Your Role

Vogel is building the leading consulting platform for the German medium-sized businesses — through the consolidation of a fragmented market and the simultaneous transformation of underlying structures. Several thousand medium-sized companies trust us. With every acquisition, a concrete implementation task arises — migrating client bases, adapting processes, integrating IT — and in parallel, the ongoing optimization of existing locations (Aalen, Munich, Schwäbisch Gmünd) continues. This implementation work is the invisible lever through which every acquisition generates value and every existing location improves every month.

You bring two to three years of professional experience in implementation, process migration, or a post-merger integration mandate — whether from a consultancy with a PMI focus, a tech scale-up with M&A activity, or a corporate subsidiary with integration experience. You have learned there that implementation is not a slide game, but operational detailed work under time pressure. You are moving because the phase where you write PMI concepts and hand them over to others for implementation has become too narrow for you — you want to own the operational development of a location long-term, not just until integration, and simultaneously build your own team.

You will be permanently responsible for the operational development of all Vogel locations — both existing and new ones. The core is not the 100-day cycle, but the ongoing work: introducing new processes and sticking with them until they really work; driving the use of tools and AI; improving operational key figures. With every acquisition, integration comes as one stream that you coordinate. You will own the operational development of each location long-term, not just until integration. You will report directly to Joachim and Moritz Vogel because the function is being newly established here, and you will work closely with the management team (Business Case, 100-day plan), the Manager Automation & AI (process standards, tooling), and the Manager Finance & Accounting (consolidation). The natural development leads after 24 to 36 months into a Senior Implementation Lead role with responsibility for several parallel integration programs and an expanded team.

Your Responsibility

Operational control via key figures

• You are responsible for the revenue-driving leading key figures per location and team — degree of digitalization, adoption rate of new tools and AI, lead times. During the setup phase, you will prepare the figures yourself, investigate the causes yourself — 'Why isn't the automation rate in this team higher?' — and sit down with people instead of controlling via reporting. You are not directly responsible for revenue (Practice/Growth); you own the levers upstream from it.

Acquisition integration and location onboarding

• Be responsible for the operational takeover of client bases from acquired entities — data transfer, contract review, fee adjustment, communication to clients.

• Coordinate all integration workstreams from closing — sequencing, 100-day plan, tracking synergies. The execution lies with the specialized teams: IT with Tech Operations, HR with People Operations, Finance with the Finance Unit, the technical aspects with the Practice. You orchestrate and are the operational presence on-site — supporting the team, driving adoption, coaching on a process level — you do not perform the functional execution yourself.

• Support the operational team of acquired entities in the first weeks and months on-site — briefings, training, joint client work, coaching at the process level.

• Ensure that the integration supports the business case: together with the management team, you track the promised operational synergies and trigger corrections if something goes off track.

Ongoing operations optimization

• Systematically work through the existing Vogel locations — client by client, workflow by workflow, employee by employee — and continuously improve process quality, client service, and utilization.

• Identify early warning signals in daily operations (fee drift, workflow breaks, escalations) and resolve them before they become visible in quarterly reports.

• Synchronize best practices between locations — what works in Aalen belongs in Munich, what goes wrong in Schwäbisch Gmünd will be straightened out together with the owner teams.

• Identify best practices from acquired entities that are better than our own and integrate them back into the overall standard.

• When Automation & AI or Tech Operations roll out a new process, tool, or AI system: you check who is using it and who isn't, investigate the reasons, and sit down with exactly those people to make it work with them — don't delegate, but demonstrate and participate. You reflect findings back to Automation & AI.

Team building and leadership

• Build your associate team from day one — Associates Implementation & Operational Excellence, who will deliver with you on-site. How their specialization develops — by business area (accounting, advisory, payroll) or by location — will evolve with the setup and is deliberately open.

• Take responsibility for the screening, interviewing, conviction recommendation, and onboarding of your associates — operating profiles with hands-on skills and willingness to travel, not pure concept talents.

• You will take on disciplinary responsibility for your associates in agreement with the management team — performance reviews, escalation decisions, hiring support.

• Establish implementation routines across all locations — weekly rhythm, standards for location documentation, escalation paths — which will later be rolled out to further acquisitions.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You will have executed the 100-day plan for at least one integration — client migration, process adjustment, IT integration put into productive use.

• You will have put first operational optimizations into productive use in existing locations — visible in workflow quality or client feedback.

• You will have hired the first Associate Implementation & Operational Excellence — screening, interview, conviction recommendation, onboarding.

• You will be the escalation endpoint for operational location issues — clients, employees, local owners will know and trust you.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• You will have been responsible for at least two integrations, one of them with full personal responsibility and measurable business case outcome.

