Careers at the von Karman Institute: Construct the future together !
Today, we are looking for a full-time Financial Project Controller to join the Finance service.
Reporting to the CFO, you will manage the financial aspects of all research and educational projects and you will oversee the project revenues and expenditures to verify that projects are completed on time and within budgetary guidelines.
Your responsibilities
Budget control and follow-up
- Assists the project managers with the creation of detailed project budgets
- Monitors budget progress on a bi-monthly basis
- Challenges project managers on reported progress and remaining expenditures
- Works closely with the accounting department on revenue recognition (calculation of Work in Progress per project, handling of project advances, invoices and income)
- Works closely with the CPMO on budget control and follow-up
- Maintains contacts with external project managers and organizations
- Prime contact for all external audits by the financing authorities on financial project reporting
Reporting
- Creates financial reports and invoices towards project customers; post these invoices and financial reportings on the client platforms
- Creates income and invoicing forecasts
- Analyses and reports root causes for project delays
Reporting tools and procedures
- Will have to understand thoroughly and take over the tools developed by the Interim Financial Project Controller (Power BI mainly, as well as hourly rates calculation and other related tools).
- Will have to adapt the current Power BI reporting tool (reporting to PMO) according to new ERP system once fully implemented.
Other
- Compliance: Assists in creating the contracts and/or assuring contracts are compliant with the legal framework
- Helps to implement the new ERP tool, with support of external consultants
- Helps to ensure that the new ERP tool (which should go live from 01/01/26) is providing the right financial information; fine tunes its settings (together with Accounting and /or external consultants).
Job requirements
- Level of knowledge: Master in Commercial Engineering, in Economy or equivalent through experience
- Experience of at least 10 years in financial controlling of projects (ideally Research Projects eg. funded by the European Commission, the European Space Agency and other)
- Excellent analytical and reporting skills
- Advanced MS Excel knowledge and Power BI knowledge; good knowledge of Access
- Fluency in at least 2 of these languages: Dutch, French, English (written and spoken); Good knowledge of the 3rd language
- Profound understanding of project management and project management tools
- Good knowledge of Belgian GAAP accounting principles and general ledger
- Be an organizer and planner, independent
- Experience with Odoo (time management) and Bob Sage (accounting software) are a plus
- Experience on research projects is a plus
We offer
- A permanent full-time contract
- An attractive salary package, including pension-, hospitalization- and dental insurances, as well as other fringe benefits
- A flexible working culture with opportunities for partial homeworking
- A stimulating and challenging job
- Work with enthusiastic people driven by passion
- An international environment with students, as a research and educational institution
Eligibility Criteria
As the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics maintains an equal opportunities and diversity policy, everyone who meets the eligibility criteria below is encouraged to apply for this position.
- meet the requirements for the duties concerned.
- be a citizen of one of the countries:
- EU member countries
- NATO member countries
Important: Please apply online, do NOT send your application by email.
About the organisation
For 65 years as an international centre of excellence in fluid dynamics, the von Karman Institute (VKI) brings together young engineers and scientists from all over the world to study, improve their skills and perform their research.
“A scientist studies what is, whereas an engineer creates what never was “ Théodore von Kármán
Besides its mission of education, the von Karman Institute gathers the top-level scientists and engineers to work on very challenging projects as the next generation of engines, new propulsion concepts, the new green energy, the safety of industry, solutions for a cleaner space, the Mission to Mars and many other fields of research which can make the difference for the humankind. Those scientists have access to more than 50 wind tunnels and test rigs, some of them unique in the world to help them in their projects.
VKI is a team of people looking in the same direction, for a better future, not only scientists and engineers but also students, PhD candidates, PostDocs, IT, Human Resources, accountants, librarians, designers, and technicians and more....
Location: Close to Brussels @ Rhode-Saint-Genèse (Flemish-Brabant)
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