Your Role

The digitalization of accounting is currently deciding for medium-sized businesses which companies will remain clearly controllable in the coming years – and which will get stuck in document chaos and media breaks. E-invoicing obligation, new DATEV generations, interfaces to upstream systems: the requirements are increasing faster than most companies and many law firms can keep up. This is exactly where a consulting need arises that does not cease.

Vogel is one of the most successful medium-sized consulting firms in Germany – several thousand medium-sized companies entrust us with their tax, commercial, and strategic matters. We are expanding digitalization and process consulting as an independent consulting pillar based on this: the complete handling of DATEV-related projects at the client's site – from the introduction of digital accounting and order management Next to the conversion to e-invoicing, interfaces to upstream systems, and ongoing support in daily business. You will build this pillar and its team and help decide what client digitalization in the medium-sized sector will look like in the future – your contribution will remain visible in the architecture.

You come from DATEV or process/system consulting, from a DATEV system house, from the digitalization unit of a law firm, or from an implementation role close to accounting. For years, you have seen how much is lost due to poor processes and half-hearted tool implementations – and you always reach the limits of your role: you recognize the leverage, but you are only responsible for the project, not the client and not the business unit. You want to take on the consulting yourself, close to the client, with a team and with revenue responsibility. At Vogel, you will find this: structures that support you – established clients, long experience, strong growth base – and at the same time a setup that moves forward every day. No corporate corset. No building promises without foundation.

You will be responsible for building the digitalization and process consulting department – you will open up the existing client base to these topics, manage projects at the client's site, design recurring consulting and support services, and bear revenue responsibility for the department. From day one, you will set the professional pace for the junior colleagues who are already on board. You will report to the management, which closely accompanies the development of this pillar. The natural development leads to a Senior Manager role with full responsibility for digitalization and process consulting – a management career, not an administrative position.

Your Responsibility

Management of DATEV-related client projects

• Take responsibility for the complete management of DATEV-related projects at the client's site – introduction of digital accounting (DATEV Rechnungswesen, Unternehmen online), implementation of Order Management Next, conversion to e-invoicing, and connection of upstream systems (ERP, cash register, payroll pre-systems) via interfaces.

• Accompany the client from process analysis through setup to stable operation – including ongoing support in daily business, from 'How do I best book this?' to changing or expanding the chart of accounts.

• Identify media breaks and automation potential and translate between business (accounting, payroll, tax) and technology – clearly documented in procedural documentation and process descriptions. Your benchmark: every implemented process must run at the client's site without you – and at double the project volume without consuming twice the consulting time per case.

Development of the business unit and revenue responsibility

• Actively open up the existing client base for digitalization and process consulting – you recognize where digitalization is the next lever, actively address owners and managing directors, and turn consulting needs into billable mandates.

• Develop recurring, productized offerings that build on ongoing accounting and scale – digitalization check, e-invoicing readiness, interface setup, process audit, ongoing digital support as a retainer.

• Bear revenue responsibility for the department – you transform individual projects into a sustainable, recurring revenue stream and develop the pillar beyond the accounting-related field perspectively.

Professional leadership of the team and a culture that makes performance visible

• Lead and professionally develop the junior team members who are already on board – you set the pace, review their work at the client's site, provide guidance, and make them better through real projects.

• Gradually expand the digitalization and process consulting team together with management – you participate in hiring, from professional assessment to conviction recommendations.

• Set the tone in the team: hierarchical in decision-making, flat in communication, autonomous in execution. Performance is celebrated here, not hidden – those who are good will find the space for it here, without political camouflage and without consensus theater.

Your Perspectives

What you have delivered after 6 months:

• You have taken over the ongoing DATEV-related projects and are completing them independently at the client's site – implementations, e-invoicing conversions, interface connections.

• You have analyzed the existing client base and identified and approached the first wave of companies where digitalization is the next lever.

• You are working harmoniously with the junior team members – they are delivering according to your professional specifications, and you have jointly taken responsibility for the first client results.

What you have delivered after 12 months:

• You have formed initial recurring, billable services from individual projects and built a sustainable revenue stream from them that multiple clients are paying for.

• You have built the DATEV depth required for the role and are the go-to person for clients and colleagues for the digital processing of accounting.

• You have set the standards for the department – procedures, documentation, quality benchmarks – so that projects are repeatable and not dependent on individuals.

What you have delivered after 24 months:

• You have established a viable service portfolio that is billed recurrently and scales with growing client volume.

• You are the professional escalation point for digitalization and process consulting and have expanded the team beyond the initial members.

• You are a candidate for the next Senior Manager position in the department.

