Hire the best Interim Managers in Dortmund from 15,000 CVs with fast, precise AI matching.
Cover leadership gaps, stabilise operations, or drive change with experienced interim leaders in operations, finance, sales, supply chain, and transformation projects. Get fast, precise matching with vetted, available freelancers.
About the role
What they do An interim manager steps in when leadership must be available right away. They take ownership of a department, site, or project, make decisions, and keep the business moving while the permanent structure is absent or changing.
- Fill a temporary management gap
- Stabilise teams and processes
- Lead turnarounds, relocations, or carve-outs
- Support post-merger integration
- Bring structure to urgent projects
Where they add value Companies bring in an interim manager when speed matters and internal capacity is stretched. This is common during resignations, sick leave, restructurings, rapid growth, audits, or a new system rollout.
In Dortmund, this often fits industrial, logistics, manufacturing, and service businesses that need hands-on leadership on site. Remote coordination can work for planning, reporting, and stakeholder management, but strong interim leaders stay close to the team when execution is critical.
Core skills A strong interim manager combines leadership with calm delivery. They must understand people, process, and business pressure at the same time.
- Clear communication with management and teams
- Fast situation analysis and priority setting
- Strong change management
- Sound commercial and operational judgment
- Conflict handling and decision-making
- Documented handover to the next leader
Typical assignments Interim managers are often hired for very concrete work. They may run a department, lead a transformation office, improve performance, or prepare a function for takeover by a permanent hire.
Typical specialties include interim leadership, turnaround management, operations management, project leadership, and temporary executive support. The exact title may vary, but the expectation is the same: take charge, deliver results, and hand over cleanly.
What good looks like Strong professionals do not wait for perfect information. They listen quickly, ask sharp questions, and set a clear course without creating extra noise.
- They establish trust with employees and stakeholders
- They work with existing systems instead of overcomplicating them
- They make decisions and explain them clearly
- They leave behind workable processes, not dependency
Hiring on a freelance basis Freelance engagement makes sense when the need is temporary, urgent, or highly specialised. It is often the better choice than a permanent hire if the mandate is tied to a transition, a vacancy, or a defined project with a clear end point.
For companies in Dortmund, that can mean fast access to leadership without a long recruitment cycle. It also gives room to bring in an interim director, temporary manager, or turnaround lead who fits the situation instead of the org chart.
Meet FRATCH Interim Managers
Alexander Königschulte
Subproject Manager IT Migration (Carve-out)
Last position:
Subproject Manager IT Migration (Carve-out) at EWE / WCG
- Carve-out of Wärme+ customers from EWE to the new company WCG with around 24,000 metering points.
- Development of a migration approach, data migration, process redesign and migration.
- Management of service providers, reporting to the steering committee and executive management.
- Tools: Jira, SharePoint, Draw.io, SAP S/4, SAP PM, WILKEN (ENER:GY, P5), carve-out.
Thomas Sternkopf
Interim Manager
Last position:
C-level consultant for transformation and organizational development at Primeo Management AG, Basel / Paris
Organisation: International energy provider in a regulated market environment with around 900 employees.
Responsibilities: Responsible for managing and prioritizing a company-wide transformation and initiative portfolio in the energy sector. Directly involved in the governance and decision-making logic of the organization with a focus on governance, IT management, prioritization and implementation of strategic initiatives across business and IT areas.
Results:
- Introduced a company-wide portfolio management system for structured prioritization and management of strategic business and IT initiatives.
- Established clear governance, decision and control mechanisms to sustainably improve execution capability across the entire organization.
- Integrated HR, capacity and organizational management into an overarching management logic to enhance transparency and decision quality.
- Directly supported executive management by moderating and structuring strategic decision-making processes at both executive and supervisory board levels.
