Careers at GESIS - We are looking

The scientific departments of GESIS are headed by professors appointed jointly with various universities. Vacant positions are advertised internationally. We are looking for individuals with excellent technical and communication skills. The initial appointment is limited to five years.

The Institute's success is based on the work of its scientific team leaders and senior researchers. As managers or experienced scientists, they are responsible for the Institute's research-based infrastructure services and their continuous development in the scientific departments.

The prerequisites for recruitment as a team leader are a doctorate or equivalent, scientific excellence and communication skills that suggest that the management task can be successfully mastered.

The appointment is initially made as a fixed-term employment contract for a period of four years, usually with full collectively agreed working hours. 15 months before the contract expires, it is possible to apply for it to be made permanent.

Postdocs, whose doctorate is usually a few years old and who still have to achieve qualification goals, provide research-based services at GESIS. Through their work, they gain valuable professional experience that will benefit them in their future careers.

As a rule, they are employed for a period of four years with full working hours in accordance with the collective agreement. 15 months before the contract expires, it is possible to apply for it to be made permanent.

As an infrastructure institution for the social sciences, GESIS offers very good opportunities for doctoral studies. We therefore employ doctoral students in all scientific departments.

Doctoral students are employed for a fixed term of four years and provide research-based services. As a rule, they are employed for 75 percent of the collectively agreed working hours. One third of the working hours should be used for doctoral research. In conjunction with the free time available through part-time employment, this should provide sufficient time for the doctorate.

GESIS supports and promotes its doctoral students in accordance with the provisions set out in the document "GESIS Doctoral Program (252 kB)".

Public third-party funding, in particular from the DFG, the BMBF and the EU, is an essential component of GESIS funding.

GESIS therefore regularly advertises externally funded positions for scientists with and without a doctorate. These positions offer the opportunity to gain experience in research and development projects. The extent to which doctoral funding is possible depends on the nature of the position. Wherever possible, GESIS tries to combine the project work of employees without a doctorate with a doctoral project.

To manage the provision of its scientific infrastructure services, GESIS needs highly qualified employees who enjoy contributing their specific academic qualifications in an interdisciplinary environment. In particular, positions with a focus on social sciences, information science and business administration will be advertised.

The aim of GESIS administration is to enable scientists to achieve the scientific goals of the institute. The main qualification is business administration. Positions are advertised in personnel, finance, third-party funding and building management.

The IT Infrastructure and Services department provides all GESIS employees with a secure, modern and stable IT working environment. The operation of the diverse GESIS services is realized via a scalable and highly available, virtualized server and storage infrastructure both in our own data center and in the cloud. We keep IT running!

The infrastructure services of GESIS are predominantly provided digitally. The high quality of the services provided is guaranteed by the institute's software developers. Positions are advertised for all phases of the development process.

Training at GESIS is particularly interesting due to the many and varied training areas.

The advantages of training at GESIS:

• Above-average training allowance in accordance with TVA-L BBiG (1,086.82 euros in the first year)
•  Payment of an annual bonus
• 30 days vacation
• Opportunity to spend time abroad as part of the Erasmus Plus program
• Training days for the networking of trainees
• Structured takeover planning for trainees

The range of tasks for student assistants is as broad as the range of tasks at GESIS. Activities include, for example, data preparation, support in data analysis or literature research. But also workshop preparation or administrative tasks are areas in which student assistants can work.

And afterwards?

We offer doctoral positions. Please speak to your contact person and take a look at our careers page.

You are welcome to send your unsolicited application for our Cologne location directly to the relevant department.

For a mandatory internship in Mannheim, please send your unsolicited application to Michaela.Kurtov(at)gesis(dot)org.

Please apply with the following documents:

• Cover letter
• Current curriculum vitae
• Certificate from the university confirming a mandatory internship
• certificates
• Transcripts of records
• Current certificate of enrollment