That’s why you’d want to work as a Senior Business Controller

You will have a direct impact on NS’s sustainable mobility goals,
You will make a direct contribution to NS’s financial results by increasing revenue and controlling costs,
As a Senior Business Controller, you oversee the commercial departments and have a clear understanding of the direction in which these departments are heading.

Here's what you'll be doing as a Senior Business Controller

For the ComIT department (a combined organization of Commerce and IT), we are seeking a Senior Business Controller who will play a vital role in optimizing our financial and strategic objectives. ComIT is responsible for, among other things, all domestic and international transportation revenue, the NS app, and the check-in infrastructure.

The Planning Department, where you will be working, ensures that ComIT focuses on the right activities and developments with a five-year horizon, so that NS’s commercial objectives are achieved. The Planning Department is responsible for strategy formulation, the roadmap for implementing the strategy, and performance measurement and course correction. As a controller, you will work closely with IT, leads, and product owners with the goal of controlling costs, increasing revenue, and optimizing investments, serving as the financial point of contact for the Management Team.

In addition to your primary responsibilities, this role offers you the opportunity to share your experience and knowledge with less experienced colleagues on the team. This provides an opportunity to contribute to their professional growth and development. In addition, you may be called upon to support teams where your expertise in finance adds value or is necessary to maintain control.

The role of Senior Business Controller is crucial for understanding and explaining the revenue model, as well as for improving results and the financial impact of strategic issues.

Thanks to your persuasiveness and entrepreneurial spirit, you are an invaluable asset to:

Provide financial overviews in the form of reports and budgets for the Executive Management Team and other stakeholders, including the commercial management team. This also includes identifying opportunities for revenue optimization and improving insights into international transportation revenues;
Developing business cases, monitoring the return on investment (ROI) of specific products, and identifying opportunities for optimization;
Simplifying complex strategic issues and thereby helping to shape the strategy and its execution. An example of this is the annual pricing proposal for our train tickets and the calculations of its impact on financial results;
Advising the business on strategic issues such as dynamic pricing;
Serving as the first line of defense with regard to financial regulation and compliance;
Coordination of the multi-year financial business plan This plan covers a five-year period and is reviewed and approved annually by the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board.

This is where you'll be working

You will be working within the ComIT and International Business Control department. The team consists of 8 Business Controllers, including you, with various roles and areas of focus. Together, we are responsible for Business Control for the ComIT and International business units. We are a team that enjoys sharing our knowledge and frequently discusses our work to learn from one another. We embrace new challenges and always strive for improvement. Our key stakeholders are leads and product owners. Because we work closely and directly with the business, we believe it’s important to reach out to one another to share the dilemmas and challenging cases we encounter.

You’ll be working in a close-knit team with a strong sense of commitment to one another and the organization. We’re there for each other when needed and have created an environment where we learn from one another and keep each other on our toes. We do this through regular peer reviews, feedback sessions, and team meetings where you’ll collaborate with the other clusters. We are intrinsically driven to contribute to the success of the department and our areas of focus.

At NS, we value diversity and inclusion; they make working together more enjoyable and often lead to better results. Your background or personal beliefs don’t matter—we’re primarily interested in your perspective on the role of Senior Business Controller.

These are the job requirements

You must have at least a bachelor’s degree in economics, business administration, or another finance-related field. A postgraduate degree as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and/or Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) is preferred but not required.
You have at least 7 years of work experience, including at least 3 years as a Business Controller.
You have gained this experience within large organizations characterized by a high degree of complexity. Experience with Agile methodologies is a plus, as is work experience in a commercial organization.
You are able to take the initiative and/or take effective action on your own.
You have experience in preparing, revising, and/or coordinating multi-year budgets
You are persuasive and, as a result, able to win others over to certain viewpoints, proposals, or ideas while respecting different perspectives.
You are able to work with others to achieve shared goals in a constructive manner, while valuing different perspectives.
You are able to maintain an overview by planning and organizing effectively.
Your focus is on improving NS’s financial performance by capitalizing on business opportunities and taking calculated risks.

If the job opening interests you but you don’t fully meet all the requirements, we still encourage you to apply.

At NS, we believe it’s important to hold each other accountable and always speak our minds. We’re looking for colleagues with courage who are open to change. For this role, these are all crucial factors for success in achieving your goals in collaboration with your team and the business. For this role in this team, the emphasis is on speaking up. We work in a largely commercial environment where decisions are sometimes made quickly. It is important to make our colleagues aware of the financial consequences of these decisions, and the Senior Business Controller is the one who can ensure that happens.

These are the terms of employment

Working at NS means you can make a real difference in the dynamic world of sustainable mobility. You’ll help keep the Netherlands accessible to everyone. At NS, you’ll enjoy a great deal of freedom. There are plenty of opportunities for professional growth. We promise you that no two days will be the same. And as one of the best employers in the Netherlands, we have even more to offer. For this position, that includes:

A salary between €5,150 and €8,716 gross per month (based on a 36-hour workweek).
A 36-hour workweek.
144 hours of statutory leave (based on full-time employment) + additional leave depending on age (at least one week).
The option to exchange 3 Christian holidays for 3 non-Christian holidays.
A 3% year-end bonus, an 8% vacation allowance, and anexcellent pension plan.
Your train travel in second class is free; you can travel in first class for a small fee.
Your family travels for free during off-peak hours.
Get a discount on European train travel after you’ve worked at NS for one year.
Professional development opportunities
A benefits plan that includes options such as a bicycle allowance, additional pension contributions, or extra vacation days.
Want to learn more? Check out ourterms of employment and collective bargaining agreement.
The option to work from home and flexible working hours (by arrangement).
If you perform well, you will be offered a permanent contract after one year.

Apply for this job

Apply now (but be sure to do so by Monday, July 7) using the application button. You’ll receive an automatic confirmation within a few minutes, and we’ll respond to your application within two weeks.

Please address your application to Heert-Jan Dokter, corporate recruiter.

Do you have any questions about the application process?

Please email Karin in our front office at: recruitment@ns.nl. You can also contact her with any questions about applying anonymously.

Would you prefer to contact us by phone? Please call our front office at 0886713666.

Good to know:

A background check, including a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG), is part of the application process. This also includes signing an integrity statement and a confidentiality agreement.

We believe it’s important that everyone who works with us feels at home. This is reflected in everything we do, including our hiring policy. Read more here.