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Need interim leadership for growth, restructuring, or a market launch? Bring in a Managing Director with P&L ownership, team leadership, and stakeholder management experience. Get fast, precise matching with vetted, available freelancers.
About the role
What they own
A Managing Director leads the business with clear accountability. The role covers strategy, day-to-day operations, commercial decisions, and people leadership. In some companies the title is used like general manager, country manager, or CEO, depending on size and structure.
Typical deliverables
- Set direction and translate it into an executable plan
- Run the business with focus on growth, margin, and cash flow
- Lead senior teams and align functions around shared priorities
- Manage investors, owners, board members, and key clients
- Handle change such as restructuring, scaling, or a new market entry
A freelance Managing Director is often brought in for a defined mandate, a transition phase, or when the company needs experienced leadership before making a permanent hire.
Core strengths
The best Managing Directors combine commercial judgment with calm execution. They can read a balance sheet, challenge forecasts, and still keep teams engaged. Strong candidates know how to make decisions with incomplete information and how to bring order to fast-moving situations.
- P&L ownership and financial control
- Leadership of cross-functional teams
- Negotiation with partners and senior stakeholders
- Clear communication in English and, when needed, German
- Experience with turnaround, scale-up, or integration work
Tools and focus areas
A Managing Director works across dashboards, budgets, CRM data, and operating reports. Depending on the company, the job may involve ERP systems, KPI reviews, board decks, sales pipelines, and hiring plans. In manufacturing, tech, or professional services, the emphasis can shift, but the core task stays the same: turn business goals into results.
When companies hire one
Companies usually bring in a freelance Managing Director when speed matters or the situation is sensitive. That can mean leadership gaps, a new subsidiary, a market expansion in Munich, or a business unit that needs sharper control. Local companies also look for leaders who can work comfortably with German-speaking stakeholders while keeping international teams aligned.
What quality looks like
A strong Managing Director is visible without creating noise. They set priorities, make ownership clear, and leave the business in better shape than they found it. Look for a track record in similar company sizes, clear decision making, and the ability to lead both numbers and people.
Meet FRATCH Managing Directors
Martin Petermann
Business Analyst and Test Manager
Last position:
Business Analyst and Test Manager at ProSiebenSat.1 Tech & Services GmbH
- Analysis of affected business processes, taking numerous stakeholders into account
- Interface analysis, architecture and system design
- Mediating and coordinating different subprojects and interface partners
- Creating epics and user stories, maintaining the backlog, workshops and review presentations
- Implementation support between business departments and development
- Test management including strategy and approach definition
- Test case definition, execution and approval
- Cross-team organization of integration and acceptance tests
- Support for test environments
- Technologies and tools: Java, Angular, Kubectl, REST, AWS SNS/SQS, Kafka, S4/HANA, Bruno
Markus Schrumpf
Content Expert, AI Content Architect | Intelligent UX Writing and Localization
Last position:
Co-Founder & Managing Director at dialogue gmbh
- Strategic and operational overall responsibility for a specialized agency for UX Writing & Content Strategy
- Product development, client acquisition, and the setup and strategic further development of UX writing systems for clients in the IT and finance sectors
Rico Frenzel
Recruiter / Trainer
Last position:
Recruiter / Trainer at Freelance
- Active sourcing and recruiting for individual mandates (finance, IT, procurement)
- Training recruiting departments
- Training specialists and managers in application situations and interview techniques
- Application coaching and CV consulting
Matthias Voit
Senior Frontend Developer & Architect
Last position:
Senior Frontend Developer / Technical Web Architect – Consent Management
Project for a leading German email and cloud service provider: As a Senior Frontend Developer and Technical Web Architect, I developed an international, multi-tenant white-label consent management layer for several brands.
Main tasks:
- architecture and implementation with Vue 3, TypeScript and Vite
- development of automated tests with Vitest and Playwright
- creation of brand-specific CMP configurations, CSS themes, i18n structures and vendor settings
- implementation of playout and initialization logic as well as backend integration
- technical decision support, project and code documentation
Impact: replacement of external CMP solutions with a reusable and long-term maintainable in-house base for several international brands and rollouts.
Technologies: Vue 3, TypeScript, Vite, Vitest, Playwright, IAB TCF, Google Additional Consent, i18n, Git, CI/CD.
