Director (m/f/d) Financial Planning

Hapag-Lloyd's global liner shipping business is modernizing its financial planning and monthly closing across a large, enterprise platform (>600 users, multiple use cases).

While moving to the cloud, we introduce new controlling concepts and steering hierarchies, and are impacted by the digital transformation of adjacent systems (FIS, S/4HANA, central DWH EDWARD). Your task is to drive the robust, user-centric transformation of our financial planning and result platform making controlling data reliable, interoperable across BI tools, and AI-ready. With your people and process mindset, you lead a diverse team, listen to the Future Controller's needs and partner with Controlling Systems and Data Analytics and the central IT and Analytics (DIA) functions to make this happen.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence

• Be a strong leader to your diverse team and coach them on their journey from BI to software engineering. Provide clear feedback, and a compelling growth vision.
• Influence and align stakeholders across Business, IT, and Analytics; communicate trade-offs and practice lateral collaboration to secure decisions and momentum.
• Ensure operational excellence, streamlined processes, and effective collaboration within Controlling and across departments.

Tech-Infused Financial Solutions & Architecture

• Own and govern the enterprise planning platform (BOARD preferred) and its integration with SAP S/4HANA, FIS, and the central DWH, ensuring robust ETL/data modeling and intuitive design.
• Connect cloud-based source systems and orchestrate data pipelines so data is consistent, governed, and usable across BI tools and AI/analytics use cases.
• Ensure smart interface management and maintain a coherent architecture and cost-effective operations. Ensure data contracts, lineage, and security are clearly defined and stable in alignment with Controlling Analytics, FIS, and SAP teams.
• Inherit and professionalize existing codebase by establishing modern development practices: coding standards, documentation, CI/CD, automated testing, version control, code reviews, release management.
• Run the platform as a professional product, balancing innovation with simplicity-avoid over-engineering.

Planning & Closing Transformation

• Implement new business logic and support geo, organizational, and steering hierarchy changes while simplifying processes; align planning and result processes with adjacent digital initiatives.
• Replace traditional reporting with automated solutions for monthly reporting, budgeting, and forecasting where the Business needs it; elevate data quality, transparency, and timeliness.

Customer Focus & Consulting

• Partner with Controllers: listen deeply, clarify the WHY-HOW-WHAT of requirements, challenge current practices, and co-design practical future ways of working.
• Translate business outcomes into system capabilities that are intuitive to adopt and straightforward to operate.

Qualifications

• University degree in business, finance, logistics, engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• Proven experience leading international, diverse teams; excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Customer-centric mindset; excellent listening and consulting skills; ability to distill complex requirements into clear product increments.
• Solid background in enterprise financial planning platforms and BI/analytics; experience with transformations involving SAP S/4HANA and data warehouses is a plus.
• Strong understanding of ETL, data modeling, DevOps, and software engineering best practices for governance and coaching (hands on coding not primary).
• Familiarity with planning/BI tools (e.g., BOARD, Qlik, PowerBI), experience with modern cloud data platforms like Databricks preferred.
• Analytical and strategic mindset; ability to balance innovation with simplicity and maintainability; resilience under change
• Fluent English (written and spoken); German is a plus.

About Us

With a fleet of 313 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 2.5 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world's leading liner shipping companies. In the Liner Shipping segment, the Company has around 14,000 employees and 400 offices in 140 countries. Hapag-Lloyd has a container capacity of 3.7 million TEU - including one of the largest and most modern fleets of reefer containers. A total of 133 liner services worldwide ensure fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports on all the continents. In the Terminal & Infrastructure segment, Hapag-Lloyd has equity stakes in 21 terminals in Europe, Latin America, the United States, India and North Africa. Around 3,000 employees are assigned to the Terminal & Infrastructure segment and provide complementary logistics services at selected locations in addition to the terminal activities.

We offer:

• The opportunity to introduce solutions that you are individually convinced of, and to constantly take on new challenges with a distinguished level of responsibility
• Excellent career development opportunities, supported by a spacious range of training and development courses
• Competitive remuneration (14 salaries) and various benefits, as well as a permanent employment contract with a financially healthy company
• 30 days of vacation, flextime, capital-forming benefits, company pension plan
• Company restaurant with constant fluctuating, great-quality dishes to choose from as well as coffee bar
• Centrally located between the main train station and Jungfernstieg as well as subsidized public transportation
• Blended work model: 3 days a week at our headquarters in the heart of Hamburg and 2 days a week of mobile work
• Health and company sports programs (e.g. yoga, sailing, company doctor, etc.) as well as bicycle leasing
• Fitness Cooperation with EGYM - Wellpass

Please use our online tool for applying with us.

Job Info

• Job Identification 1891
• Job Category Finance & Controlling
• Posting Date 01/06/2026, 08:40 AM
• Locations Ballindamm 25, Hamburg, 20095, DE