Your Role

A consulting company that relies on AI and automation is only as good as the infrastructure beneath it — and in most sectors of our industry, this infrastructure has grown over years, never been built.

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

You come from cloud and infrastructure engineering, Azure-centric, and view IT administration as a product, not a ticket pile. You are making a change because pure operation and keeping servers running has become too restrictive 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, through the DATEV landscape, to 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 functional 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 double the manual effort.

• You will make architectural decisions upon which everything else is built — as a conscious choice, not as a historically evolved 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 upon 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 functionally and disciplinarily and continue to expand it in line with our growth — hiring, training, standards.

• For every acquisition, you will be responsible for the IT cutover of the new location — cleanly integrating 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 understood the existing infrastructure and resolved critical risks in security, availability, and maintainability.

• You will have automated the onboarding of new employees — a new colleague is 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 initial steps.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• The core systems will be deployed and monitored automatically — routine administration will be largely 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 trained 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 taken responsibility for at least one location cutover as part of an acquisition and completed it cleanly.

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

Where the position is evolving:

The next step is to lead a broader tech operations area (management career) — this requires your system landscape to be demonstrably effective and your team to deliver independently, not just accumulate additional years of experience.

What you bring

Experience & Track Record

• You have built and operated IT infrastructure and systems in the 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 description but have demonstrable infrastructure depth and a build-rather-than-operate track record are expressly welcome — we evaluate based on contribution, not 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 level after twelve months of proven performance — the logic behind this is outlined in our compensation principles.

Skills & Work Style

• You master cloud architecture and operations 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 prompt for automation for you, not a destiny.

• You communicate technical matters clearly to non-technical people — management, departments, new locations.

Mindset & Personality

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

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

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

What you will not 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 Level 2010. Those who see DATEV standard plus Excel as the maximum and fear AI implications are not the right fit here.

• Not greenfield platform building 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 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 — since 1959, owner-managed in the second generation, with its own capital — and is building it into the leading consulting platform for the medium-sized sector. We work at three locations: Aalen as the established headquarters, Bopfingen in the core business, and Munich as the new hub. At all three, we are looking for people across all functions — from tax consulting to advisory services to the teams that build the foundation beneath it.

Intentionally broad — and indicated at each point before you apply. 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. The indicated range is not negotiation leeway, but a profile scale — two people with similar experience can earn differently with us. What determines the upper end is the level of maturity, not the number of years of experience, and not negotiation skills.

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

Lean, fast, transparent — and tiered by profile. Typically, it involves four steps: a written assignment where you take a position on eight questions — AI is explicitly allowed, we only ask for a brief self-disclosure about it; a half-hour conversation; a joint work session on a real problem from our daily work; and an on-site meeting with the team and a shared meal. How many steps there are actually depends on the role: for internships and working student positions, the on-site meeting is omitted; for student jobs, a conversation is sufficient; for senior roles, a joint work afternoon is added. In advance, you can book a ten-minute call where you only ask questions. Usually, you will hear from us within 48 hours after each step.

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 based on six criteria: Impact, Judgement, Communication, Execution, Growth, and Values.

Two active paths: the IC career (technical depth, expert career) through the stages Expert, Senior, Lead, and Principal — and the management career (leadership, personnel responsibility) through Manager, Senior Manager, Director, and VP. Both are compensated equally, and both do not necessarily have to lead upwards: those who stay at a certain level and deepen their expertise are just as welcome with us. You choose your direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Starting your career is not a special path, but an early part of the same journey — from working student or intern to Associate, for the best without a new application process.

The shared lunch is the daily anchor point — those who are in the office eat together; expected, not controlled. Dinner is the same offer without any expectation. Both without any personal cost. In addition, social events and offsites at regular intervals — not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work.

Benefits with us are not the icing on the cake, but what makes intensity sustainable over years: exam support with a €25,000 qualification budget and three months of leave, 100% coverage of childcare costs, EGYM Wellpass, company pension scheme, job ticket with 90% subsidy, home office equipment and a device of your choice from our catalog, one book per month from the Vogel canon — and AI tools without token limits and without budget caps. Vacation: 28 days.

Compensation: €90,000 – €115,000 • €24,750 – €31,625 Bonus

• • Fixed salary €90,000 – €115,000 • €24,750 – €31,625 Bonus

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