Vogel
1 month ago
Manager Implementation & Operational Excellence
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Company information
- Company
- Vogel
- Location
- München Germany
- Posted
- 1 month ago
Job description
Your Role
Vogel is building the leading consulting platform for German medium-sized businesses — by consolidating a fragmented market and simultaneously transforming the 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) takes place. 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 show, but operational detail work under time pressure. You are making a move because the phase where you write PMI concepts and hand them over to others for execution has become too confining — you want to own the operational development of a location long-term, not just until integration, and build your own team in parallel.
You will be permanently responsible for the operational development of all Vogel locations — existing and new. The core is not the 100-day cycle, but the ongoing work: introducing new processes and sticking with them until they are truly running; driving the use of tools and AI; improving operational KPIs. With every acquisition, integration comes as an additional workstream 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, as the function is being newly established here, and 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 to a Senior Implementation Lead role within 24 to 36 months, with responsibility for several parallel integration programs and an expanded team.
Your Responsibilities
Operational steering through KPIs
You are responsible for the revenue-driving leading KPIs per location and team — digitalization degree, adoption rate of new tools and AI, lead times. During the build-up phase, you will prepare the figures yourself, investigate the causes yourself — 'Why is the automation rate in this team not higher?' — and sit down with people, rather than steering through reporting. You are not responsible for revenue itself (Practice/Growth); you own the levers before 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 specialist teams: IT with Tech Operations, HR with People Operations, Finance with the Finance unit, the functional expertise with the Practice. You orchestrate and are the operational presence on-site — supporting the team, driving adoption, coaching at the 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 things go 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 signs in daily operations (fee drift, workflow interruptions, 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 corrected together with the owner teams.
Identify best practices from acquired entities that are better than our own and reintegrate them into the overall standard.
When Automation & AI or Tech Operations roll out a new process, tool, or AI system: you will see who is using it and who isn't, investigate the reasons, and sit down with those specific people to make it work together — not delegate, but demonstrate and participate. You will mirror insights back to Automation & AI.
Team Building and Leadership
Build your associate team from day one — Associates Implementation & Operational Excellence, who deliver with you on-site. How their specialization develops — by business area (Accounting, Advisory, Payroll) or by location — will evolve with the build-up and is consciously open.
Take on the sourcing, interviewing, conviction recommendation, and onboarding of your associates — operating profiles with a detail-oriented approach and willingness to travel, not pure concept talents.
You will take on disciplinary responsibility for your associates in coordination 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 adaptation, IT integration are productive.
You will have implemented initial operational optimizations in the existing locations — visible in workflow quality or client feedback.
You will have hired the first Associate Implementation & Operational Excellence — sourcing, interview, conviction recommendation, onboarding.
You will be the escalation endpoint for operational location issues — clients, employees, local owners know and trust you.
What you will have delivered after 12 months:
You will have been responsible for at least two integrations, one of which in full self-responsibility with measurable business case outcome.
You will have built your implementation team with two to three associates. You will lead them functionally and disciplinarily in coordination with the management team, and have gone through your own quarterly feedback discussions.
You will have fed back best practices from acquired entities and from the 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 leading the group's implementation function — several parallel integrations under you, operational optimization running systematically across all locations, clear escalation logic, independent decision-making ability.
Your team will support growth — client numbers and location complexity have increased, the personnel curve is flatter.
You are a concrete candidate for the Senior Implementation Lead level.
Where the role is developing:
The next step is Senior Implementation Lead — responsibility for several 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 worked for two to three years 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 at least one on-site integration — not just written a PMI concept.
You have previously technically led a small team — 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 resume; industrial engineers with M&A integration experience in the medium-sized business sector; former founders wishing to transition to a build-up role.
Skills & Work Approach
You work analytically and structured, but can also get your hands dirty with operational details — implementation is both.
You can quickly learn new operational domains that are currently unfamiliar to you — tax consulting, 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 with engineers at eye level.
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 job 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 changing your seat 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 her processes that are not in any diagram.
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 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 own the implementation yourself, with your hand in the details.
No pure concept role without team building. You build your associate team yourself from day one — those seeking a pure individual contributor role are in the wrong place.
No PhD topic playground. You work on integrations and location optimizations that must yield results in 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 business 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 functions — from tax consulting to advisory to strategic teams building the platform.
2. How are the salary bands to be understood?
Intentionally broad — and indicated at each point. We differentiate by track record and market value, not by 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?
Measurement is based on what you achieve, not on 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 driven by their own initiative, because the tasks are worth it. How you allocate your time is largely your decision. 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. How does the application process work?
Lean, fast, transparent — and tiered by profile. For entry-level roles (internship, working student, career entry), 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 work day in the future to allow both sides to get to know each other better. Always applies: scheduled appointments, swift decision, substantial feedback — regardless of the outcome.
5. How does variable compensation work?
Tied 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 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: 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. Career entry is not a separate path, but the early 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 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 — €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 it must be substantial.
Compensation: €114,750 – €127,500 • Fixed: €90k - €100k · Bonus: €24.75k - €27.5k · EV: €105.3k- €117k
- • OTE €114,750 – €127,500 • Fixed: €90k - €100k · Bonus: €24.75k - €27.5k · EV: €105.3k- €117k
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Required skills
- consulting
- leadership
- project management
- operational excellence
- digitalization
- financial services
- ai
- aws
- payroll accounting
- automation
- kpis
- people management
- team building
- data migration
- change management
- stakeholder management
- implementation
- workflow optimization
- datev
- client service
- m&a
- tax consulting
- business case
- tech scale-up
- synergies
- post-merger integration
- process migration
- corporate subsidiary
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