Director of Finance

Opening in early 2025, The Standard, Brussels marks the hotel brand’s third outpost in Europe. Set in the city’s Northern Quarter, The Standard, Brussels brings the brand’s design, culture and activation-driven philosophy to Belgium.

With 180 guestrooms (plus 20 residences), the modern, new-build project features many stages for The Standard’s renowned day- and nightlife. A ground-floor greenhouse welcomes guests and locals into the lobby lounge, restaurant, and terrace. Upstairs, The Rooftop features its own restaurant, bar and garden—set to become a neighbourhood destination. Throughout the building, additional public and private event spaces are platforms for happenings.

The Standard, Brussels will welcome a new set of creative, dynamic guests into the brand ethos. In Brussels, The Standard’s signature mix of playful, sophisticated, unexpected hospitality finds roots and resonances in local culture. The simple premise behind The Standard is that it is anything but. Founded in 1999, the goals of every Standard are to up the aesthetic stakes and defy convention while attending to every detail, embracing our local communities, providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for our teams and, of course, delivering a smashing good time for our guests.

We are defined by our richness of personality, diversity of background and lifestyle and are now looking for a Director of Finance who will embody our ‘Anything but Standard’ ethos as we commence our pre-opening period.

Your role

As our Director of Finance, you will work in partnership with our General Manager, Senior Executive team and Corporate Finance teams to oversee the entire accounting function of our new property in Brussels. As part of our senior pre-opening team, you will oversee a number of important projects on our critical path during pre-opening period, to ensure that the project runs to schedule, pre-opening budgets are managed, accounting systems and protocols are in place and the property is successfully launched.

This role is a pivotal within the business to ensure to ensure that strategic commercial decisions flow through all areas of the operation to ensure productivity and profit is maintained at optimum levels. You will lead and guide the senior team through revenue generation, labour productivity and ensure costs are controlled in line with our pre-opening and operating budget. You will take a leading role in supporting the senior executive team with the creation of the annual budget and manage the ongoing business forecast. You will also oversee and manage the production of our month end financial statements [including the P&L, accruals and balance sheet reconciliations] and prepare our month end business review pack for our ownership meeting

You will be supported by a small finance team covering various accounting functions, with overall responsibility for maintaining and controlling all financial transactions and reporting to ensure that corporate standards and operational SOPs are adhered to and that they comply with Belgium statutory accounting requirements. You will also be responsible for the training & development of the finance team to ensure they have a full understanding of financial controls and audit requirements.

A strong commercial acumen will be required along with the ability to advise [and sometimes challenge] senior directors of the financial impacts of strategic plans and ad-hoc projects; through to the implementation of cost saving exercises to maximise profits. Naturally this will require you to have a solid understanding of operational/capex budgets and business plans to coach and guide managers in accordance with budget guidelines.

In addition to month end you will also support the senior team with the production of statistics and financial reports to support decision making across the business. You will also support the operation with the management of permits, insurances, licences and contracts to ensure they do not lapse and the business remains compliant.

This is not a ‘Standard’ Director of Finance position so you will need to have miles and miles of personality and stamina, be highly social, upbeat, and friendly; confident and can handle pressure well; thrive in a high-volume, high-energy environment and able to work equally well both independently and as part of a team.

Do you have what it takes to be our Director of Finance at The Standard, Brussels....

A minimum of 5+ years’ experience as a Finance Manager or Director of Finance gained within a similar Lifestyle Hotel or large 4- or 5-star Hotel in Brussels or Benelux region is essential for this role

In addition to this you may also have….

• Pre-opening Hotel Experience with strong project management skills (including system implementation and setting up of business accounting functions)
• Solid understanding of all accounting principles and prior experience of month end processes / production of month end accounts and statutory reporting responsibilities in Belgium to IFRS Standards
• Have previously managed the full end to end budgeting process with an excellence commercial acumen
• Be well versed in Belgium legal requirements including taxation, social security, business registration and insurance
• Hold formal accounting qualification or certified designation ACCA/IEB/ITAA
• Have excellent strategic and commercial acumen with prior experience of budget creation, commercial understanding and business planning combined with a touch of creative ‘blue sky’ thinking in order to support bespoke projects and activities that deliver true ROI.
• Strong organisational skills, and the ability to work within tight deadlines both individually and managing a wider team.
• Have exceptional written / numerical skills and be proficient in the use of accounting and payroll software.
• Candidates should have advance skills in Excel.
• Fluency in Dutch/French in addition to English is essential for this role
• During our preopening period you may need to have a flexible approach to working hours

If you think you have what it takes to be our Director of Finance at The Standard, Brussels we’d love to hear from you!

All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the European Union. Documented evidence of eligibility will be required from candidates prior to commencing employment.