• You will have built up your implementation team with two to three associates. You will lead them technically and disciplinarily in agreement with the management team, and will have gone through your own quarterly feedback discussions.

• You will have reintegrated best practices from acquired entities and from existing locations into the Vogel standard — visible in processes and tooling.

• You will be visibly working with the management team and Corporate Development on the selection and evaluation of further acquisition targets from an implementation perspective.

What you will have delivered after 24 months:

• You will be in charge of the group's implementation function — multiple parallel integrations under you, ongoing operations optimization across all locations, clear escalation logic, independent decision-making ability.

• Your team will support growth — client numbers and location complexity will have increased, the personnel curve will be flatter.

• You will be a concrete candidate for the Senior Implementation Lead level.

Where the role is developing:

The next step is Senior Implementation Lead — responsibility for multiple parallel integration programs and an expanded implementation team. Through the Senior level, the Lead/Director path opens up along our Career Framework.

What you bring

Experience & Track Record

• Ideally, you have two to three years of experience in implementation, process migration, or a PMI mandate in a consultancy with an integration focus, a tech scale-up with M&A activity, or a corporate subsidiary.

• You have an excellent university degree in Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, Business Informatics, or a related field.

• You have been responsible for an on-site integration at least once — not just written a PMI concept.

• You have previously technically guided a small team — leading junior team members, interns, or working students is sufficient; formal people management is not a prerequisite.

• Profiles that do not fit the above description but bring substantial operational depth are explicitly invited — we evaluate by contribution, not by label. Specifically: tax advisors with operational depth and proven location development in their own CV; industrial engineers with M&A integration experience in a medium-sized business environment; former founders wishing to transition into a build-up role.

Skills & Working Style

• You work analytically and structured, but can also get hands-on with operational details — implementation is both.

• You can quickly familiarize yourself with operational domains that are new to you — tax advisory, payroll accounting, DATEV. You don't need to know it, but you will grasp the logic within a few weeks.

• You are technically proficient enough to manage IT/data migrations — you don't need to write code yourself, but you need to be able to speak at eye level with engineers.

• You use AI as a natural tool for process analysis, documentation, and workflow optimization.

• You communicate in a way that employees on-site trust you — you are changing the working methods of people who have been doing their jobs for years.

• You lead junior profiles without micromanaging them — coaching, conviction recommendation, clear escalation logic.

Mindset & Personality

• You have a passion for implementation — you feel comfortable switching seats and working on-site, rather than consulting from headquarters.

• You bring the willingness to travel that a multi-location mandate requires — and enjoy solving problems together with the respective teams.

• You want to build and lead a team, not manage an existing function.

• You are comfortable with ambiguity — integrations are never fully predictable, you make decisions under uncertainty rather than waiting.

• You have the humility to learn from practitioners. The tax advisor with 20 years of experience knows things about their processes that are not in any diagram.

• 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

• No process consulting that makes recommendations and leaves. You are responsible for implementation on-site, not just conception.

• No classic PMI consultant path without operational responsibility. You don't move to the next case — you own the operational development of the location long-term, not just until integration, and lead your team for years.

• No value creation/transformation mandate that identifies levers and leaves implementation to others — not even under a PMI or transformation label. You personally handle the implementation, with your hand in the details.

• No pure concept role without team building. You build your associate team from day one — those looking for a pure solo role are in the wrong place.

• No PhD-topic playground. You work on integrations and location optimizations that must yield results within the next twelve months — not on concepts without operational consequences.

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

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 the established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub. At both, we are looking for people across all functions — from tax advisory and consulting to the strategic teams building the platform.

2. How are the salary bands to be understood?

Intentionally broad — and disclosed at every point. We differentiate by track record and market value, not by degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce 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 honest: if you're looking for 9-to-5, we're not the first address. We are looking for people who work intensively 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 in person together — 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 (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 examining the possibility of incorporating a joint workday in the future so that both sides can get to know each other better. It always applies: scheduled appointments, quick decisions, substantial 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 with 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 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 is not a separate 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 offering — not mandatory; whoever wants to join can, everyone can eat anytime. 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 — EUR 2,500 for every successfully filled position (no internships). A brief context is enough: who you are thinking of, for which role, why. It doesn't have to be perfect, but substantial.

Compensation: €114,750 – €127,500 • Fix: €90k - €100k · Bonus: €24.75k - €27.5k · EV: €105.3k- €117k

• • OTE €114,750 – €127,500 • Fix: €90k - €100k · Bonus: €24.75k - €27.5k · EV: €105.3k- €117k

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