Managing Director
matched in minutes from 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.Steer strategy, profit and loss, team leadership, and operational execution with a freelance Managing Director who can step in for growth, turnaround, or interim coverage. Fast, precise matching with vetted, available freelancers.
Meet FRATCH Managing Director
Martin A.
Last position:
Co-Founder and Managing Director at DeutschFeEd
Responsible for international consulting, transformation, and executive education initiatives in companies, universities, and the public sector.
Lukas T.
Last position:
Owner and Managing Director at Lukas-Teissl Consulting
Consulting at the intersection of technology/digitalization and finance/portfolio management for companies, entrepreneurs and investors.
- AI & automation consulting, digital scaling, efficiency and revenue optimization
- Portfolio consulting & structured portfolio building across multiple asset classes
- Real estate/land strategy for long-term portfolio development
- Accounting & financial processes: setup, optimization, reporting and workflow design
Yannick H.
Last position:
Managing Director and Trusted Advisor at ODCUS
ODCUS makes sure AI works alongside people in the day-to-day operations of Swiss SMEs while keeping their data secure: vendor-independent, pragmatic and without hidden agendas. We make a company's knowledge useful to AI, automate workflows and protect what matters.
I transform IT from a cost factor into a competitive advantage. As the founder of ODCUS, I advise Swiss SMEs and mid-sized companies—independently, with a focus on results and without hidden agendas.
What drives me: Too many companies invest in technology without knowing its business value. That is where we come in: we always advise on IT in the context of the business and its success.
My focus areas:
- Cybersecurity – Pragmatic protection that fits the business
- Compliance – NIS2, ISO 27001, EU AI Act without excessive bureaucracy
- IT costs – Create transparency, eliminate waste
- AI – From pilot project to measurable value creation
Ronald M.
Last position:
CSMS/SUMS Consultant; Supplier Auditor (planned) at Pezzolato S.p.A. (via Berns Engineers GmbH)
Consulting on the development of a cybersecurity and software update management system (CSMS/SUMS) for Pezzolato
- Current-state assessment and definition of measures to establish CSMS and SUMS.
- Coaching stakeholders in developing the management systems.
- Creating templates and documents, including Item Definition and TA-RA, as well as procedures, policies and manuals.
- Reporting to the client.
- Supplier audits for Pezzolato are planned.
Fred F.
Last position:
Managing Director & Shareholder at GFS Fenster- und Türenwerk GmbH (Marke Sageder)
- Restructuring during insolvency proceedings, continuation solution, reorganization and portfolio streamlining; return to positive EBT
- AI-supported controlling with Claude Cowork: Power BI dashboards for production and sales controlling, purchasing and procurement controlling, contract review and drafting
- Development of integrated month-end closing, plan-versus-actual and post-calculation processes
Damir M.
Last position:
Head of Research & Chairman of the Research Advisory Board at SBS Swiss Business School
Swiss University of Applied Sciences institute (HEdA/AAQ accredited); ranked #5 globally for Executive MBA (CEO Magazine 2025)
- Led the research function and chaired the Research Advisory Board.
- Editor of the Journal of Applied Business Research.
- Member of the Thesis and Dissertation Committee.
- Contributed to the AAQ and ACBSP accreditation processes.
Don P.
Last position:
Founder and Managing Director at PIKÁ GmbH & Co KG
All-day dining concept with fine bites and a wine bar, founded with Michelin-starred chef Fabian Saalfeld
- Built the business to €1.5m in net revenue in 12 months with around 10% EBITDA margin; team of around 50 employees
- Scaled within 15 months to 3 locations plus a catering business
- Financing, corporate structure and controlling; assessing acquisitions along the value chain
Christian T.
Last position:
Project Management / Program Management at Energy company, AT
- NIS2/IT-OT infrastructure project for network and firewall: PoC, roll-out, and blueprint
- Coordination of IT, OT/operations, information security, business units, and external suppliers
- Risk and escalation management
- Direct evidence of security, multi-vendor delivery, and operational context.
Constantinos S.
Last position:
Managing Director at PrimeLogic Advisory Sàrl
- Partnering with organisations to manage complex IT programmes, architect and implement ERP solutions, and embed AI where it drives measurable performance gains.
- ERP solution architecture and hands-on delivery across the full lifecycle (Oracle Cloud, Infor LN, Cegid, iValua)
- Programme and delivery leadership in both Waterfall and Agile environments (SAFe / Scrum / Kanban) - governance, stakeholder management, and execution at scale
- Comprehensive assessment of business processes, organizational maturity, and technology landscape to ensure successful ERP adoption and digital transformation initiatives
- Current mandate: Oracle Cloud SCM implementation for a Big Four consultancy
- Geneva-based; operating across Switzerland and the EU
Linda W.
Last position:
Interim Managing Director at FemtiS
Engagement through Wonneberger Consulting.
- Led due diligence for an investor group and took over operational leadership of the period underwear brand after the acquisition.
