Your Role

Tax consulting works with structured data, recurring processes, and clear rules, and hardly any of this has been rebuilt with modern software so far.

Vogel advises several thousand medium-sized companies and, above the systems we buy, builds its own software: a data layer over DATEV, tools for our consultants and agents that take over recurring work. Vogel is neither a start-up nor a large corporation: established clients and real, audited data, and at the same time a setup that moves forward every day.

You are studying for a Master's degree in Computer Science, Business Informatics, Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical field, for example at TUM. Alongside your studies, you want to work on software that someone uses the next day, rather than on a component whose users you never see.

You will work broadly across data, backend, interfaces, and agents, directly with Moritz Vogel and with the first engineers we are currently hiring. You will work two days a week, and more gladly during lecture-free periods, coordinated with your lecture schedule. Those who impress will join as Founding Engineers after their Master's degree.

Your Responsibility

Tools for our consultants

• You sit down with tax advisors and accountants on real cases, find out where the work is bottlenecked, and build a tool from it that they will use the next day.

• You build interfaces, dashboards, and internal tools from the first prototype to something that runs without you.

• Your benchmark: A consultant would miss it if it were switched off.

Data and Integration

• You help build the data pipelines that load data from DATEV and our other systems into our own data layer every night, with checks from the start.

• You set up key figures so that every number means the same thing in every tool and every report.

• You help connect the systems of every acquired firm without it becoming a separate project each time.

Agents and Automation

• You build agents for recurring work and draw the line between what the model assesses and what is definitively calculated.

• You ensure that every result is traceable: which version, which source, which decision.

• You check against completed, audited cases rather than test data.

Your Prospects

What you will have delivered after 3 months:

• A first tool from you will be used by a team in their daily work.

• You will know the data pipelines from DATEV and work confidently in our development environment.

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You will be responsible for your own component from requirement to operation.

• Others will build on your code, and your pull requests will be merged with little rework.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• You will work like an engineer in the team and not like temporary staff.

• The start after your Master's degree is concrete: as a Founding Engineer or with an extended working student period until graduation.

Where the position is developing:

A working student position at Vogel is the path to starting your career as a Founding Engineer. Afterwards, you will grow into responsibility for your own product area, in a specialist career path, or in a management career path. Contribution matters, not years of service.

What you bring

Experience & Track Record

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Business Informatics, Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical field, at TUM or a comparably strong university.

• You have already built software that others have used: during your studies, in a working student job, or in your own project.

• Profiles that do not fit this scheme but have demonstrably built something are explicitly invited. Specifically: Bachelor's students shortly before their Master's with their own project, Physics or Mathematics students with an engineering track, founders of a small product. We evaluate based on contribution, not on the label.

Skills & Working Method

• You write clean code in at least one language, ideally Python or TypeScript, and know SQL.

• You use AI as a standard tool to write, review, and test code, and you know where it goes wrong.

• You want breadth: data, backend, interface, and agents, not a single layer.

• You work in German because our consultants and clients do, and you are regularly on-site at the office.

Mindset & Personality

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

• You can handle direct collaboration with management: fast iteration, high autonomy, and sometimes tasks that don't shine on your resume.

• 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 working student job where you process tickets whose users you never see. You sit with the consultants on a case and build for them.

• No working student setup by hours without development. You will measurably improve over time and contribute more.

• No software company. We are a consulting firm that builds its own software. The users are our own teams.

• No greenfield in an empty room. DATEV is running, clients are not waiting. What you build must function alongside ongoing operations.

FAQ

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

Vogel is one of Germany's leading consultancies for medium-sized businesses – since 1959, owner-managed in the second generation, with its own capital – and is building the leading consulting platform for medium-sized businesses from this. We work at three locations: Aalen as the established headquarters, Bopfingen in the core business, and Munich as the new hub. At all three, we are looking for people across all functions – from tax consulting and advisory to the teams that build the foundation underneath.

2. How are the salary bands to be understood?

Intentionally broad – and indicated at every point before you apply. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not by degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce at the lower end. The indicated 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 degree of maturity, not the number of years of experience, nor negotiation skills.

3. How much – and how – is worked at Vogel?

We measure by what you achieve, not by hours. But it's also honest: those looking for 9-to-5 are not our first choice. We are looking for people who work intensively out of their own initiative because the tasks are worthwhile. 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 tiered by profile. Typically, there are four steps: a written task in which you state your position on eight questions – AI is explicitly allowed, we only ask for a brief self-disclosure about it; a half-hour 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 are actually 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 you only ask questions. Typically, you will hear from us within 48 hours after each step.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Tied to performance quarterly, qualitatively assessed. The scale increases with 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 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 (technical 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 compensated equally, and both do not necessarily 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. Starting your career is not a special 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?

The joint lunch is the daily anchor point – those who are in the office eat with us; expected, not controlled. Dinner is the same offer without any expectation. Both without personal contribution. 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 the 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 scheme, 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: €1.6K per month

• Working student, two days a week • Fixed salary €1.6K per month

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