M&A Lead (m/w/d)

Role Summary

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 entrust us with their tax, commercial and strategic issues. Every acquisition is both: an expanded client base and a lever of scale for the platform. You drive this buy & build pipeline operationally - from the approach to the closing.

You bring a transaction background from a large house - deals or transaction advisory at one of the Big Four, as a senior manager or as a young auditor with a transaction track. You think young, enthusiastically use AI as a lever and thus replace what a team of analysts does elsewhere. Above all, you treat independent entrepreneurs with real respect and on an equal footing - those who have built up their company over decades have a lifetime of achievement that is approached with humility, not with a corporate attitude. You're switching because you want to build a buy-and-build engine yourself instead of just passively working on deals.

You are responsible for the buy & build pipeline as the nucleus of corporate development in the CEO office and report directly to the management. Deliberately lean: no team beneath you - you can leverage many things that would require traditional hands with AI. At the beginning you conduct the sales discussions together with the management; In the best case scenario, you will increasingly take over them yourself within six to twelve months. You are the brains behind the deals - the final decision on conditions and conclusion remains with the management.

DEAL EXECUTION AND NEGOTIATION

• Control the LOI and SPA process together with Legal Inhouse, keep timeline and closing together.
• Increasingly take on structured negotiations. The final decision on terms and conditions remains with the management.

HANDOVER TO INTEGRATION

• Hand over each transaction cleanly to Adoption & Integration — 100-day plan, the synergies promised in the business case, the critical handover points.
• Remain the commercial-strategic link beyond the closing without managing the operational integration yourself.

What you delivered after 6 months

• You conduct initial sales discussions independently - the pipeline is already running and is constantly popping up interesting targets.
• Responsible for at least one transaction in the lead.
• Assessment, financial due diligence and data room for ongoing processes presented independently.

What you delivered after 12 months

• Responsible for at least three transactions — from approach through FDD and negotiation to handover to Adoption & Integration.
• The pipeline supports multiple parallel processes without the need for a team behind them — AI-leveraged.
• You conduct the sales discussions mainly independently.

What you delivered after 24 months

• You carry out the buy & build execution independently - the management only gets involved where the relationship really requires it.
• Five to ten completed transactions with demonstrable value added.

Where the position is developing

You are building on what Vogel is aiming for: the leading group for medium-sized business consulting in Germany. The role grows with the transaction volume - in the future into broader responsibility for the entire corporate development of the group. In addition to the cash compensation, there is the potential to participate entrepreneurially in the added value created.

MINDSET & PERSONALITY

• You have real respect for the self-employed - you know that an entrepreneur who has built something over decades is often ahead of you in his life's achievements. You handle it carefully.
• You think young and like to build from the ground up - a lean function appeals to you more than a large device.
• You are comfortable with the dual role of analytical depth and human relationship work.
• You aspire to set the highest standard in everything you deliver — not because someone controls it, but because mediocrity bothers you personally.

Responsibilities

ORIGINATION AND PIPELINE

1. Identify and screen acquisition targets according to our criteria (including hard qualifiers like DATEV) and maintain the buy & build pipeline in our CRM.
2. Qualify targets against the M&A filter - client base acquisition, expansion of service portfolio and economies of scale.
3. Build relationships with potential sellers — advisory, patient, eye-level. You increasingly accompany the discussions, initially together with the management.

VALUATION AND FINANCIAL DUE DILIGENCE

1. Create indicative assessments (based on the Vogel assessment calculator), the business case and the data room structure.
2. Be responsible for the financial due diligence yourself - you conduct it and present the results. Finance provides capacity in the tight audit window; the hand and the lead are yours. A tax advisory FDD is demanding in terms of speed, but manageable in terms of complexity.

WHAT YOU WON'T FIND WITH US

1. No deal assembly line in a pyramid. You don't work for a partner - you carry the process from the approach to the handover.
2. No big apparatus under you. Deliberately lean, AI-leveraged. You build and lead the function, you don't manage a large team.
3. Not the final condition and final decision. It stays with the management - you prepare it and negotiate.
4. No pure advisory role without implementation. You are responsible for real transactions with real consequences, not concepts.
5. No partnership with competing interests. We are a company with one-firm logic — one brand, one culture, one hiring bar.

FAQ

1. WHAT IS BIRD — AND WHERE DO YOU WORK?

Vogel is one of Germany's leading medium-sized business consultancies - a family business since 1959, based in Aalen - and is building the leading consulting platform for medium-sized businesses. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/East Württemberg as an established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub. In both, we look across functions — from tax advice to consulting to the strategic teams that build the platform.

1. HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE SALARY BANDS?

Deliberately wide - and identified at every point. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not on degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the top end, less scarce ones at the bottom. We calibrate exclusively to the market - two people with similar experience can earn different things with us.

1. HOW MUCH — AND HOW — DOES VOGEL WORK?

It's measured by what you move, not by hours. But it's also honest: If you're looking for 9-to-5, we're not the first place to go. We are looking for people who work intensively on their own initiative because the tasks are worth it. How you distribute your time is largely up to you. What we share: We work together face-to-face - culture, sparring and the best ideas arise in daily proximity. We are not a remote company and do not have major home office policies; Individual remote days are no problem.

1. HOW DOES THE APPLICATION PROCESS?

Slim, fast, transparent — and graded according to profile. For entry-level roles (internship, work study, career entry), two interviews and a short work sample are usually sufficient; experienced roles are a little more detailed. For selected senior roles, we are looking into incorporating a joint working day in the future so that both sides get to know each other better.

The following always applies: scheduled deadlines, quick decisions, substantial feedback - regardless of the outcome.

1. HOW DOES VARIABLE PAY WORK?

Linked to performance on a quarterly basis and assessed qualitatively. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. 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: ownership, quality, learning curve, collaboration, impact.

1. 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 a career is not a special path, but rather the early part of the same route - from working student or intern to associate, for the best ones without having to reapply.

1. TEAM, CULTURE, HOLIDAY?

A shared lunch is an open daily option - not an obligation; If you like, you can join us; anyone can eat at any time. Plus dinners, social events and offsites on a regular basis - not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work. Benefits: thoughtful and substantial, not symbolic. Vacation: 28 days.

1. I KNOW SOMEONE - IS THERE A REFERRAL BONUS?

Yes — EUR 2,500 for each successfully filled position (no internships). A short context is enough: who you are thinking about, for what role, why. Doesn't have to fit perfectly, but has to be substantial.

Requirements

EXPERIENCE & TRACK RECORD

• You have a transaction background from a large house — deals, transaction advisory or M&A at one of the Big Four — as a senior manager and/or as an outstanding young auditor with a clear transaction track.
• You have conducted financial due diligence yourself - not just assisted - and can independently present the valuation, data room and findings.
• You have been involved in negotiations and the SPA process and understand how a deal works from inception to closing.
• Profiles that do not fit into the above grid, but have the required substance, are expressly invited - we judge on the contribution, not on the label. Specifically: outstanding young auditor or manager with a deal track and desire to switch to entrepreneurial operations; Transaction profile from boutique or corporate M&A with a focus on medium-sized companies. The advertised range is calibrated to the primary profile - the logic behind it is in our compensation principles.

SKILLS & WORKING METHODS

• You have mastered valuation and financial due diligence - and use AI to leverage what ties up a team of analysts elsewhere.
• You work in a structured manner under time pressure - an FDD condenses weeks into days, and you maintain quality and speed at the same time.
• You communicate confidently in two registers - precisely and professionally in the data room, warmly and at eye level with an owner who is thinking about selling his life's work.
• You work with AI as a natural tool — research, evaluation, data room analysis, documentation.