Workforce Controller

ROLE SUMMARY:

Staff costs represent the largest cost line and one of the main investments of a school, making their management critical. This position must help balance the need to attract and retain the right people with maintaining an efficient and sustainable cost structure. The Workforce Controller owns the financial control, budgeting, and headcount tracking of personnel costs across Inspired’s regional schools. Sitting within Finance and working daily with the Regional HR Director, this role translates headcount and salary decisions into a reliable financial budget. Note: This is a controllership and financial modeling role focused on numbers and data accuracy, not a payroll-processing position. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Annual Budgeting: Build, model, and maintain the annual staff cost budget by school and country, incorporating headcount plans and salary review outcomes.
• Headcount & FTE Control: Maintain a live headcount and FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) tracker reconciled against the budget to proactively flag financial risks or savings.
• Month-End Variance Analysis: Produce the monthly staff cost close and investigate the operational root causes behind any deviations (overtime, substitution costs, hiring delays). Analyze and explain variances, distinguishing phasing/timing effects from variations with an expected financial impact at year-end.
• Dynamic Forecasting: Update and roll monthly variance findings into a dynamic rolling full-year forecast for School Leadership and Executive Board review.
• Regulatory Compliance: Build into the financial models the cost impact of collective agreement indexations and country-specific statutory pay events before they happen.
• Scenario Modeling: Support the annual salary and bonus cycles by creating costed "what-if" scenarios to test proposed updates against budget limits before approval.
• Data Integration & Audit: Partner with local payroll providers and HR tech (SAP SuccessFactors, Airtable) to audit source data and maintain a clean audit trail. 
• Value Creation Opportunities: Based on month-end analysis and budget work, collaborate with Finance, HR, and school teams to identify potential value creation initiatives, supporting their implementation and monitoring. 

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL HAVE:

• Education: Degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or Business Administration. 
• Experience: 3 to 5 years of solid experience in Controlling or FP&A, with a proven ability to process, analyze, and manage significant volumes of data.
• Multi-Country Exposure: Experience managing budgets across multiple legal entities, currencies, or countries. 
• Technical Skills: Expert Excel skills (financial modeling and large data set manipulation). Experience with ERPs (SAP) and HRIS (SuccessFactors, Airtable) is highly valued. 
• Communication: Ability to explain complex financial data and variances in plain language to non-finance stakeholders.
• Languages: Fluency in English is mandatory. Portuguese is preferred.

SAFEGUARDING STATEMENT:

Inspired Education Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff, volunteers and other third parties to share this commitment. Safer recruitment practices and pre-employment background checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed.

SCHOOL APPLICATION FORM:

Please download and complete our Inspired Application Form and submit alongside your CV.

Inspired Academic Teaching Application Form
Inspired Non-Teaching Application Form