Your Role

Vogel is building the leading consulting platform for the German SME sector — and tax consulting is its core, not just another business segment. Several thousand clients trust us today; the platform is growing organically and through consolidation. Director Tax means: You bear full responsibility for an entire practice area of tax consulting — strategy, output, development, and growth.

You are a tax advisor with leadership experience at the division level. You have managed a sub-organization, multiple teams, or a location — and not just administered it, but grown it. You understand the mechanics of a Tax business from client management to leverage structure to contribution to results. You are making a change because you want to build a practice area as an entrepreneur within the company — with the line, the clients, and the responsibility that entails.

You are fully responsible for the growth of your division: the strategy, the output across multiple sub-teams, the development of the line, and the contribution to business results. You are the escalation endpoint for your division; you only escalate to management what has company-strategic importance. You develop the division strategy independently and contribute your topics to the company strategy.

Your Responsibility

Division & Growth

• Take full responsibility for an independent practice area or location in tax consulting for SMEs — strategy, output, development — and its contribution to business results.

• Develop the division strategy independently and contribute your topics to the company strategy; you are a co-creator, not just an implementer.

• Drive the growth of your team through your own acquisition, cross-selling across all Vogel divisions, and — where relevant — the integration of acquired client portfolios from the buy-and-build pipeline.

Line Management

• Lead your own management line across multiple smaller sub-teams — three to five direct reports at the division level, with deep indirect responsibility over the portfolios below them.

• Bear full personnel responsibility for your division — hiring at the division level within the multi-stage Vogel process, development of your Senior Managers, performance, and terminations.

• Set the technical standards and methodology for your division — you are the authority on methodology, but remain operationally competent.

Clients & Market

• Remain the personal point of contact for the strategically most important clients and owners of your client portfolio.

• Represent Vogel Tax externally — networking, industry public relations, associations — and build the reputation of the division.

• Set the course for our strategic positioning by consistently generating business development impulses.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You manage your practice area independently; the line runs through you without management intervening in day-to-day operations.

• You have taken over your Senior Managers, understood the management line, and made initial steering decisions.

• You have presented your own growth and strategy line for your division.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• Your division is growing measurably — through acquisition, cross-selling, and, where relevant, integrated client portfolios.

• You have further developed your management line and aligned it at the division level.

• Your division strategy is visibly anchored in the company strategy.

What you will have delivered after 24 months:

• Your division makes a recognizable, independent contribution to the group's business results.

• You have set the technical standards for your division and built external reputation.

• You are established as the division owner and on the Principal/VP path according to our Career Framework.

Where the role is developing:

Beyond the Director level, the Principal/VP path opens up — entrepreneurial owner responsibility for an entire strategic pillar with co-responsibility for the company strategy. Director Tax is a role with real division ownership: In addition to cash compensation, it is envisaged that you will participate entrepreneurially in the added value you create with your division.

What You Bring

Experience & Track Record

• You have passed the tax advisor examination and subsequently held leadership positions — managing a sub-organization, multiple teams, or a location.

• You have not just managed a division, but grown it — with a demonstrable contribution to output and results.

• You have managed leaders, set technical standards, and borne personnel responsibility in depth.

• Profiles that do not fit this mold but have the substance are explicitly invited — we evaluate based on contribution, not label. Specifically: Big4 Director or Partner candidate with SME relevance; law firm leader on the verge of their own division ownership role. The stated range is calibrated to the primary profile — the logic behind it is in our compensation principles.

Skills & Way of Working

• You master the mechanics of a Tax business — client management, leverage, quality, and results — and steer them across multiple teams.

• You think strategically and lead operationally competently at the same time; you do not lose sight of client reality.

• You use AI as a natural lever and drive the automation of your division, rather than waiting for it.

Mindset & Personality

• You think and act like an entrepreneur within the company — the division is your division, its growth your responsibility.

• You approach SME owners with genuine respect and on an equal footing.

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

• Vogel is hierarchical in decision-making, flat in communication, autonomous in execution. Performance is celebrated, not hidden.

What You Won't Find With Us

• No partnership with competing self-interests. We are a company with a one-firm logic — one brand, one culture, one hiring bar. No management by committee.

• No prestigious title without real owner responsibility. You bear the strategy, output, and results of your division — not a plaque on the door.

• No leading from a distance. You remain close to the most important clients and your line; purely top-down steering is not for us.

• No hereditary model. Your mission is growth, not managing the status quo.

FAQ

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

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

2. How should the salary bands be understood?

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

3. How much — and how — do people work at Vogel?

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 on their own initiative because the tasks are worth it. How you allocate 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; individual remote days are not a problem.

4. What is the application process like?

Lean, fast, transparent — and tiered according to profile. For entry-level roles (internship, working student, early career), two interviews and a short work sample are usually sufficient; experienced roles are a bit more extensive. For selected senior roles, we are considering incorporating a joint workday in the future so that both sides can get to know each other better. Always applicable: 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 priorities, 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. Early career entry is not a separate path, but the initial 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, does so, and everyone can eat at any time. In addition, dinners, 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 every 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 needs to be substantial.

Compensation: €256.5K – €342K • Fixed: €180k – €240k · Bonus: €76.5k – €102k · EV: €221.4k – €295.2k

• • OTE €256.5K – €342K • Fixed: €180k – €240k · Bonus: €76.5k – €102k · EV: €221.4k – €295.2k

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