HR Controlling & Workforce Planning Lead

HR Controlling & Workforce Planning Lead

Milan, Italy

People • Hybrid • Full-time

sennder is Europe’s leading digital freight forwarder. In a traditional industry, we are moving fast to digitize and automate all road logistics processes. We move trucks with courage and the power of data to unlock endless and sustainable capacity at exceptional quality.

Role Overview

You will work closely with the Senior Director & Head of People Business Partnering and collaborate with Finance and People teams across Europe. Based in the Milano office you will own the headcount planning cycle end‑to‑end and be the go‑to expert for workforce cost analytics and reporting across the organization.

What You Will Do

• Own the end‑to‑end annual headcount planning cycle (bottom‑up and top‑down) across all business units and geographies.
• Build and maintain rolling HC forecasts, translating hiring plans into FTE timelines, onboarding curves, and attrition scenarios.
• Develop HC planning models that capture growth drivers, productivity assumptions and organizational design changes.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to align hiring pipeline data with approved headcount slots and proactively surface risks to senior stakeholders.
• Own the cost centre set up in close cooperation with Finance from annual budget setting through to monthly actuals management.
• Maintain and develop the Workforce Cost dashboard in Power BI, ensuring real‑time labour cost visibility for sennder Leadership.
• Own the correct reporting of labour costs in both actuals and forecast dimensions: manage the monthly actuals cycle following payroll run — reconciling payroll outputs with cost centre allocations, validating charges and feeding validated data into Finance reporting.
• Support the forecast cycle by updating workforce cost projections based on latest actuals, headcount movements, and business changes.
• Model scenarios for headcount changes, restructuring, compensation adjustments, or business expansion, quantifying the cost impact to support decision‑making.
• Ensure accuracy and consistency of labour cost data between HRIS (HiBob) and Finance tools, proactively identifying and resolving discrepancies.
• Build clear, actionable reports and dashboards for People Leadership team, Finance and the C‑suite, covering cost evolution, budget vs actuals, and forward‑looking projections.
• Consolidate Workforce Cost (WFC) actuals on a monthly basis, ensuring completeness and accuracy of all cost entries and providing a reconciled view to Finance and People Leadership.
• Drive the Headcount and budget planning process, coordinating bottom‑up inputs from business units, aligning with Finance on planning assumptions, and maintaining the HC budget model throughout the year.
• Manage workforce cost accruals end‑to‑end: identify accrual needs (e.g. open positions, variable pay, and deferred costs), calculate and post accruals in coordination with Finance, and ensure timely reversal and reconciliation.

Why this role is exciting?

This is a high‑impact, high‑visibility individual contributor role with direct access to People leadership, Finance counterparts and business budget owners. You will shape how sennder makes decisions on its most valuable asset, its people.

• Building a scalable, automated Power BI workforce cost reporting framework.
• Improving HC forecast accuracy.
• Supporting sennder’s continued European growth with robust headcount scenario planning.
• Driving data quality and consistency across HRIS and Finance systems.

What We Are Looking For

• 3+ years of experience in workforce/headcount planning, HR controlling, or People Finance — ideally in a fast‑growing tech or logistics company.
• Proven ability to own a full HC planning cycle, including annual budget, rolling forecast, and reforecast.
• Strong financial modelling skills; fluent in Excel and Power BI, comfortable building complex, scenario‑based models from scratch.
• Hands‑on experience with HRIS and/or FP&A tools (e.g. HiBob, NetSuite).
• Experience managing labour cost actuals following payroll run and supporting Finance reporting cycles.
• Excellent analytical skills: ability to translate large datasets into clear narratives and actionable recommendations.
• Strong communication skills — able to present complex data to non‑technical stakeholders and influence decisions at all levels.
• Familiarity with SQL or Python for data extraction and automation is a plus.
• Fluent in English (working language at sennder); Italian is a plus.

Employee Well‑Being

• We make mental wellbeing and engagement a priority through initiatives like the sennCare program, a partnership with Nilo, and regular satisfaction surveys via Culture Amp.

We celebrate diversity and value your character just as much as your skills. If you don’t meet every requirement, don’t worry, we still encourage you to take a chance and apply. Bring your authentic self and help us shape the future of logistics in Europe.

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