Senior Scientist, post-doc

About the role

This is a part-time (20 hours/week) Senior Scientist position at the Institute for Data, Energy, and Sustainability, starting January 1, 2027 and limited until December 31, 2027. You will serve as the founding Senior Scientist for the new Energy Transitions and Future Energy Systems research cluster — a cross-departmental initiative spanning economics, finance, law, policy, management, and technology, initiated and coordinated by Professors Jürgen Braunstein, Sigrid Stagl, and Kavita Surana. The cluster aims to become a leading academic think tank on energy, connecting rigorous research with decisions of governments, companies, and international organizations. Vienna hosts Austria's energy regulator and ministries, major utilities, and multiple international organizations, all within reach of WU's campus. This is a launch-year role designed for an established researcher with their own funded research program who wants to take on institution-building and lay foundations for the cluster's future.

Responsibilities

• Shaping the agenda: Lead a series of research workshops with faculty across departments to define a shared, problem-focused research agenda and identify where collaboration adds the most value.
• Building for the long term: Develop the cluster's funding and governance model and lead collaborative, multi-PI grant applications for third-party, institutional, and partner funding that anchor its long-term research program.
• Running the cluster: Manage day-to-day operations with the support of a small team of student assistants — organizing meetings and events, budgets, reporting, communications, and web presence.
• Convening the community: Bring WU's energy researchers together through workshops and a speaker series, and lay the groundwork for a future flagship energy forum.
• Opening doors: Initiate partnerships with policymakers, businesses, external scholars, and international organizations, and begin bringing WU research into energy debates in Vienna, Austria, Europe, and beyond.
• Supporting early-career researchers: Mentor predoctoral researchers working on energy across WU and help build a visible network for them.
• Continuing and advancing your own research: Lead or support co-authored papers from this cluster and benefit from new collaborations across the cluster.

Requirements

Academic degree: PhD in economics, social sciences, management, public policy, law, energy systems, engineering, or any related field, with an established research profile on energy-related questions.

Essential skills:

• Research standing: Strong publication record in leading peer-reviewed journals and an active research program you will continue alongside this role, ideally with funding secured beyond the first year.
• Bringing people together: Track record of building collaborations across disciplines — e.g., joint projects, research networks, or workshops you have led.
• Securing funding: Experience preparing competitive grant applications, ideally collaborative or multi-PI proposals.
• Interest in building an institution: Motivation to shape a new research community and make WU a reference point in energy research and debate.

Experience that is a plus (not required):

• Work at a research center, think tank, international organization, regulator, or company at the interface of research and policy
• Policy-facing outputs such as briefs or consultation responses
• Networks in the Austrian or European energy community
• Familiarity with EU energy and industrial policy

Language skills: Excellent written and spoken English. Knowledge of German (or willingness to learn) is a plus.

Working style: You enjoy making others successful and building something larger than your own work. You are comfortable working across disciplines and with academic, policy, and business audiences, and can move an agenda forward without formal authority. You bring strategic vision and are equally comfortable with the operational detail of running an initiative day to day.

Benefits

• Six weeks of vacation / extra vacation time
• Flexible working hours
• Training opportunities
• Wide range of benefits: in-house medical officer, athletic activities, meal allowance, variety of employee discounts
• Meaningful work in an open-minded, inclusive, and family-friendly environment
• Modern campus with spectacular architecture in the heart of Vienna
• Inspiring campus life with over 2,400 employees in research, teaching, and administration and approximately 21,500 students
• Excellent accessibility by public transportation

Pay

The minimum monthly gross salary amounts to €2,539.75 (14 times per year). This salary may be adjusted based on equivalent prior work experience. In addition, a wide range of attractive social benefits is offered.

Schedule

Part-time, 20 hours per week. Fixed-term from January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2027.

Application deadline: November 11, 2026. Questions may be directed to juergen.braunstein@wu.ac.at.