Ayhan Ibraim
Interim Procurement Manager
Last position:
Interim Procurement Manager at Cofinity-X GmbH
- High-level process and system analysis
- Support for building a new process and system landscape
- Systems: SAP MM, SAP SRM, SAP WM/EWM, SAP R3/S4 HANA, Navision, E2E
- E-Procurement: SAP Ariba, Coupa
Michael Pschibilla
Interim Manager & Process Consultant
Last position:
Interim Manager & Process Consultant at Pschibilla Consulting
- Development of organizations (Business Excellence, E2E process management, Lean Management, Agile Collaboration)
- Optimization and automation of E2E business processes
- Salesforce | CPQ, Sales & Service Cloud, SAP interface
- Focus topics: e-mobility | Operations | Order Entry, Fulfillment, Billing, Service
Christian Weinbörner
Interim Business Analyst / Product Owner
Last position:
Interim Business Analyst / Product Owner at Federal Printing Office GmbH (via FourEnergy GmbH)
- Initial assessment of requirements using a business value prioritization framework
- Identifying issues and gathering and evaluating requirements using UML, BPMN, and design thinking methods for iterative requirements analysis through interviews and workshops
- Using user story mapping in Miro to visualize and align functional requirements (e.g., correct transmission of all application data and their attachments to the specialist system) as well as non-functional requirements (e.g., complete and provable deletion of an applicant's data) with stakeholders
- Proactive stakeholder management of internal and external stakeholders from authorities, business units, organizations, and companies
- Creating status reports for transparent communication of project progress and upcoming tasks
- Responsible for a REST-based integration solution (middleware) for secure data exchange between core systems and external specialist applications; ensuring stability and performance in ongoing operations
- Supporting product owners in prioritizing requirements in the backlog and during product discovery
- Communicating plans to internal and external stakeholders and temporarily taking over product owner tasks and responsibilities during staffing changes
Sebastian Hess
Bottleneck Management
Last position:
Bottleneck Management at WKW Hungaria Kft
- Bottleneck and crisis management in the production environment.
- Support in quality-related issues.
- Production tracking and production organization.
- Preparation and execution of management meetings with the customer Mercedes-Benz.
- Daily conference calls with Mercedes scheduling teams at three different locations.
Sven Neumann
Business Executive for Strategy & Operations | International Interim Executive: CFO / COO / CEO or Head of PMO / PMI
Last position:
Acquisition Program Manager at impacts4u
- Strategic planning and management of a transition
- Monitoring the end-to-end execution of the acquisition program
- Stakeholder communication for all acquisition-related communications
- Risk management: identifying potential risks and developing mitigation strategies
- Reporting and analysis during and after the acquisition
Björn Buschek
Interim Payroll Manager
Last position:
Interim Payroll Manager at German fashion company
- Project scope: 1,300 employees
- Ensuring accurate payroll processing with SAP, including month-end closing
- Advising on other payroll-related issues based on personal experience and expertise
- Software: SAP HCM
Rolf Parschau
IT Consultant and Interim Manager
Last position:
IT Consultant and Interim Manager at Self-employed
- Interim CIO at companies in the printing industry (2020/2021)
- Interim CIO and project manager at an automotive components plant (2018/2019/2020)
- Interim CIO at a mechanical engineering company (2016/2017)
- Interim CIO/ERP project manager at a mechanical engineering company (2015/2016)
- Project management of an international SAP-SCM implementation at a pharmaceutical wholesaler and retailer (2014/2015)
- Establishing efficient SAP project management at a large German machine manufacturer (2013)
- Supporting a large building materials manufacturer in setting up an international IT organization/governance (2013)
- Optimizing Microsoft contract frameworks for a ThyssenKrupp subsidiary (2013)
- Redesigning the IT infrastructure of a mid-sized automotive supplier (2012)
- Advising a large Austrian machine manufacturer on setting up an IT shared service center in India (2012)
- Redesigning the IT environment and process optimization at a large law firm in Dortmund (2012)
Wolfgang Hartwig
Interim Manager
Last position:
Fraunhofer-Institut für Materialfluß und Logistik
- Development of a reusable packaging system for a new production plant of a major engine manufacturer
- Container development for over 2,500 parts from screws to engine blocks
- Standardization of the container system
- Development of picking containers for a logistics service provider
- Redesign of intermediate plant transport for a major engine manufacturer
- Survey of all loading locations, volume flows, and dwell times
- Development of an optimized vehicle fleet concept