Wolfgang Tomaschek
Senior Project Manager and Requirements Manager / Business Analyst
Last position:
Overall Project Manager at itzbund
Project content: The use of “Generative Pretrained Transformer” technologies (GPT) will massively change the world of work in the coming years. ITZBund is developing a base service for this, which can be used by its 200 customers. This base service is offered as an on-prem and a cloud variant. Started in 12/23, from 05/24 productive systems (based on MVP) could already be rolled out and operated successfully for several agencies and federal ministries.
Project metrics:
- Budget in 2024 approx. €20M
- approx. 70 people in the core project context
- regular (indirect) contact with approx. 80 people in the wider project environment
My main tasks:
- Overall responsible external project manager
- Project definition phase/project setup and establishment of the project organization
- Strategic and operational project planning, as well as shaping and ongoing adjustments of the project
- Ongoing coordination with project owners and stakeholders in ITZBund
- Ongoing coordination with subproject managers, agile roles and other project staff
- Responsibility for project controlling, quality management, risk management and change management
- Responsibility for providing the base service on on-prem and cloud environments and its continuous development
- Planning and leading several hypercare phases
- Collaboration and ongoing coordination with a partner project of a federal ministry and provision of an MVP
- Coordination with agile teams
- Coordination with operations, release and deployment
- Responsibility for the implementation of the first customer projects
- Responsibility for creating an AI governance
- Ensuring accessibility (BITV)
- Responsibility for setting up a subproject for marketing activities
- Support in building an efficient proposal process
- Stakeholder management
Methodology:
- V-Model XT ITZBund
- Scrum
Tools used:
- Microsoft Office, Skype, MS Project, Confluence, Jira, SharePoint, Miro
Michael Koschnike
Managing Director – Interim Management
Last position:
Managing Director – Interim Management at CME CompuMess Elektronik GmbH
- Supported shareholders in the sale of the company – buy & build strategy
- Distribution specialist and solution provider for power supplies, measurement technology, test systems and OEM across various industries such as automotive, medical technology, defense, aerospace
- In-depth, vendor-independent technical consulting from design through prototype development across the entire development process
Rayan Batallas Guerrero
Founder and Managing Director
Last position:
Founder and Managing Director at Guerrero Headhunter Company
- Interim HR projects
- Leading terms and contract negotiations on the client side
- Cold calling
- Building and expanding clients across Germany
- Sourcing and directly approaching candidates
- Expanding the candidate network
- Conducting candidate screenings
- Preparing and processing application documents
- Interview preparation and follow-up
Nick Riegger
Interim C-Level Executive | AI Governance & Workflow Transformation | Fractional COO/CFO/CEO | Munich
Last position:
Managing Director / Executive Advisor – Digital Transformation at BFW Werner Völk GmbH
- Executive mandate for the digital realignment of an established mid-sized company
- Analysis of organization, processes and IT landscape along the housing value chain
- Development of a prioritized transformation path (target vision, architecture, roadmap)
- Identification of significant automation and platform potentials
Florian P Jaeger
Top Management Consultant (ex McKinsey) for strategy, growth, digitalization, transformation and financial transactions
Last position:
Member of the Board of Advisors at RainmakerSociety GmbH
Advising a highly profitable and fast-growing bootstrapped HR tech startup since inception in regular sessions on strategic, operational, and leadership topics
Focusing on business model, product-market fit, UX/UI, fundraising, hiring strategy, and team setup
Marc Zenker
Interim CIO | Digital Transformation Executive
Last position:
Founder & Managing Director / Interim CIO & Transformation Executive at Collective Minds GmbH
- Built Collective Minds as an AI-first company, embedding AI into operating model, delivery and client solutions.
- Built and lead an international offshore delivery organization of 25 professionals, complemented by senior specialists in Germany.
- Act as Interim CDO for ALWITRA, supporting the company-wide digitalization agenda across ERP, CRM, enterprise knowledge, AI, data and operating model.
- Advise managing directors, CIOs and IT leaders on transformation strategy, target operating models, governance, prioritization and execution.
- Own program structures, budgets, staffing, vendor coordination, risks and executive stakeholder communication.
- Develop scalable technology and delivery models across AI, CRM, IAM, integration and manufacturing-related initiatives.
