Steuerberater I Manager Tax (m/w/d)

Role Summary

Tax advice in medium-sized businesses is about relationship work. Clients stay for decades - not because of prices, but because they are understood. Several thousand medium-sized companies trust us - we are now developing the model into a Germany-wide consulting platform. Tax advice is not just one business area among many, but rather the core.

You are a tax advisor or about to take your exam. After your exam, you have gained one to three years of experience - at a Big Four (KPMG, EY, PwC, Deloitte), a Next 6 law firm or a focused medium-sized practice. You change because the politically optimized career path in the company or the Big4 pyramid deprives you of the courage to take personal responsibility. At Vogel you will find the opposite: structures that support - established clients, long experience, strong growth base - and at the same time a setup that moves forward every day. No corporate corset. No hereditary farm model without growth aspirations.

From day one, you will take over an existing clientele and develop it further. You will actively participate in the acquisition of new mandates from our pipeline. From day one, you will provide professional guidance to three to four associates. You report to the Senior Manager Tax and work closely with management on strategic client issues. The natural progression after 24 to 36 months leads to a senior manager tax role with an independently developed mandate portfolio.

What you delivered after 6 months

• You take full responsibility for the client base handed over to you.
• You conducted your first ten final meetings without senior supervision.
• You know your associates personally and have conducted the first quarterly performance discussions yourself.

What you delivered after 12 months

• You have noticeably developed your client base - a measurable component of which comes from your own acquisition or cross-sell.
• You have triggered and handed over a cross-sell extension into another Vogel area (FP&A, M&A preparation, design) for at least three mandates.
• You are actively involved in the hiring of your line - from networking and screening to interviews and Conviction recommendations.

What you delivered after 24 months

• Your mandate portfolio demonstrably has additional sub-segment depth - a clearly recognizable specialization.
• You are the escalation end point for your line in all standard cases.
• You are a candidate for the next senior manager position.

Where the position is developing

The next step is Senior Manager Tax - but this requires an independently developed portfolio of mandates, not just additional years of professional experience. We don't know the automaticity of "more experience equals higher level". The senior manager level opens up the director and, in the future, VP path along our career framework.

Responsibilities

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

Client management

1. Take over an existing clientele and look after them independently - annual financial statements, tax returns, ongoing advice.
2. Be the direct contact for owners and managing directors of medium-sized companies. A conversation at eye level is the standard, not the exception.
3. Actively develop your clientele - expanding mandates, cross-selling across Vogel areas (design, FP&A, M&A preparation).

Business development

1. Support the acquisition of new mandates together with the management and the business development team - initial discussions, technical assessment, handover to ongoing support.
2. Bring in your own network activity - industry events, StB associations, local multipliers in the East Württemberg region.
3. Lay the foundations for your own professional specialization - an industry expertise (e.g. healthcare, family office, construction industry) or a tax specialty (succession, international structures, M&A tax). You start the topic, build internal visibility and win your first clients who are looking for this depth. Industry or topic expert status only arises at senior manager level - you lay the groundwork here.

Team leadership

1. Lead your three to four associates professionally - review of client work, mentoring, escalation decisions.
2. Take over performance evaluations for your line in coordination with the Senior Manager Tax.
3. Actively participate in hiring at associate level - interviews, professional assessment, Conviction recommendation.

WHAT YOU WON'T FIND WITH US

1. No Big Four manager job where there are several senior layers between you and the client. You support your client base directly - there is senior sparring, but there is no preliminary clarification by third parties.
2. No group tax mandate without client contact. The work is client work. Anyone who has focused exclusively on corporate compliance in recent years and wants to continue doing so is sitting at the wrong desk here.
3. Not a classic medium-sized tax advisor job without growth expectations. We are not a hereditary farm model. If you just want to manage your clientele, this is not the right place for you.
4. No partnership with competing interests. We are a company with one-firm logic — one brand, one culture, one hiring bar. No management by committee, no consensus as an end in itself.
5. No corporate corset in which you wait for promotions. Growth here comes from contributions, not from years worked.

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

THIS IS WHAT YOU BRING WITH YOU

Experience & track record

• You have passed the tax advisor exam - or are about to take the exam and will take on the tax manager role immediately afterwards. Passing the exam is a prerequisite for the title of Manager Tax.
• After the exam, you have gained one to three years of experience - Big Four (KPMG, EY, PwC, Deloitte), Next 6 or a focused medium-sized law firm.
• You have already had client responsibility - not exclusively as an assistant to a partner.
• Profiles that do not fit into the above grid, but have substantial client responsibility, are expressly invited - we judge based on the contribution, not the label. Specifically: tax advisors with an M&A or TAS background and a desire to return to operational client work; StB with original office opening plan that prefers bird entry; Exam candidates who have started with clear exam prospects and their first client placements. The range shown above is calibrated to the primary profile. Anyone who brings a different background starts at a different market price and converges to the role level after twelve months of proven performance - the logic behind this is in our compensation principles https://www.vogel-beratung.com/culture/verg%C3%BCtungsgrunds%C3%A4tze.

Skills & way of working

• You have tax depth in at least one focus area - medium-sized businesses, partnerships, succession, international structures or another clearly identifiable specialization.
• You communicate clearly and authoritatively - in writing and in client discussions. You are not afraid of difficult topics with managing directors.
• You work with AI as a natural tool - research, drafting, analysis, client communication. Repetitive tasks are an incentive for you to automate, not a fate.

Mindset & personality

• You think entrepreneurially — you take responsibility for your portfolio, not your hours.
• You understand client work as relationship work. Clients don't stay because of prices, but because of trust.
• 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 - anyone who wants to get ahead because they are good will find the space to do so here, without political camouflage and without consensus theatre.