Your Role

Vogel is building the leading consulting platform for the German Mittelstand — 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) 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 show, but rather operational detail work under time pressure. You are changing because the phase where you write PMI concepts and hand them over to others for implementation has become too constricting 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 actually run; advancing the use of tools and AI; improving operational KPIs. With every acquisition, integration comes as an additional strand 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 built here, and work closely with management (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 steering through KPIs

• You are responsible for the revenue-driving leading KPIs per location and team — digitalization level, adoption rate of new tools and AI, lead times. In 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 instead of steering through reporting. You are not responsible for revenue itself (Practice/Growth); you own the levers before it.

Acquisition Integration and Location Onboarding

• Take responsibility 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. Execution lies with the specialist 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.

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

• Ensure that the integration supports the business case: together with management, 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 signs in daily operational business (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 corrected 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 will check who is using it and who isn't, investigate the reasons, and sit down with precisely those people to make it work together — not delegate, but demonstrate and participate. You will feed back insights 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 build-up and is intentionally open.

• Take on the screening, interviewing, conviction recommendation, and onboarding of your Associates — operating profiles with attention to detail and willingness to travel, not purely concept talents.

• You will take on disciplinary responsibility for your Associates in coordination with management — 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 completed the 100-day plan for at least one integration — client migration, process adaptation, IT integration 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 — screening, 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 them fully independently with measurable business case outcome.

• You will have built your implementation team with two to three Associates. You lead them technically and disciplinarily in coordination with management, having gone through your own quarterly feedback discussions.

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

• You will be visibly working with management 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 — several parallel integrations under you, ongoing systematic location optimization across all sites, 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 will be a concrete candidate for the Senior Implementation Lead level.

Where the position 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 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 at least one on-site integration — not just written a PMI concept.

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

• Profiles that do not fit the above grid but bring substantial operational depth are explicitly invited — we evaluate based on contribution, not label. Specifically: tax advisors with operational depth and a proven track record of location development in their own CV; industrial engineers with M&A integration experience in a Mittelstand environment; former founders wishing to move into a build-up role.

Skills & Work Approach

• You work analytically and structurally, but can also roll up your sleeves in operational detail — implementation is both.

• You can quickly familiarize yourself with operational domains that are new 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 have to write code yourself, but you must be able to speak with engineers on an equal footing.

• 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 are comfortable switching seats and working on-site, rather than advising from headquarters.

• You have 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 on 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 drive implementation yourself, with your hands in the details.

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

• No PhD topic playground. You work on integrations and location optimizations that need to yield productive results in the next twelve months — not on concepts without operational consequences.

• No partner company with competing self-interests. We are a 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 Mittelstand consultancies — a family business since 1959, from Aalen — and is building it into the leading consulting platform for the Mittelstand. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/Ostwürttemberg as our established headquarters and in Munich as our new hub. At both, we are looking for people across 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 point. We differentiate based on 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?

We measure by what you achieve, not by hours. But it's also true: if you're looking for 9-to-5, we're not the first choice. We are looking for people who work intensively of their own accord because the tasks are worthwhile. 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. How does the application process work?

Lean, fast, transparent — and staggered by profile. For entry-level roles (internships, working student positions, career starters), two interviews and a short work sample are usually sufficient; experienced roles run a bit longer. For selected senior roles, we are considering incorporating a joint working day in the future so that both sides can get to know each other better. It always applies: timed appointments, swift decisions, 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. Starting your career 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 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 each 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 should be 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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