Where the position is developing:

The next step is Senior Manager Digitalization and Process Consulting (management career) – however, this requires an independently developed, recurrently sustainable business unit, not just additional years of experience. We know no automatic progression of 'more experience equals higher level'. Beyond the Senior Manager level, the Director and prospective VP path opens up along our career framework.

What you bring

Experience & Track Record

• You have practical process and system depth – from DATEV or process consulting, a DATEV system house, the digitalization unit of a law firm, or an accounting-related implementation role.

• You have understood accounting – not as a theorist, but because you have actually implemented, converted, or automated bookkeeping, payroll, or order processes.

• You have been responsible for digital projects at the client's or customer's site from analysis to operation – not just contributing.

• You don't have to know DATEV inside and out. What counts is the willingness to immerse yourself fully in the DATEV ecosystem and become really good at it in a short time – you will build the depth with us.

• Profiles that do not fit the above criteria but have substantial process and system implementation proximity to accounting are explicitly invited – we evaluate based on contribution, not label. Specifically: ERP or accounting consultants from another tool environment with a desire for DATEV depth; balance sheet accountants or tax specialists with strong process and tool affinity who have driven projects; e-invoicing or interface specialists with consulting drive. The range indicated above applies 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 remuneration principles.

Skills & Working Method

• You translate between business and technology – you understand what an accountant, a payroll clerk, or a tax advisor really needs, and translate it into a clean, digital process.

• You master the mechanics of client digitalization: digital accounting, document and invoice receipt workflows, e-invoicing, interfaces between upstream systems and accounting, chart of accounts logic.

• You think in products, not in individual orders – you can tailor a recurring consulting and support service so that it builds on ongoing accounting, scales, and becomes billable.

• You use AI as a standard tool – for process analysis, documentation, data migration, and research. Repetitive tasks are a challenge for you to automate, not a fate.

Mindset & Personality

• You enjoy direct client contact – you can clearly explain to a skeptical owner or a long-time accountant why a new process is better, and bring them along.

• You have the humility to learn from practitioners. The accountant with twenty years of experience knows things about her process that are not in any tool manual – you build on that, instead of going over it.

• You see the industry's change as an opportunity, not a threat, and are eager to build a business unit that doesn't exist yet.

• You strive 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 pure IT or tool job without client responsibility. You don't administer systems in the background – you consult clients, manage projects, and bear relationship and revenue responsibility.

• No digitalization consulting that makes recommendations and leaves. You are responsible for implementation at the client's site up to ongoing operations, not just diagnosis and concept.

• No pre-planned desk. This pillar is currently being created. You will co-create offerings, standards, and tailoring, rather than operating a finished machine.

• No dusty industry standard with 2010 tech. Those who see DATEV standard plus Excel as the maximum and fear AI and automation are not in the right place here.

• No exit from consulting 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 mid-sized consulting firms – since 1959, owner-managed in the second generation, with its own capital – and is building the leading consulting platform for mid-sized businesses from this foundation. We work at three locations: Aalen as the established headquarters, Bopfingen in the core business, and Munich as a new hub. At all three, we are looking for people across all functions – from tax consulting to consulting to the teams that build the foundation underneath.

2. How are the salary bands to be understood?

Consciously broad – and clearly stated at each point before you apply. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not on degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce at the lower end. The stated range is not room for negotiation, 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 professional experience, and not negotiation skills.

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 9-to-5 are not our first choice. 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 together in person and usually 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.

4. How does the application process work?

Lean, fast, transparent – and staggered by profile. Usually, there are four steps: a written assignment in which you take a position on eight questions – AI is explicitly allowed, we just ask for a brief self-disclosure about it; a thirty-minute 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 actually are 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 only you ask questions. Usually, you will hear from us within 48 hours after each step.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Linked to performance quarterly, evaluated 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 assessment by your manager based on six criteria: Impact, Judgement, Communication, Execution, Growth, and Values.

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

Two active paths: the IC career (professional 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 remunerated equally, and both do not necessarily have to lead upwards: those who stay at a level and continue to deepen their expertise are just as welcome with us. You choose your direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Entry-level positions are 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?

The joint lunch is the daily anchor point – those who are in the office eat together; expected, not controlled. Dinner is the same offering without any expectation. Both without 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 just icing on the cake, but what makes intensity sustainable over years: exam support with a €25,000 qualification budget and three months leave, 100% coverage of childcare costs, EGYM Wellpass, company pension plan, 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: €75,000 – €84,000 • €20,625 – €23,100 Bonus

• • Base salary €75,000 – €84,000 • €20,625 – €23,100 Bonus

Find Jobs in Germany on Arbeitnow