Your Role

In the coming years, Vogel will build the leading operating company in the German consulting market — tax consulting as an anchor, breadth across adjacent consulting fields, several thousand medium-sized companies entrusting us with their matters. The CEO Office handles the questions that don't fall under a classic department: How do we design a compensation architecture that rewards performance without destroying team dynamics? Which organizational structure can support five hundred employees? How do we culturally integrate acquired entities without destroying their strengths?

You have completed your Master's degree at a top university — above average, with your own recognizable track. Perhaps you have published in parallel, led a side project, or co-shaped a student initiative. Perhaps you then worked for one to two years in strategy consulting, VC, corporate strategy, or as a Founder's Associate. You are switching because the politically optimized career path of a consulting pyramid robs you of the courage for self-responsibility — and because you want to work as a sparring partner for entrepreneurs, not as a slide supplier for the next division manager.

You will work directly in the CEO Office on cross-functional topics — decision papers, memos, cultural integration of acquired entities, organizational architecture, recruiting as a Cultural Gate. You will report directly to Moritz Vogel and take on your own fields of responsibility as soon as you stand for them. The natural development leads after 12 to 24 months to a Manager Strategy/Chief of Staff role (management career) or to a Strategy & Culture Expert role (IC career) — the track choice follows your own substance, not an automatic process.

Your Responsibility

Research, Analysis, and Memos

• Research and analyze fundamental questions from strategy, organization, and culture — from compensation design to onboarding architectures to organizational models that can support five hundred employees.

• Write memos that the management uses the next day — concise, precise, with clear recommendations. Substance over form, form over platitudes.

• Prepare decisions by structuring options, identifying counterarguments, and formulating recommendations — not by referencing facts.

Cultural Integration and Cultural Gate

• Operationally support the cultural integration of acquired entities — onboarding materials, culture mapping, feedback loops, the detailed work that otherwise falls by the wayside between units.

• Conduct initial interviews with applicants as a Cultural Gate — you are the first person to check if a profile fits the Vogel tonality, and you reflect findings from the funnel back into our outreach and job posting logic.

• Translate abstract cultural principles into concrete mechanisms — templates, routines, briefings that guide everyday work.

Sparring and Operations in the CEO Office

• Gather perspectives for the management, identify blind spots, and ensure that decision-making bases are sound.

• Take on your own cross-functional projects as soon as you are ready — special assignments that lie between departments and require detailed work that no one else performs.

• Maintain the steering mechanisms of the CEO Office — topics, appointments, follow-ups — with the same diligence as your analysis assignments.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You will take on independent memo assignments without a double loop — management can work with your first version.

• You will have brought two to three substantial cross-functional topics to decision proposal stage.

• You will conduct initial Cultural Gate interviews with applicants and feed insights back into outreach and job postings.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• You will manage your own cross-functional portfolio with two to three subject areas — no more reactive support.

• You will have developed an independent format architecture (memo structure, briefing template, or onboarding track) and integrated it into daily work.

• Management will consult you as a sparring partner, not just as support staff.

What you will have delivered after 24 months:

• You will be a candidate for the next level — Manager Strategy & Culture / Chief of Staff (management career) or Strategy & Culture Expert (IC career).

• One of your topics will have demonstrable Vogel-wide impact — hiring bar standard, onboarding architecture, cultural integration of an acquisition.

• You will have co-built the operational core of the CEO Office in a tool, template, or mechanism chapter.

Where the role is developing:

The next step is Manager Strategy & Culture / Chief of Staff or Strategy & Culture Expert. The track choice follows your own substance during the first promotion, not an automatic progression by years of service. Through the Manager level, the Senior Manager and, prospectively, Director path opens up along our career framework.

What you bring with you

Experience & Track Record

• You have a Master's degree from a top university in an analytically demanding field — Economics, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, or equivalent.

• You have shown initiative outside the curriculum — own publication, own project, co-shaped student initiative, entrepreneurial engagement. Something that makes you recognizable.

• Ideally, you have zero to two years of professional experience thereafter — strategy consulting (MBB or equivalent), Venture Capital, Corporate Strategy, Founder's Associate, or a comparably demanding context. Direct entry after Master's is possible.

• Profiles that do not come from classic strategy consulting but bring conceptual thinking and a sense for culture and organization are explicitly invited — we evaluate by contribution, not by label. Specifically: Philosophy, Sociology, or Political Science profiles with practical experience in organizational consulting or research; Marketing profiles with a passion for recruitment strategy and employer branding; young profiles from investigative journalism or policy environments with strong analytical writing skills.

Skills & Work Style

• You can write — in the sense that you formulate a thought so that it is immediately understood upon reading. Writing is your primary tool.

• You work analytically and structured. When you receive a task, you break it down into sub-steps before you start.

• You work with AI as a natural tool for research, analysis, drafting, and pattern recognition — as a multiplier of your output frequency, not as a gimmick.

• You switch between strategic research and operational doing without internal friction.

• You deliver quickly and cleanly — there is no buffer in the CEO Office; what you deliver is used immediately.

Mindset & Personality

• You have a genuine interest in the question of how organizations function — and understand that culture is not a soft side issue, but a hard steering field.

• You can tolerate working in a field that has no standard answers — and still make decisions, instead of waiting.

• The thought of having produced nothing demonstrable after a year is unbearable to you.

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

What you will NOT find with us

• No career stepping stone without personal achievement. Advancement is based on proven output quality, not years of service. Those looking for a trainee logic are in the wrong place.

• No corporate strategy department producing slides for others. You write memos that management uses the next day — not material for the next division head.

• No strategic ivory tower. You work as a problem solver, not a concept producer — recommendations without immediate implementation responsibility do not belong here.

• No corporate straitjacket where you wait for promotions. Growth here comes from contribution, not years of service.

• No partner company with competing self-interests. We are one company with a one-firm logic — one brand, one culture, one hiring bar. No management by committee, no consensus for its own sake.

FAQ

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

Vogel is one of Germany's leading consultancies for medium-sized businesses — a family company since 1959, from Aalen — and is building the leading consulting platform for medium-sized businesses from it. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/Ostwürttemberg as our established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub. At both, 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 each position. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not on 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 you 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 seek people who work intensely out of their own initiative because the tasks are worth it. How you manage your time is largely your business. 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. What is the application process like?

Lean, fast, transparent — and staggered by profile. For entry-level roles (internship, working student, career entry), usually two interviews and a short work sample are sufficient; experienced roles are a bit more extensive. For selected senior roles, we are exploring the possibility of incorporating a joint workday in the future so that both sides can get to know each other better. Always applicable: scheduled appointments, swift decision, substantive feedback — regardless of the outcome.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Tied to performance quarterly, assessed qualitatively. 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 evaluation by your supervisor: ownership, quality, learning curve, collaboration, impact.

6. How do I develop — 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 path, but the early part of the same track — 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, everyone can eat at any time. In addition, dinners, social events, and offsites at regular intervals — not as mandatory programs, but because a good team also shares time outside of work. Benefits: thoughtful 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 have in mind, for which role, why. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it must be substantial.

Compensation: €61.2K – €79.6K

• • OTE €61.2K – €79.6K

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