Vacancy

Business controller

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December 5, 2024
Location Wageningen
End date Sun 5 January 2025
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Your job

As a controller for the Plant Sciences Group, you provide the business unit or other departments with management information and advice. Can you quickly grasp complex matters? Do you enjoy thinking along with financial issues?

Are you looking for a friendly and informal team to be part of? Then we would like to get in touch with you!

Your tasks and responsibilities in this role include:

  • You act as an advisor and point of contact for the business unit and/or chair group regarding controlling activities (monthly reports, forecasts, budgets, financial statements, multi-year trends, business cases);
  • You analyze financial (project) risks, identify them in time, support the Finance & Control manager with improvement projects and specific topics, and provide recommendations;
  • You contribute to the preparation of cost price calculations for tariff determinations and audits;
  • You contribute to the financial assessment of personnel capacity requests, investments, major subsidy applications, and other funding issues;
  • You advise the management of the business unit or chair group on strategic and long-term policy;
  • You carry a significant amount of responsibility and autonomy, with close collaboration with your direct Finance & Control colleagues, researchers, and management of the business unit or chair group, as well as other staff departments playing an important role;
  • With your expertise, you contribute to professionalizing the Finance & Control function within an organization that makes a significant contribution to important societal themes.

Finance & Control is a professional business partner and stands for quality, integrity, and good service. We achieve this by providing adequate, reliable, and integrated information and advice. Through this, the department contributes to excellent education and research as well as business operations.

The financial department of the Plant Sciences Group, with more than 30 financials, is organized into three teams: financial administration, project control, and (business) control. You will work in a team of controllers, where each controller manages several chairs and/or business units. This way, we share collective responsibility for a proper budget, interim forecasts, and year-end results.

Your qualities

You are analytically strong, have well-developed advisory skills, and are organizationally sensitive. You naturally enjoy connecting with others, both within the team and with management.

You also possess:

  • Higher education/university level working and thinking with a financial-economic orientation;
  • Extensive experience with business and financial control in a project-oriented organization;
  • A customer-oriented, hands-on attitude, good communication skills, team player, and connector;
  • An independent, results-oriented, and proactive attitude;
  • Proficiency in both Dutch and English, both spoken and written.

In our international work environment, more and more communication is in English. For this role, the language requirement is C1 level. If you don't have this level yet, we will support you, and you can access our language center, Wageningen in'to Language.

You will see that there are plenty of challenges for you. These challenges can also be seen as development opportunities. So, if you don’t yet have the track record required in the vacancy but do have solid work experience, we would still like to invite you to apply.

We offer you

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

  • working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
  • the option to accrue additional compensation hours by working more;
  • sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
  • there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
  • a fixed December bonus of 8,3%;
  • excellent pension scheme.
In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. We offer, depending on your experience, a maximum of €5.949 for a full-time working week of 36 hours, in accordance with the CLA Wageningen Research (scale 10/11). Additionally, a contract for 20 hours can be discussed. You will initially receive a one-year contract, which will be extended upon in mutual enthusiasm.             
                                                                                       
Wageningen University & Research encourages internal advancement opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a multi-faceted position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland and with your work you have a clear and positive impact on society. At WUR we work on the most pressing challenges of our time, like climate change and feeding the world in a sustainable way. 

Do you want more information?

For more information about this position, please contact Marcel Marks, Institue Conroller, 0317-482624, marcel.marks@wur.nl.

For more information about the procedure, please contact Jeanine van 't Veer, Corporate Recruiter, e-mail jeanine.vantveer-drost@wur.nl.

Do you want to apply?
You can apply directly using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval.

This vacancy will be listed up to and including October 28th, 2024. Don't wait to apply; as soon as a suitable candidate is identified, we will schedule interviews

Procedure
As part of our selection process, an assessment may be incorporated within the procedure

Equal opportunities
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) employs a large number of people with very different backgrounds and qualities, who inspire and motivate each other. We want every talent to feel at home in our organisation and be offered the same career opportunities. We therefore especially welcome applications from people who are underrepresented at WUR. A good example of how WUR deals with inclusiveness can be read on the page working at WUR with a functional impairment.

We are

Plant Sciences Group (PSG)
The Plant Sciences Group is a merger of the Department of Plant Sciences (DPW), consisting of 19 chairs, and Wageningen Plant Research (WPR), consisting of 8 business units. PSG has 7 locations; besides the main location on Wageningen Campus, there are locations in Bleijswijk, Lelystad, Randwijk, Valthermond, Westmaas, and Vredepeel. DPW is responsible for education and has a fundamental research approach, while WPR has an applied research approach. PSG is unique in the world with its large variety of groups working on Plant Sciences and its broad approach to these research areas. Our research and education cover Plant Sciences at various levels: from molecules to genes, to plant and crop cells in agricultural systems, to entire ecosystems and production systems. Research on insects and fungi is also part of our scientific group.

Wageningen University & Research
The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,600 employees (6,700 fte) and 13,100 students and over 150,000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch the video below to get an idea of our green campus!


We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.

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