We are seeking a Chief Financial Officer (m/w/d) to join the client at its headquarters in Cologne at the earliest possible time. In this role, you will lead and manage the full range of finance activities, including planning, budgeting, forecasting, and business modeling, with a team of 32 employees. You will translate the company’s strategy into robust financial target scenarios, KPIs, and steering mechanisms, and you are expected to actively support the further development of the business model—particularly regarding pricing, margin logic, and profitability of digital products and platform solutions.
A key focus of the position is leading and developing the controlling function. This includes continuously optimizing reporting, including from a systems perspective, to address future requirements with high efficiency and a strong level of automation. Controlling should be established as a fast, precise, and proactive driver and sparring partner for strategic and operational decisions. You will develop a KPI-based, aggregated dashboard for the executive team to enable the anticipation of developments and the timely selection of relevant decisions.
You will also ensure operational excellence across the finance function by securing the quality and reliability of all finance processes, spanning accounting, treasury, and controlling. The role is suited to candidates with a completed degree in business administration or a comparable academic qualification, along with relevant expertise in controlling and accounting. Strong alignment with adjacent functions such as IT, Legal, or Compliance is expected, and leadership experience in a comparable capacity is preferred, particularly in a medium-sized context and potentially within complex financing structures, including in non-profit or donor-funded contexts and international organizations with multiple legal entities. Creativity, flexibility, resilience, personal resilience, and fluent English skills complete the profile.