- Managed day-to-day operations with seven-figure annual revenue; reported directly to the investors.
- Restructured operations in six weeks: new team, branding, online store and logistics.
- Built and led a ten-person team, supported by freelancers and partners in marketing, technology, fulfillment and production.
- Planned and managed revenue, liquidity, product requirements and ongoing costs; coordinated regularly with the investors.
- Replaced Excel-based order processing with integrated systems and automated workflows. Reduced manual work and improved operational reliability.
Robert K.
Last position:
Enterprise Architecture and Overall Transition Lead — UK National Lottery, 4th Licence at Scientific Games International GmbH
Owned the end-to-end architecture and the transition for the fourth licence period of the UK National Lottery: a complete technology stack replacement delivered against a hard regulatory deadline. Produced the end-to-end high-level architecture that served as the delivery baseline for the replacement of all major IT service components including infrastructure
Target architecture across two geo-redundant UK data centres: multiple VMware ESX clusters, OpenShift, MS SQL Server clusters, Oracle Exadata, integrated with AWS-hosted components and a retailer WAN over VSAT, DSL and LTE
Business continuity concept and geo-redundant high availability design
Review and approval authority over all low-level designs, application and infrastructure: network security, Oracle RAC, VMware, OpenShift, SQL clustering, geo-redundancy
Designed and implemented full hardware and network separation between test environments and staging/production
SME for third-party security audits against CIS benchmarks and NIST standards: preparation, execution, findings analysis, remediation prioritisation
Delivered software deployment to 45,000 retail terminals with minimal downtime, plus data migration from the incumbent end-to-end landscape to the new architecture
Transitioned 45,000 POS terminals and 19 million online players on time with no critical incidents
Owned the integrated transition plan for the full replacement of the lottery technology stack: work packages, milestones, dependencies and critical path across parallel technical sub-projects
Central organisational interface between internal IT leads, technical workstream leads, multiple external vendors and client executive stakeholders
Planned and led migration and cutover of live, regulated national infrastructure, including 80+ bare metal servers running VMware ESX, Microsoft VMs across several Active Directory domains, Linux VMs, OpenShift on Linux, 2 SANs, 2 Oracle Exadata systems, AWS components and a retailer WAN
Ran 4 full cutover dress rehearsals ahead of the 2 major go-live releases
Governed all changes through the ITIL change process and CAB; ran risk, issue and escalation management with regular status reporting to the Program Director and client's CTO
Onboarded the internal cyber security team and acted as architecture SME in pre-deployment security audits for client and internal security teams, including prioritisation and remediation of findings
Joined the programme as Enterprise Architecture Lead from May to September 2022, gaining detailed knowledge of the target infrastructure before taking overall delivery responsibility; after go-live, supported the delivery teams through the warranty phase
Mike B.
Last position:
Freelance UX-Researcher, Designer at Bodensee Schiffsbetriebe; Labhard-Medien
- UX research, UX concept development, and UX design for an AI dialogue system with information on events, locations, public transport timetables, and special trips. Observations, remote user tests, session recordings, analytics evaluations, RapidUserTests, prototyping, etc., using Figma/Figma Make, Claude Design, and OpenAI Codex (Design)
Sascha K.
Last position:
AI startup for radiology practices
AI startup for radiology practices
Pitch materials, competitor analysis, pilot proposal with KPI definition
Karl F.
Last position:
Managing Director at ONECEPT GmbH
Christoph P.
Last position:
ICT DevSecOps Engineer & Security Coordinator at Abraxas Informatik AG
- Interface role with the SOC team; improved incident response time by 45% through structured escalation processes and proactive security monitoring.
- Defined technical standards for a multi-tenant enterprise platform (10+ services), resulting in a 30% shorter onboarding time for new clients in the public sector.
- Active knowledge transfer and mentoring of a 6-person team; increased team autonomy and established a sustainable engineering culture.
- Reduced time to market by 50% by optimizing CI/CD pipelines and establishing self-service deployments.
- Stack: GitLab CI/CD, Kubernetes, Nexus, Harbor, ArgoCD, HashiCorp Vault, Grafana, Python, PostgreSQL, Java, Spring Boot, Flyway, Quarkus, JBoss, Loki, Go, Kafka, Kustomize, MongoDB
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Managing Director statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
24 years
Position duration
4.1 years
Positions per freelancer
11
Top business areas
Project Management, Strategy, Information Technology
Top industries
Professional Services, Information Technology, Manufacturing
Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Human Resources
Bachelor's degree or higher
87%
Master's degree or higher
57%
Doctorate
12%
Certifications per freelancer
3
Most common languages
German, English, French
Speak two or more languages
95%
Based on our profile pool as of 11 Nov 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of experts in this role are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows the share of experts charging within that range.
Average rates for Managing Director
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.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 11 Nov 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Managing Director experts industry focus
See which industries our matched freelancers work in most often — every figure is calculated live from the freelancers on FRATCH.
