Finance Director
Solliciteren
Plaats
Leuven3000
Vlaams-Brabant
België
Contract
Vooltijds, Onbepaalde duurDatum gepubliceerd
2026-02-25Online to:
2026-04-26EUR 15.00 HOUR
Finance Director
- EIT Food
- Vlaams-Brabant
- 22 uren geleden
Job description:
We are looking for a Finance Director who wants to shape the future of a mission driven organisation and who sees finance not only as stewardship, but as an engine for positive change. This role is both strategic and hands on, guiding the organisation's financial planning, insight, and operations while supporting teams across EIT Food to make thoughtful, informed, and timely decisions. You will support our teams to use our funding effectively, support our leaders to deliver within their budgets, and play a central role in developing and winning financially sound commercial opportunities. Importantly, you will lead the evolution of our financial model as EIT Food transitions from grant dependency toward long term financial self sufficiency.
You will report to the CEO and work closely with the COO and wider leadership team, contributing actively to organisational strategy and decision making. You will also lead a dedicated finance team committed to high quality service, learning, and continuous improvement.
What you will lead and enable
As Finance Director, you will shape the strategic financial direction of EIT Food. This includes ensuring that our financial planning and forecasting processes give leaders clarity and confidence to pursue their ambitions. You will help colleagues across the organisation understand how their activities translate into financial outcomes and guide them in aligning delivery with funding, resources, and impact.
Your leadership across FP&A and our core finance processes is at the heat of your role. Data, systems, and processes will fall within your remit, and you will steward the development of our financial systems and reporting tools so that information is reliable, accessible, and insightful. You will help streamline how we budget, track, and report, and you will guide the organisation toward better integration of systems that support financial decision making.
Good governance will be central to your role. This includes maintaining strong internal controls, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, including the provisions of our grant funders for cost reporting and accurate financial data. You will support the organisation to manage financial risks, and you lead our annual accounting processes as we work across multiple countries and entities. You will also strengthen how we manage cash, liquidity, and long term sustainability planning. Note, we are a group of companies across 5 locations (Belgium, Poland, Germany, Spain and the UK), so your remit includes group accounting, audit and control.
You will play an important role in enabling revenue generation. This means supporting colleagues in designing clear value propositions, developing financially sustainable services, structuring competitive and responsible pricing, and building business cases that reflect real cost, opportunity, and risk. Rather than acting as a gatekeeper, you will be a partner, empowering teams to make good commercial choices.
In our grant and donor funded work, you will help maintain excellence in planning, reporting, and financial stewardship across the full project lifecycle, working in close partnership with our Operations team. You will ensure that we meet our obligations to our funders (currently our main funder is the EIT, under Horizon Europe), and that the organisations who receive funding through us have the clarity and guidance they need to deliver effectively and manage risk.
Finally, you will nurture a culture of partnership, curiosity, clarity, and service within the finance team. You will help your colleagues grow in their roles and support them in contributing meaningfully to EIT Food's mission.
Profile description:
We recognise that great candidates come with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. If you believe you can succeed in this role and are excited by our mission, we would be delighted to hear from you.
You will need to have had meaningful experience in senior financial leadership within an international or multi entity environment, with full responsibility for statutory accounting, and FP&A. You will also need to demonstrate that you can run a finance team, ideally a multi-national team that work across different locations. You may have worked in an organisation that blends grant funded, public, or donor supported activity with commercially generated revenues. You can demonstrate how to partner with non financial colleagues and ensuring your stakeholders across the organisation use the financial information you provide them in their decision making. You are comfortable navigating complex, multi stakeholder environments, ensuring senior leaders are supported and support you.
Experience with EU funding frameworks, Horizon Europe, or similarly structured grant programmes is valuable but not essential; what matters most is that you can demonstrate your ability to learn and apply new regulatory and financial frameworks quickly and confidently, using your financial acumen and experience.
You will bring sound judgment, strong analytical thinking, and a collaborative mindset. You value clarity and transparency in financial communication and enjoy working with diverse teams. You are confident in leading people, setting direction, and fostering learning and growth in others.
You likely hold a degree in finance, accounting, business, or a related field, and may have professional qualification. Fluency in English is important, and additional European languages are a plus.
Above all, you care about EIT Food's mission and want to use your skills to help build a healthier, fairer, more sustainable food system.
LOCATION & TRAVEL FREQUENCY
This role is preferably based in Leuven (Belgium), where most of your team members are located. Candidates based in one of our other locations (UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, or Poland) may also be considered, provided they have the legal right to work in that country. Within the chosen location, we offer flexible working arrangements, including remote and hybrid options, depending on local policies and requirements.
Occasional travel within Europe.
APPLICATION
We encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible. While the application deadline is 24 March, we reserve the right to close the vacancy earlier if we find the right candidate. We recommend submitting your application at the earliest opportunity to ensure consideration.
We are looking for a Finance Director who wants to shape the future of a mission driven organisation and who sees finance not only as stewardship, but as an engine for positive change. This role is both strategic and hands on, guiding the organisation's financial planning, insight, and operations while supporting teams across EIT Food to make thoughtful, informed, and timely decisions. You will support our teams to use our funding effectively, support our leaders to deliver within their budgets, and play a central role in developing and winning financially sound commercial opportunities. Importantly, you will lead the evolution of our financial model as EIT Food transitions from grant dependency toward long term financial self sufficiency.
