Director Controlling

Role overview

Budgeting and closing

• Lead annual budgets for operational costs, overhead, FTE, and D&D revenue; drive rolling forecasts and consolidate and challenge business-unit inputs.
• Monitor budget versus actuals, flag variances, and recommend corrective action.
• Own monthly financial closing and accruals in SAP/SAP S/4HANA; coordinate cut-off and reconciliations with Accounting.
• Validate monthly P&L integrity across cost centers and investigate anomalies.

Reporting and cost control

• Publish a monthly Controlling Pack covering operational costs, overhead, FTE, and D&D revenue.
• Deliver actual-versus-budget, forecast, and prior-year analysis with qualitative commentary; maintain dashboards and reporting templates.
• Support CFO, Board-level, and HQ reporting by translating operational data into financial narratives.
• Identify cost inefficiencies and savings opportunities, track initiatives, and challenge cost center spending.

Business partnering and systems

• Partner with Operations in planning and performance reviews and support day-to-day operational finance queries.
• Provide CFO and senior management with decision analysis and business cases for capex, contract renewals, headcount, and restructuring.
• Handle ad hoc analysis requests from regional and global HQ.
• Improve controlling processes, tools, and reporting automation; maintain data quality, consistency, and governance.

Education and experience

• Bachelor’s degree minimum in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or Business Administration.
• Requires 8–12 years of progressive experience in Controlling, FP&A, or Finance Business Partnering.
• Shipping, port, or logistics industry experience and understanding of shipping operations are requested.
• Experience managing full budget and forecast cycles in a multinational environment is required.
• Regional or multi-country controlling experience is requested; Middle East/Africa exposure is strongly preferred.
• Professional qualification such as CPA, CIMA, ACCA, or equivalent is preferred; MBA or advanced degree is an asset.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience is required.

Technical skills

• Advanced Excel and financial modelling capability.
• Power BI or equivalent reporting tools are a strong plus.
• Solid understanding of IFRS and management accounting principles.

Competencies and language

• Analytical rigour, business acumen, stakeholder influence, ownership, leadership, and adaptability in a fast-paced matrix environment.
• Full professional fluency in English is mandatory.