Steuerberater I Lead Expert Tax (m/w/d)

Role Summary

Vogel is building the leading consulting platform for German medium-sized businesses - and tax consulting is its core, not one business area among many. A platform of this size not only needs managers who control areas, but also technical authorities whose depth makes it possible to solve even the most difficult cases. Lead Expert Tax is exactly this role.

At Vogel, the path to the top takes two equal paths: Mastery for professional depth and Pioneer for disciplinary leadership. You have reached the top of the mastery path. You are a tax advisor who has become a professional authority in a specialist area - transformations, international structures, succession, corporate tax law or another demanding subject - and also communicates this to the outside world: publications, lectures, an expert advisor position where people know you. You are changing because you want to shape and help build your area as a company-wide brand, instead of being stuck in someone else's structure as an individual specialist.

You are the company-wide technical authority in your area: you take on the most difficult cases in the group, shape the methods and standards beyond your own desk and empower the professionals across the entire tax line. All of this without any disciplinary management - your impact comes from professional depth and methodology, not from a personnel apparatus. You work closely with management and division owners on the most technically demanding client and strategy issues.

PROFESSIONAL AUTHORITY

• Handle the group's most serious cases and special issues in your area - the mandates where professional depth determines success or risk.
• Be your area's company-wide escalation endpoint — the person you call when the really hard question arises.
• Keep Vogel up to date with case law, legislation and design practice in your area - and translate this into concrete consequences for clients.

BRAND & MARKET

• Promote your area as Vogel's strength to the outside world - publications, lectures, specialist formats - and make Vogel visible on the market for this depth.
• Personally connect the most strategically important clients in your area and win over those who are looking for exactly this authority.
• Trigger the challenging cross-sell topics for which your area is the door opener (designs, M&A tax, international structures).

What you delivered after 6 months

• You are established throughout the company as a professional authority in your area and handle the most serious cases in the group.
• You have set the first company-wide methods or standards in your area.
• The most strategically important clients in your area are personally connected to you.

What you delivered after 12 months

• Your area is visible to the outside world as a bird strength - publications, lectures, mandates that come explicitly because of your authority.
• You have empowered senior experts and experts company-wide; the professional line of your field bears your signature.
• Your professional position is recognizable internally and externally as a bird position.

What you delivered after 24 months

• Your area is an independent contribution to the reputation and results of the group.
• The methods and standards of the group in your area are essentially yours.
• You are on the Principal/VP (specialist) path along our Career Framework.

Where the position is developing

The lead expert level opens up the technical principal/VP path - the company-wide technical line of a subject area, equivalent to the owner responsibility of the management track. Lead Expert Tax is a role with real professional weight: beyond the cash remuneration, you will participate entrepreneurially in the added value that your authority and your area create.

MINDSET & PERSONALITY

• You see professional impact as equivalent to leadership - your authority comes from depth and ability, not from personal power.
• You share knowledge and shape standards instead of guarding your territory.
• You aspire to set the highest standard in everything you deliver — not because someone controls it, but because mediocrity bothers you personally.
• Vogel is hierarchical in decision-making, flat in communication, autonomous in execution. Achievement is celebrated, not hidden.

Responsibilities

WHAT YOU WON'T FIND WITH US

1. No specialist track, which is secretly the second division. Lead Expert is equivalent to Director — same compensation, same influence, same visibility. A specialist career is not a consolation prize here.
2. No disciplinary management as a price for professional weight. You work through methods, depth and ability - not through a staffing apparatus that you don't want.
3. No need to be a specialist in a foreign structure. You help shape your area as a bird brand, you don't hang in a pyramid as a lone fighter.
4. 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

METHODOLOGY & SKILLS

• Shape the professional standards and methods in your area company-wide - templates, test schemes, advice lines that the entire tax line uses.
• Empower senior experts and experts across locations — sparring, training, professional leadership without a disciplinary line.
• Be a professional sparring partner for the department owners and management on the most difficult client and structural issues.

EXPERIENCE & TRACK RECORD

• You have passed the tax advisor exam and have built up relevant, company-wide professional authority in a specialist area.
• You have communicated your field to the outside world - publications, lectures, specialist advisor titles, cited positions.
• You shape methods and standards beyond your own desk and empower other professionals.
• Profiles that do not fit into this grid but have real professional authority are expressly invited - we judge based on the contribution, not the label. Specifically: habilitated/doctorate tax lawyers with practice standing; former Big4 partner candidates who prioritize professional impact over personnel; renowned specialist authors with a mandate request. The reported range is calibrated to the primary profile - the logic behind it is in our compensation principles https://www.vogel-beratung.com/culture/verg%C3%BCtungsgrunds%C3%A4tze.

SKILLS & WORKING METHODS

• You have outstanding depth in a demanding specialist area - and remain operationally competent in ongoing client work.
• You make complex matter tangible - for clients, for colleagues, for the professional public.
• You work with AI as a natural lever and shape how your line uses AI in technical depth.