HEAD OF FINANCE OPERATIONS

Head of Finance Operations & Compliance

Location: Koekelare, Belgium.

Posted: 29 | 10 | 2026.

Language: Dutch.

Translated by AI.

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About The Job

As Head of Finance Operations & Compliance, you will be responsible for overseeing, streamlining and further developing the recurring finance processes across the group. You will combine strong technical expertise with people leadership and stakeholder management, ensuring an effective and consistent finance operating rhythm across countries and entities.

Responsibilities

• Coordinating and overseeing the group’s monthly, quarterly and annual closing processes, with a focus on timeliness, quality and consistency.
• Further rolling out a standardised closing approach, with clear calendars, checklists, quality controls and well-defined responsibilities.
• Enhancing audit readiness across the organisation and coordinating local and central audit processes in collaboration with external auditors.
• Acting as the central point of contact for audit-related follow-up, audit files, documentation and issue management.
• Monitoring tax compliance processes, including VAT, corporate income tax, withholding tax and transfer pricing execution, in collaboration with external advisors.
• Leading, coaching and further developing a central finance operations team with diverse areas of expertise and varying levels of maturity.
• Aligning local finance teams around common standards, deadlines and quality expectations, in close collaboration with local management.
• Establishing and monitoring a clear operational rhythm through trackers, action plans, escalations and structured follow-up.
• Identifying process inefficiencies and recurring bottlenecks and translating them into concrete improvement initiatives.
• Driving standardisation, simplification, effective system utilisation and further automation across finance operations.
• Contributing to the continued implementation of the new finance operating model and helping build a scalable finance organisation that supports future growth and acquisitions.

Profile

We are looking for a strong, authentic finance leader who combines operational discipline with maturity, pragmatism and a collaborative communication style.

• A Master’s degree in Finance or Accounting, or equivalent experience.
• At least 8–10 years of relevant experience in audit, accounting or finance operations.
• An audit background at one of the Big Four firms is a strong advantage.
• Proven experience in an in-house finance environment, giving you a practical understanding of how month-end and year-end closings and accounting processes are organised and managed.
• Strong accounting fundamentals and a solid understanding of closing processes, reconciliations, provisions, intercompany transactions, balance sheet substantiation and reporting discipline.
• A clear understanding of what it takes to make entities audit-ready, with the ability to constructively challenge both local teams and external auditors.
• A sound foundation in tax compliance and confidence in working with external tax advisors.
• Strong people management skills, with the ability to provide clarity, foster ownership and lead people in a supportive yet consistent manner.
• A structured, hands-on approach, with strong planning, follow-up and prioritisation skills.
• The ability to operate comfortably in an environment with multiple stakeholders, varying levels of maturity and international complexity.
• Clear and diplomatic communication skills, with the ability to translate finance and compliance topics into accessible language for non-financial stakeholders.
• Fluency in Dutch and English; additional languages are an advantage.

Offer

This role offers a rare combination of operational impact, international scope and broad technical exposure.

You will join an organisation that is still actively building and evolving: professionally grounded, financially sound and guided by a clear long-term vision. At the same time, the culture remains entrepreneurial, hands-on and people-oriented, with short decision-making lines and plenty of room for initiative.

What You Can Expect

• A key position within an international group undergoing significant development and further professionalisation.
• The opportunity to make a tangible impact on closing discipline, audit readiness, compliance quality and finance maturity across multiple countries and entities.
• A broad role spanning accounting, audit, tax, operations and people management.
• An environment in which you can actively contribute to continuous improvement, standar