Your Role

A consulting firm focused on AI and automation is only as good as the infrastructure beneath it — and in most entities in our industry, this infrastructure has grown over years, never been built.

Vogel is one of the most successful medium-sized consulting firms in Germany — several thousand medium-sized companies trust us with their tax, commercial, and strategic matters. We are expanding this model into a nationwide consulting firm that makes AI and automation its core. For this to be sustainable, it requires a deliberately built system landscape — secure, automated, scalable. You will be responsible for this technical foundation.

You come from a cloud and infrastructure engineering background, Azure-centric, and view IT administration as a product, not a stack of tickets. You are switching because pure operation and keeping servers running has become too confining for you, and you want to take responsibility for the technical architecture of a growing company yourself — with structures that are sustainable and, at the same time, a setup that moves forward every day.

You will be responsible for Vogel's entire system and IT infrastructure — from Identity and M365 to the DATEV landscape, cloud architecture, security, and deployment. You will report to the Head of Operations and work closely with Automation & AI, which builds upon your foundation. The natural progression leads to the technical and disciplinary leadership of a growing Tech Operations area.

Your Responsibility

Infrastructure Architecture and Deployment

• You are responsible for the entire system landscape — Identity, M365, endpoint management, network, the DATEV infrastructure, and the Azure cloud environment.

• You will build deployment and administration processes so that new employees, new locations, and new mandates can go online without manual special runs. Your benchmark: every system must function with double the number of employees without requiring twice the manual effort.

• You will make architectural decisions upon which everything else is based — as a deliberate choice, not as a historically grown compromise.

Security, Automation, and AI Foundation

• You are responsible for information security and data protection at the infrastructure level — as a tax consulting firm, we handle client data with the highest confidentiality.

• You will automate provisioning, configuration, and routine administration using Infrastructure-as-Code instead of click-work.

• You will lay the technical foundation on which our AI and automation initiatives run — secure data access, computing environments, interfaces.

Tech Operations Team and Location Integration

• You will lead the Tech Operations team technically and disciplinarily and continue to expand it along with our growth — hiring, guidance, standards.

• For every acquisition, you will be responsible for the IT cutover of the new location — cleanly migrating systems, identities, and data into our landscape.

• You will work in an environment that is hierarchical in decision-making, flat in communication, and autonomous in execution — performance is celebrated, not hidden.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You will have fully grasped the existing infrastructure and resolved critical risks in security, availability, and maintainability.

• You will have automated the onboarding of new employees — a new colleague will be fully operational on their first day, without manual special runs.

• You will have defined a clear target architectural state for the cloud and identity landscape and implemented the first steps.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• The core systems will be running with automated deployment and monitoring — routine administration will largely be code, not manual work.

• You will have provided and will be operating the infrastructure foundation for our AI and automation initiatives securely.

• You will have hired and guided the first Tech Operations employees.

What you will have delivered after 24 months:

• You will be leading a Tech Operations team in ongoing operations and will be the escalation point for all infrastructure topics.

• You will have been responsible for and successfully completed at least one location cutover as part of an acquisition.

• Your system landscape will demonstrably scale with growth without tying up proportionally more personnel.

Where the position is evolving:

The next step is to lead a broader Tech Operations area (management career) — this requires that your system landscape demonstrably supports operations and your team delivers independently, not just accumulating additional years of service.

What You Bring

Experience & Track Record

• You have built and operated IT infrastructure and systems in a cloud environment — Azure-centric, with Identity (Entra/AD), M365, and endpoint management.

• You have automated infrastructure — Infrastructure-as-Code, scripting, provisioning pipelines — and not just administered it manually.

• You have been responsible for information security at the infrastructure level and understand what confidentiality means in a regulated environment.

• Profiles that do not fit the above criteria but bring demonstrable infrastructure depth and a build-rather-than-operate track record are explicitly invited — we evaluate by contribution, not by label. The advertised range calibrates to the primary profile. Those with a different background will start at a different market price and converge to the role's level after twelve months of proven performance — the logic behind this is outlined in our compensation principles.

