Hybrid Controller – Staff Costs, Data

at Eurostar

• Job title: Controller – Staff Costs, Data
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Professional Certificate
• Tech skills: TypeScript
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Brussels, Belgium

About the role

• Controller overseeing financial reporting and cost management for Eurostar-Thalys merger operations. Collaborating across departments to ensure accurate budgeting and performance analysis.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the monthly close process in collaboration with the Financial Accounting team, ensuring cost completeness and providing variance analyses versus the budget and the latest forecast for the relevant scope.
• Work with Accounting and Financial Reporting teams to ensure proper recognition of costs under IFRS and ensure that only eligible costs are capitalized.
• Prepare and lead quarterly reviews for the scope: year-to-date performance, annual forecasts (including volume and price impacts) and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Manage the budgeting process for the scope.
• Ensure headcount and FTE reporting in coordination with HR and operational teams, guaranteeing data reliability.
• Leverage business and cost knowledge to produce reports for internal and external stakeholders as required.
• Provide support to the Strategy & Transformation team when necessary.
• Analyze and translate large volumes of complex, multi-source data into relevant analyses for business management.
• Proactively challenge performance and contribute to continuous improvement, notably by ensuring the reliability of data (inputs and outputs) from systems and stakeholders.
• Identify risks and opportunities to achieve the scope’s cost objectives; implement mitigation actions and capture identified opportunities.
• Develop and maintain strong, effective working relationships with various departments, acting as the finance reference for business contacts.
• Understand the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders and adapt communication to each audience.
• Support Financial Business Partners on topics related to FTEs and staff costs.
• Produce analyses that facilitate decision-making, ensuring a clear link to the main cost drivers.
• Promote rigorous financial governance (procurement, recruitment, etc.) and contribute to audits related, in particular, to payroll costs.
• Collaborate with operational teams to optimize the impact of cost inflation, limit budget overruns and anticipate unforeseen expenditures.
• Demonstrate resilience and flexibility to manage evolving priorities between Finance and operational teams.
• Show strong interpersonal intelligence, favoring on-site presence when relevant, beyond digital tools (Teams, e-mails, etc.).
• Provide occasional support to the manager as needed.
• *Internal use — Position Grade F, based in Brussels.*

Requirements

• You hold a Master's degree in Finance or Management Control
• You have a minimum of 5 years' experience in a similar role
• You are fluent in French and English (spoken and written)
• You are comfortable with numbers and reporting tools
• You bring strong analytical expertise and are solution-oriented when supporting internal teams
• You are proficient with the MS Office suite (particularly Excel)
• --
• You hold a Master's degree in Finance or Controlling.
• You have at least 5 years' experience in a comparable role.
• You are fluent in French and English (spoken and written).
• You are comfortable with numbers and reporting tools.
• You bring strong analytical expertise and are solution-oriented towards internal teams.
• You are proficient in the MS Office package (particularly Excel).