- Preparation of tender documents, tendering, soliciting offers, comparison, contract negotiations
- Plant design of a conveyor and handling system for semi-finished and finished products for a large glass products manufacturer
- Recording of framework conditions and performance data
- Development and presentation of the system, evaluation, detailed design
- Preparation of tender documents, tendering, soliciting offers, comparison, contract negotiations
- Award, supervision of installation and commissioning
- Development of a new packaging system for lighting and electromechanical components of an automotive supplier
- Packaging development for over 400 items
- Standardization of the packaging system
- Technical design, cost estimation, implementation
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Interim Managers statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
25 years
Position duration
3.2 years
Positions per freelancer
15
Top business areas
Project Management, Information Technology, Strategy
Top industries
Professional Services, Energy, Information Technology
Certification focus areas
Project Management, Human Resources, Quality Assurance
Bachelor's degree or higher
86%
Master's degree or higher
43%
Certifications per freelancer
3
Most common languages
German, English, French
Speak two or more languages
100%
Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this role are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Interim Managers & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Want to learn more? Find helpful information about FRATCH
A Interim Manager takes over leadership duties for a limited period and focuses on business continuity, change, or recovery. That can include managing a team, steering a project, handling stakeholder pressure, and keeping day-to-day operations under control. The exact scope depends on whether the company needs stabilisation, transformation, or a temporary replacement.
Hire an interim manager when speed and flexibility matter more than long-term staffing. This is common during a vacancy, a restructure, a merger, or a temporary crisis where the company cannot wait for a full recruitment process. A permanent hire makes more sense when the need is stable and the role definition is settled.
A strong interim manager combines leadership, clear communication, and quick analysis. They should be able to make decisions, win trust fast, and keep the team focused under pressure. Experience with change management, operations, and stakeholder handling is often more important than a long title list.
Not always, but the terms are often used close together. Interim manager is the broad term for a freelance leader who steps in for a limited time, while temporary manager or turnaround manager can describe a more specific assignment. In practice, companies often search with all of these labels when they need senior hands-on support.
In Dortmund, interim managers are often brought in for industrial, logistics, and service organisations that need on-site leadership and fast execution. Good fits include plant changes, team restructuring, process improvement, and temporary coverage for a department head or director. Local language skills and a practical, direct style help a lot in these settings.
An interim manager often needs to be on site at the start, especially when trust, team alignment, or operational control are at stake. After the setup phase, some work can move into remote reporting, planning, and coordination. The right balance depends on the assignment, the team, and how much hands-on leadership the situation demands.
Look for proof of similar assignments, not just senior job titles. A good interim manager should explain how they assessed the situation, what they changed, and how they handed the role over. References, a clear mandate, and a direct discussion about expectations are usually the best quality checks.
Freelancers should expect a clear mandate, fast onboarding, and a need to deliver without much warm-up time. An interim manager is judged by impact, credibility, and the ability to work with existing people and systems. It helps to clarify decision rights, reporting lines, and the handover plan before starting.
The average hourly rate for Interim Managers in Dortmund is 134 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 1,071 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Interim Managers in Dortmund, 86% hold at least a Bachelor's degree and 43% hold at least a Master's degree.
On average, freelancers working as Interim Managers in Dortmund have 25 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 3.2 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Interim Managers in Dortmund are German (100%), English (90%), and French (20%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Interim Managers in Dortmund are Professional Services (80%), Energy (70%), and Information Technology (60%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Interim Managers in Dortmund are Project Management (90%), Information Technology (80%), and Strategy (80%).
FRATCH Interim Managers main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
