Job market intelligence · Germany

Finance / Controller Jobs in Germany

Across 516 Finance / Controller postings in the Kariyan Job-Index, here is what the German market actually asks for, the skills that matter, where the roles are, and how to position before you apply.

Live roles Top skill Excel 43%Top city BerlinHybrid 45%
The short answer

Finance / Controller jobs in Germany center on Excel (43% of postings), with demand spread across business methods, business tools, finance tools. Roles concentrate in Berlin; about 45% are hybrid. Across 516 postings, Kariyan Job-Index, Germany.

Open roles

Live Finance / Controller roles right now

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Market snapshot

The numbers at a glance

516
postings analyzed · 284 companies
live roles right now
43%
require Excel
Skills in demand

The skill landscape for this role

Excel dominates this role at 43%, table stakes, not your edge. The graphs show full demand per category, where real differentiation lives.

Business methods66% of roles

Accounting
41%
Reporting
24%
Controlling
21%
Consulting
11%
Compliance
9%
Forecasting
8%

Business tools56% of roles

Excel
43%
SAP
25%
Salesforce
1%

Finance tools29% of roles

HGB
17%
DATEV
12%
IFRS
8%
US GAAP
1%
Lexware
0%
Sage
0%

ERP & SAP25% of roles

ERP
20%
SAP S/4HANA
5%
SAP FI
2%
SAP FI/CO
1%
SAP Customizing
0%
SAP MM
0%
Positioning

What gets you in, and what sets you apart

Table stakes

Near-universal here. Expected, not a differentiator.

  • Excel43%
  • Accounting41%

Your edge

Rarer but present. These are what set a candidate apart.

  • SAP25%
  • Reporting24%
  • Controlling21%
  • ERP20%
  • HGB17%

Shares of the postings we could read; skills are extracted per posting and directional.

What the data changes about how you apply

Reads that should change a decision

No single skill rules this role

The dataThe top skill (Excel) is only 43% of postings; demand spreads across Excel, Accounting, SAP.Do thisPosition around a profile, not one tool. Show the recurring combination, not a single keyword.

This role is less remote than it feels

The dataOnly 3% of postings are fully remote. Hybrid is 45% and onsite 28%.Do thisPlan your search around being reachable from a hub; treat fully-remote roles as a bonus, not the baseline.
How the work looks

Work mode, seniority & language

Work mode

45%Hybrid
Hybrid 45%
Onsite 28%
Unspecified 24%
Remote 3%
Seniority of labeled roles
Mid-level 55%
Senior 20%
Junior 7%
Lead/Principal 0%
Unspecified 18%
Who these roles are open to
Contract 4%
Part-time 3%
Apprenticeship (Ausbildung) 1%
Internship / Praktikum 1%
Unspecified 13%
Do these roles need German?

Of the 344 roles that state a language policy, 31% mark German optional and 67% require it.

German optional 20%
German a plus 2%
German required 45%
Not stated 33%

18% are advertised in English. 172 postings state no language requirement, so silence is not a yes to German. Based on each posting's stated language policy; directional.

Where the jobs cluster

Top locations

25%list no city we could read

These postings don't specify a city in the data we have. That doesn't mean location isn't required, only that none was listed.

The 75% that specify a location:

Berlin
8%
Hamburg
4%
Munich
4%
Cologne
3%
Frankfurt
3%
Karlsruhe
3%

No single city dominates among the postings that name one.

How you work

Soft skills that recur

Soft skills employers name

Communication
36%
Teamwork
26%
Self-Motivation
26%
Analytical Thinking
24%
Reliability
21%
Attention to Detail
19%

For this role, how you work is named as often as what you know.

On salary: we don't publish salary figures, the index carries no verified pay data.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What skills do you need as a Finance / Controller in Germany?

Excel leads at 43% of postings. Companies typically want a combination of Business methods, Business tools, Finance tools. Put concrete, quantified examples of each on your CV.

Where in Germany do Finance / Controller jobs cluster?

Berlin, Hamburg and Munich are the main hiring hubs. Roles cluster where commercial activity is highest.

Are Finance / Controller jobs remote in Germany?

Most Finance / Controller roles are hybrid (45%) or onsite (28%). Fully remote is less common at 3%, typical for client-facing work. Look for nationally posted roles if flexibility matters.

See Finance / Controller roles matched to your profile

Kariyan is your personal AI job agent for Germany. It reads your CV, finds Finance / Controller roles that fit, prepares a tailored application for each, and sends it only after you approve.

Kariyan

Based on 300 live listings in Germany, analyzed 2026-08-16. These insights are generated by Kariyan from live job postings, not hand-written editorial.

Source: Kariyan Job-Index, Germany. The shares above are computed across all 516 postings collected for this role, including ones no longer open (confidence: high). Some location, language and seniority fields are incomplete, so those shares are directional. We do not publish salary, demographic, or response-rate data.