Based in Warsaw, you will work full-time primarily as support for business development in Poland and as a junior consultant in higher education, research and innovation (HERI) projects. You will work in a wide variety of missions including:
- Helping academic institutions define their strategic priorities and development plans, emphasising the transition from strategy to implementation.
- Helping public administrations design their strategies of support to education, research and innovation.
- Helping research communities organise, argue their relevance and design their research agendas.
- Co-designing and animating participatory processes (working groups, strategic seminars and workshops) with a wide variety of actors.
- Producing high-quality analyses on strategic topics (benchmarkings, scenario analyses, literature reviews, data analysis…) that must serve as key inputs for subsequent strategic discussions.
- Supporting interactions and negotiations between different stakeholders.
- Providing targeted advice to senior leadership.
- Supporting the every-day work of the SIRIS office in Poland.
You will have the opportunity to work in a creative, dynamic, dedicated, and multilingual team of professionals that brings together consultants, domain experts, public policy experts, and data scientists.
You will be expected to contribute to projects as part of teams of 2 to 4 collaborators, to be defined for each project, and in due time take a project manager role in some projects.
You will occasionally travel to meet our clients, animate workshops, participate in seminars, etc. in Poland, Europe or beyond. Flexibility is therefore required.
You will start by mainly working in two types of projects:
- Projects within the Polish and European HERI ecosystem, therefore with Polish and other European institutions (universities, public administrations, research institutes).
- Projects in the context of the European Universities Initiative, therefore with universities from all across Europe, in an English-speaking context.
Thus, some level of knowledge of the Polish and/or European HERI ecosystem is a plus.
- You are a Polish speaker, and also have an excellent working knowledge of English.
- With a Master's degree or above, you are a firm believer in the positive impact of public services and policies to society and are seeking to contribute to it.
- You have had an international experience as part of your studies or work.
- You have strong capabilities of argumentation and critical analysis, excellent writing and reasoning skills, and show attention to details. With high standards when it comes to writing a report, defending an argument, or looking for data, you like interactions and challenging discussions.
- You have the capability to use data to support your arguments when required.
- You like taking initiative and proposing new ideas. You are proactive and willing to raise standards.
- You are open to working in project mode, which implies a margin of flexibility and adaptation. You are autonomous in your own time management, organisation and prioritisation of tasks.
- At the same time, you are a communicative person by nature. You communicate progress when needed; you ask questions when required; you present results effectively and clearly; you are at ease when communicating and engaging with clients professionally.
- You are open to dialogue, feedback and constructive criticism. You see potential difficulties as challenges and opportunities. You enjoy looking for and testing solutions.
- You are curious and eager to learn and explore new fields of expertise.
- You are capable of supporting administrative tasks connected to business development and projects.
- You are at ease using Google Suite software (Google docs, Google sheets, Google slides): you are fully comfortable with their technical features, and also manage to be creative when using their functionalities. You are flexible in terms of tools, and could quickly adapt to the systems used by clients.
Nice to have
While you don't need to be an expert in all the skills listed below, it would be an advantage if you have an understanding and fluency in at least some of them:
- A global knowledge and understanding of international models of higher education, research and/or innovation structuration in a European country or in Europe overall.
- Professional experience in academia in one or several other countries.
- Experience with internationalisation mechanisms at universities.
- Awareness of recent geopolitical developments and their impact in public policy (specifically higher education and research policy), in Europe or beyond.
Send CV and cover letter to jobs@sirisacademic.com. Sending recommendation letters is optional. Please mention “2025 Junior Polish/English speaking consultant” in the subject of the e-mail.
Deadline to send applications is the 22nd of August
The selection process will unfold in accordance with the following steps and calendar:
- After an initial CV screening, a first online interview will be carried out early September 2025.
- A written test will be sent to pre-selected candidates around early October 2025.
- A final round of face to face interviews with the team for selected candidates will happen during the month of October 2025.
- If selected, it would be ideal if you can start join SIRIS in November
Any questions regarding this offer should be sent to jobs@sirisacademic.com.
