sound governance and assurance so that the HHS complies with all legal, statutory, policy compliance and related obligations related to its financial, procurement and commercial obligations.
- Manage all processes for financial forecasting and budgets, oversee the preparation of all financial reporting and fulfil treasury, tax and financial operations.
Team Leadership and Business Partnering
- Leads the development and establishment of the system and practice requirements to support shared governance.
- Leads and manages their team to ensure clarity of direction and accountability, high productivity and performance, a client centred culture, ongoing capability development and employee safety and wellbeing.
- Establish trusted relationships with clinical and senior leaders.
- Ensure their portfolio works in a business partnership model with clinical and corporate services that exemplifies a client centred orientation.
- Actively participate in a working environment supporting quality human resource management practices including employment equity, anti-discrimination, workplace health and safety and ethical behaviour.
- Follow defined service quality standards, occupational health and safety policies and procedures relating to the work being undertaken in order to ensure high quality, safe services and workplaces.
- Keep People Safe: Comply with reasonable Work Health and Safety instruction and cooperate with reasonable policy and procedures, including the Duties of Workers, Section 28, Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (QLD).
- Implement and monitor the organisation’s quality standards, occupational health and safety policies, procedures and programs and provide clinical governance in the relevant work area.
- Effectively engage with people and communities from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- Deliver culturally responsive and safe care in line with the Queensland Health Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Capability Framework 2010-2033 and Queensland Health Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2017- 2022.
View the full scope of these in the Position Description.
- The role requires the incumbent to be a member of a recognised Accounting professional body. It is expected their mandatory undergraduate qualification (Business/Commerce) will be supported by relevant post graduate qualifications.
- The position will involve travel to various facilities within the North West Hospital and Health Service.
- This position may require the incumbent to operate a government vehicle and an appropriate licence endorsement to operate this type of vehicle is required (Queensland ‘C’ class licence). Proof of this endorsement must be provided before commencement of duty.
You will be assessed on your ability to demonstrate the following key requirements, knowledge and experience. Within the context of the responsibilities described above under ‘3. Key Duties & Responsibilities’, the ideal applicant will be someone who can demonstrate the following:
- Demonstrated successful track record as a CFO level or equivalent senior Executive in leading and transforming the financial and commercial strategy of a large, complex organisation to deliver improvement and positive business results.
- Demonstrated leadership as an agent of cultural change, including high level ability in managing human and financial resources and associated programs and systems, whilst reporting against measurable outcomes.
- Ability to plan, lead, implement evaluate and manage multiple complex financial objectives with a proven capacity to:
- Undertake complex and high level financial research and analysis
- Identify and resolve strategic and operational issues with practical and effective solutions
- Exercise lateral, creative and strategic thinking, independent judgement and significant delegated authority
- Drive and implement change and significantly contribute to change processes applying sound analytical skill, strategic thinking ability and wise judgment
- Identify business requirements and develop appropriate remedial strategies.
- Sophisticated consulting, negotiation and communication skills to influence others, create and sustain effective partnerships, and drive organisational reform and accountability.
- Demonstrated values based leadership, which role models the highest standard of ethical conduct and sets the tone for others to follow.
- Annual Budget: $288 million
- 7 x Direct Reports and x 28 Indirect Reports
The total remuneration package range is from $256,051 - $276,661.
Rental assistance may be provided.
Reports to: Health Service Chief Executive
Classification: HES2H
Service Location: Mount Isa based
Service delivery may require this role to work across other locations within the North West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS). Assistance with staff accommodation will be provided.
The closing date for applications is Sunday, 23 February 2025
The reference number to include in your application is H25_5012
Note: Please use the online platform to submit your application. It will not be accepted via email.
If you require assistance in submitting your application online, please get in touch with Executive Search Coordinator, Bradie Hammat: M: +61 (0)417 882 900 / E: [email protected]
Your application must include:
- 1.Your current CV or resume, including the names and contact details of 2 referees. Referees should have a thorough knowledge of your capabilities, work performance and conduct within the previous two years, and it is preferable to include your current/immediate/past supervisor
- 2.Cover letter addressed to the Principal Consultant;
- 3.A short response (maximum 2 pages) on how your experience, abilities, knowledge and personal qualities are relevant for the role, taking into account the key responsibilities of the position within the context of “5. Selection Criteria”.
It Is standard practice for HardyGroup to acknowledge receipt of your application no later than the next business day. We request that if you do not receive the acknowledgement, you contact the search coordinator listed above as soon as possible after the 24-hour business period and arrange to resend your application if necessary.
For a confidential discussion, please contact:
Janine Hammat
HardyGroup Principal Consultant
M. +61 (0)488 555 858
LIVING AND WORKING IN MOUNT ISA
Living in North West Queensland is an unforgettable experience, where the rugged beauty of the outback meets the vibrancy of diverse and welcoming communities. From the Gulf of Carpentaria to the heart of the Queensland outback, this region is brimming with natural wonders, rich cultural heritage, and opportunities for adventure.
In Karumba and Normanton, life revolves around the Gulf’s shimmering waters, offering world-class fishing, breathtaking sunsets, and a laid-back lifestyle. Nearby Burketown, known as the "Barramundi Capital," offers spectacular landscapes, including the iconic Morning Glory Cloud and pristine wetlands teeming with wildlife.
Doomadgee and Mornington Island provide a deep connection to First Nations culture, with opportunities to engage with art, traditions, and the stories of the land. Dajarra, steeped in First Nations history, is a gateway to the region's pastoral heritage and a testament to the resilience of its people.
Morning Glory Cloud over the Gulf of Carpentaria
(source: @weatherbywill / Instagram)
The famous Walkabout Creek Hotel in McKinlay, featured in 'Crocodile Dundee'
(source: myrigadventures.com)
Cloncurry, McKinlay, and Julia Creek add to the region's charm with vibrant community events, rich agricultural industries, and friendly locals. Cloncurry boasts a proud history as the birthplace of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, while Julia Creek is renowned for its Dirt n Dust Festival and proximity to stunning natural attractions. McKinlay, home to the famous Walkabout Creek Hotel, offers an authentic outback experience.
Mount Isa serves as the region's dynamic hub, offering career opportunities in mining, healthcare, and education. It’s also a cultural hotspot, hosting events like the Mount Isa Rodeo and featuring modern amenities like shopping, dining, and recreational facilities.
Throughout North West Queensland, you’ll find a sense of community like no other. Whether fishing at dawn, exploring the vast open landscapes, celebrating local festivals, or simply soaking up the outback spirit, life here is an adventure filled with unique experiences and boundless opportunities.
Find out more about living in Mount Isa and about the wider North West region in the NWHHS Lifestyle Guide.
ABOUT US
HardyGroup’s (HG) mission is simple
Find and Grow Great Leaders - and we have been doing exactly that for more than 30 years in public and private health, primary, community and aged care as well as the broader public service.
Our synergistic business model of Executive Search and Recruitment integrated with Executive Leadership and Learning is our unique point of difference.
It ensures our clients can count on us for the lifecycle of their organisations leadership journey and why we are regarded as the leading trans-Tasman partner agency by clients.
When engaging HG you can be confident in a deeply personalised experience and service as nothing matters more to us than relationships and results.