- Professional Services (69%)
- Information Technology (67%)
- Manufacturing (48%)
- Automotive (34%)
- Banking and Finance (32%)
- Retail (30%)
- Education (27%)
- Energy (25%)
Please note that freelancers can work across multiple industries, so percentages overlap.
About the role
What they lead
A Managing Director sets direction and makes the business work day to day. The role connects strategy, finance, people, sales, and operations. Companies bring in a freelance Managing Director when they need clear leadership for a transition, a growth phase, or a gap in the senior team.
Typical deliverables
- Define priorities and convert them into an executable plan
- Lead the management team and align department goals
- Review performance, margin, cash flow, and major risks
- Improve operating routines, reporting, and decision making
- Support restructuring, market entry, or post-merger integration
- Represent the business with key clients, owners, and partners
Core skills
A strong Managing Director combines commercial judgment with calm leadership. They need to read the numbers, understand the market, and keep people moving in the same direction. Common tools include financial dashboards, KPI reporting, CRM systems, ERP data, and structured management reviews.
- Strategic planning and execution
- P&L ownership and budget control
- Stakeholder management
- Team leadership and hiring
- Change management and turnaround work
When companies hire one
Freelance Managing Directors are often the right choice when a company needs an experienced leader now, but not permanently. This is common during interim cover, a founder handover, rapid scaling, or a difficult phase that needs focus and discipline. In smaller firms, the role may sit close to the owner; in larger companies, it often supports a division, subsidiary, or business unit.
What strong professionals do differently
The best Managing Directors do not stay at slide level. They set priorities, make hard calls, and follow through until the plan sticks. They know when to delegate, when to intervene, and how to keep both senior stakeholders and operational teams aligned. Strong candidates explain how they have improved performance, not just how they have managed meetings.
Fit for your setup
For companies, the right person can work on-site, hybrid, or remotely depending on the mandate. If the work affects culture, leadership, or a local leadership team, regular on-site presence usually helps. If the task is a focused interim assignment, remote coordination with clear reporting can work well. For freelancers, the role often suits people with broad general management experience, not only a single functional specialty.
Frequently asked questions
The facts hiring teams ask for most often when it comes to Managing Director.
A Managing Director leads the business on behalf of the owner, board, or group leadership. The work can include strategy, financial control, people leadership, sales focus, and operational follow-through. In many assignments, the person is expected to bring order quickly and keep the management team aligned.
A freelance Managing Director makes sense when you need senior leadership for a defined period, a transition, or an urgent gap. This is common for interim cover, turnaround work, or a founder-led company that needs experienced support without a long hiring process. It is also useful when the scope is broad but not yet stable enough for a permanent appointment.
The strongest Managing Director profile combines business judgment, leadership, and financial control. You should look for clear P&L ownership, good communication with owners and teams, and the ability to turn goals into action. Experience with change management is often a strong sign, especially in complex or fast-moving environments.
The titles overlap, but the remit can differ by company size and structure. A CEO usually sits at the top of the whole organization, while a Managing Director may lead a company, region, or business unit. A General Manager often has a narrower operational scope and less direct ownership of long-term strategy or external stakeholder management.
A good brief should explain the mandate, decision rights, current problems, and expected outcome. The freelancer also needs to know who they report to, which teams they lead, and whether the focus is growth, stabilization, or transformation. The clearer the scope, the faster a Managing Director can take ownership.
Yes, but the fit depends on the assignment. Strategy work, reporting, and board preparation can often be handled remotely, while culture change, team resets, and difficult stakeholder situations usually benefit from on-site presence. Many companies choose a hybrid setup for a freelance Managing Director.
Ask for concrete examples of leadership decisions, business results, and difficult situations they have handled. Strong candidates talk in specifics about priorities, trade-offs, and how they measured progress. A good Managing Director should also show how they build trust quickly with owners, managers, and key clients.
They usually need broad leadership experience across several business functions, not just one specialty. Useful backgrounds include company leadership, business unit management, interim management, turnaround, or growth leadership. The key is proof that they can step in fast, take control, and improve the situation without long onboarding.
The average hourly rate for Managing Director is 126 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 1,005 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Managing Director, 87% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 57% hold at least a Master's degree, and 12% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers working as Managing Director have 24 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 4.1 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Managing Director are German (99%), English (94%), and French (27%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Managing Director are Professional Services (69%), Information Technology (67%), and Manufacturing (48%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Managing Director are Project Management (75%), Strategy (67%), and Information Technology (67%).
FRATCH Managing Director main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home all over Germany — available on-site in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and every major business hub, or fully remote. Choose a city to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Berlin 
Hamburg 
Munich 
Cologne 
Frankfurt 
Stuttgart 
Dusseldorf 
Leipzig 
Dortmund 
Essen 
Bremen 
Hanover 
Nuremberg 
Vienna 
Zurich Countries:
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