Catrin Stern-Sträter
Executive Director – Therapeutic Area Lead Oncology
Last position:
Executive Director – Therapeutic Area Lead Oncology at Lilly Deutschland GmbH
- Strategic leadership of oncology medical organization, portfolio prioritization and performance management within national medical strategy.
Thomas Lorang
Head Margin Management and Commercial Controlling (Interim Mandate)
Last position:
Head Margin Management and Commercial Controlling (Interim Mandate) at Pfleiderer
Lead commercial controlling team (3 direct reports) and ensure ongoing department operations such as sales reporting, planning and budgeting, ad-hoc business analyses on improvement potentials and business partner role to address strategic challenges as well as sales steering and sales management setup (e.g. sales incentives definition and monitoring, definition of key sales processes driving performance, tracking and reporting of strategic sales initiatives)
Collaborate with key stakeholders including PE investor, P&L owners (management board, head of sales) and functional heads (head of controlling, head of SCM, head of IT)
Provide functional leadership of commercial excellence team (department head and 6 direct reports) to define, further develop and execute commercial excellence roadmap as well as critical commercial operations such as long-term transformation agenda, price steering, CRM operations, EDI system, strategic customer planning process
Marie-Theres Hufnagel
Executive Assistant to the Managing Director
Last position:
Executive Assistant to the Managing Director at Hausverwaltung Hufnagel
- Financial administration, payment processing, and accounting support
- Contract coordination, stakeholder communication, and business operations
- Executive support and process management
Aydogan Koc
Head of Special Projects–Executive Consultant
Last position:
Head of Special Projects–Executive Consultant at HPS GmbH
- Responsible for space & defence projects with NASA, ESA & national agencies
- Senior program management for special projects
- Collaboration with Thales and other key industry stakeholders
Tamara Wünschmann
Freelance Recruiter
Last position:
Managing Director / Self-Employed Recruiter at PTR – Profi Talent Recruitment UG
- Success-based recruitment
- Fee-based support in HR, including active sourcing, applicant management, conducting interviews, HR operations, and outsourcing the application process (RPO)
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Managing Directors statistics
Typical experience
23 years
Average project duration
5 years
Certifications per freelancer
2
Top business areas
Information Technology, Strategy, Operations
Top industries
Information Technology, Professional Services, Manufacturing
Most common languages
German, English, French
Bachelor's degree or higher
88%
Master's degree or higher
62%
Doctorate
14%
Salary / 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 Managing Directors & 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
Need clarity? Check out our simple overview of FRATCH
A Managing Director takes ownership of the business direction and the operating model. That usually includes strategy, leadership, commercial performance, and communication with owners or the board. In freelance settings, the mandate is often tied to a change phase, a launch, or an interim leadership gap.
A freelance Managing Director makes sense when the company needs leadership now, but the long-term structure is still open. This is common during succession, restructuring, international expansion, or while recruiting a permanent executive. It also helps when the work is complex but time-bound.
A strong Managing Director combines commercial thinking, people leadership, and disciplined execution. They should be comfortable with P&L responsibility, forecasting, stakeholder management, and difficult decisions. In Germany, companies often value someone who can work across English and German business settings.
Not always, but the titles are often used in overlapping ways. A Managing Director may have the same scope as a general manager, country manager, or CEO in a smaller company or local subsidiary. The real difference is the mandate, not the title alone.
In Munich, a Managing Director is often hired for scale-up leadership, subsidiary setup, turnaround work, or steering a business unit in a strong industrial or tech environment. The city’s mix of international groups, SMEs, and investor-backed companies creates demand for leaders who can operate locally and globally. On-site presence can matter for board work and team leadership, while parts of the mandate can still be handled remotely.
Look for proof of similar mandates, not just senior titles. A good Managing Director can explain what they changed, how they measured success, and how they handled pressure. References, decision style, and fit with the ownership model matter as much as industry background.
The brief should define the scope, the decision rights, and the outcome you expect from the Managing Director. Be clear about whether the focus is growth, stability, turnaround, or preparation for a permanent successor. The more precise the mandate, the faster the right profile can step in.
Yes, if roles are clear from the start. A Managing Director should complement internal leaders, not compete with them. Good collaboration depends on shared priorities, regular communication, and a clear line on who owns which decisions.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