You will report to the CEO and work closely with the COO and wider leadership team, contributing actively to organisational strategy and decision making. You will also lead a dedicated finance team committed to high quality service, learning, and continuous improvement.
What you will lead and enable
As Finance Director, you will shape the strategic financial direction of EIT Food. This includes ensuring that our financial planning and forecasting processes give leaders clarity and confidence to pursue their ambitions. You will help colleagues across the organisation understand how their activities translate into financial outcomes and guide them in aligning delivery with funding, resources, and impact.
Your leadership across FP&A and our core finance processes is at the heat of your role. Data, systems, and processes will fall within your remit, and you will steward the development of our financial systems and reporting tools so that information is reliable, accessible, and insightful. You will help streamline how we budget, track, and report, and you will guide the organisation toward better integration of systems that support financial decision making.
Good governance will be central to your role. This includes maintaining strong internal controls, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, including the provisions of our grant funders for cost reporting and accurate financial data. You will support the organisation to manage financial risks, and you lead our annual accounting processes as we work across multiple countries and entities. You will also strengthen how we manage cash, liquidity, and long term sustainability planning. Note, we are a group of companies across 5 locations (Belgium, Poland, Germany, Spain and the UK), so your remit includes group accounting, audit and control.
You will play an important role in enabling revenue generation. This means supporting colleagues in designing clear value propositions, developing financially sustainable services, structuring competitive and responsible pricing, and building business cases that reflect real cost, opportunity, and risk. Rather than acting as a gatekeeper, you will be a partner, empowering teams to make good commercial choices.
In our grant and donor funded work, you will help maintain excellence in planning, reporting, and financial stewardship across the full project lifecycle, working in close partnership with our Operations team. You will ensure that we meet our obligations to our funders (currently our main funder is the EIT, under Horizon Europe), and that the organisations who receive funding through us have the clarity and guidance they need to deliver effectively and manage risk.
Finally, you will nurture a culture of partnership, curiosity, clarity, and service within the finance team. You will help your colleagues grow in their roles and support them in contributing meaningfully to EIT Food's mission.
Profile description:
We recognise that great candidates come with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. If you believe you can succeed in this role and are excited by our mission, we would be delighted to hear from you.
You will need to have had meaningful experience in senior financial leadership within an international or multi entity environment, with full responsibility for statutory accounting, and FP&A. You will also need to demonstrate that you can run a finance team, ideally a multi-national team that work across different locations. You may have worked in an organisation that blends grant funded, public, or donor supported activity with commercially generated revenues. You can demonstrate how to partner with non financial colleagues and ensuring your stakeholders across the organisation use the financial information you provide them in their decision making. You are comfortable navigating complex, multi stakeholder environments, ensuring senior leaders are supported and support you.
Experience with EU funding frameworks, Horizon Europe, or similarly structured grant programmes is valuable but not essential; what matters most is that you can demonstrate your ability to learn and apply new regulatory and financial frameworks quickly and confidently, using your financial acumen and experience.
You will bring sound judgment, strong analytical thinking, and a collaborative mindset. You value clarity and transparency in financial communication and enjoy working with diverse teams. You are confident in leading people, setting direction, and fostering learning and growth in others.
You likely hold a degree in finance, accounting, business, or a related field, and may have professional qualification. Fluency in English is important, and additional European languages are a plus.
Above all, you care about EIT Food's mission and want to use your skills to help build a healthier, fairer, more sustainable food system.
LOCATION & TRAVEL FREQUENCY
This role is preferably based in Leuven (Belgium), where most of your team members are located. Candidates based in one of our other locations (UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, or Poland) may also be considered, provided they have the legal right to work in that country. Within the chosen location, we offer flexible working arrangements, including remote and hybrid options, depending on local policies and requirements.
Occasional travel within Europe.
APPLICATION
We encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible. While the application deadline is 24 March, we reserve the right to close the vacancy earlier if we find the right candidate. We recommend submitting your application at the earliest opportunity to ensure consideration.
Meer banen van je zoekopdracht
operateur emballage
- Mouscron
- 26 februari 2026
Assistant comptable (H/F) - Genk
- Genk
- 26 februari 2026
Gagnez jusqu'à 400 EUR par jour comme complément de revenus avec les jeux et les sondages
- Leopoldsburg
- 26 februari 2026
onthaalleerkracht anderstalige nieuwkomers basisonderwijs - voltijds tot einde schooljaar
- Antwerp
- 26 februari 2026
Testeur de jeux – Télétravail
- Heuvelland
- 26 februari 2026
Gagnez de l'argent en testant des applications – Télétravail
- Overijse
- 26 februari 2026
Gagnez de l'argent en testant des applications – Télétravail
- Saint Vith
- 26 februari 2026
Testeur de jeux – Télétravail
- Heuvelland
- 26 februari 2026
Jobstudent Recruiter in het Jeugdwerk zomervakantie (M/V/X)
- Ghent
- 26 februari 2026
Gagnez jusqu'à 400 EUR par jour comme complément de revenus avec les jeux et les sondages
- Chimay
- 26 februari 2026
Gagnez de l'argent en testant des applications – Télétravail
- Estaimpuis
- 26 februari 2026
Gagnez jusqu'à 400 EUR par jour comme complément de revenus avec les jeux et les sondages
- Saint Vith
- 26 februari 2026
Gagnez jusqu'à 400 EUR par jour comme complément de revenus avec les jeux et les sondages
- Charleroi
- 26 februari 2026