Skills & Work Approach

• You master cloud architecture and operation at a level beyond configuration — you design systems that others can use.

• You use AI as a natural tool — for automation, diagnostics, scripting, and multiplying your own output frequency. Repetitive administration is a challenge for you to automate, not a fate.

• You communicate technical matters clearly to non-technical individuals — management, business units, new locations.

Mindset & Personality

• You think of infrastructure as a product with users, not as a back office that only gets noticed when something is broken.

• You want to think beyond the status quo of your industry — you see AI and automation as levers, not threats.

• You have the ambition to set the highest standard in everything you deliver — not because someone is checking, but because mediocrity personally bothers you.

What You Won't Find With Us

• Not a classic system administrator job that processes tickets and keeps servers running. We are looking for someone who builds and automates systems, not just operates them.

• Not a dusty industry standard with tech from 2010. Anyone who sees DATEV standard plus Excel as the maximum and fears the implications of AI is not right for us.

• Not a greenfield platform build in an empty room. Vogel has over 100 employees, DATEV is running, clients expect service. What you build must function alongside ongoing operations.

• Not a corporate IT corset where you wait for approvals and promotions. You make the architectural decisions yourself and stand by them.

• Not an exit into a 45-hour week. The intensity remains high — directed differently, with significantly more ownership, but not less.

FAQ

1. What is Vogel — and where do you work?

Vogel is one of Germany's leading medium-sized consultancies — a family business since 1959, from Aalen — and is building it into the leading consulting platform for the medium-sized sector. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/Ostwürttemberg as the established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub. At both, we are looking for people across all functions — from tax consulting to strategy teams building the platform.

2. How are the salary bands to be understood?

Deliberately broad — and specified at each point. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not by degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce ones at the lower end. We calibrate exclusively to the market — two people with similar experience can earn differently with us.

3. How much — and how — is worked at Vogel?

We measure by what you achieve, not by hours. However, it's also true: those looking for a 9-to-5 are not our first choice. We seek people who work intensely out of their own drive because the tasks are worth it. How you manage your time is largely up to you. What we share: we work together in person — culture, sparring, and the best ideas emerge from daily proximity. We are not a remote company and do not have extensive home office policies; occasional remote days are not a problem.

4. How does the application process work?

Lean, fast, transparent — and tiered by profile. For entry-level roles (internships, working student positions, career entry), typically two interviews and a short work sample suffice; experienced roles are a bit more extensive. For selected senior roles, we are testing the introduction of a joint working day in the future, allowing both sides to get to know each other better. Always applies: scheduled appointments, swift decisions, substantial feedback — regardless of the outcome.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Tied to performance quarterly, qualitatively assessed. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. The expected value for good performance — you meet the requirements, set your own accents, pass the keeper test — is around 50% of the maximum; the maximum bonus is not the norm. The focus is on a holistic assessment by your manager: ownership, quality, learning curve, collaboration, impact.

6. How do I develop myself — what career paths are there?

Two active paths: Mastery (technical depth, expert career) and Pioneer (leadership, management). You choose the direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Career entry is not a special track, but the early part of the same journey — from working student or intern to Associate, for the best without a new application process.

7. Team, Culture, Vacation?

A shared lunch is an open daily offer — not mandatory; whoever wants to join can, anyone can eat at any time. In addition, dinner, social events, and offsites at regular intervals — not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work. Benefits: well-thought-out and substantial, not symbolic. Vacation: 28 days.

8. I know someone — is there a referral bonus?

Yes — €2,500 for each successfully filled position (no internships). A brief context is sufficient: who you are thinking of, for which role, why. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it must be substantial.

Compensation: €114,750 – €146,625 • Fix: €90k - €115k · Bonus: €24.75k - €31.625k · EV: €105.3k - €134.55k

• • OTE €114,750 – €146,625 • Fix: €90k - €115k · Bonus: €24.75k - €31.625k · EV: €105.3k - €134.55k

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