About Charles River Associates

Charles River Associates is a leading global consulting firm that offers economic, financial, and strategic expertise to major law firms, corporations, and governments around the world. For nearly 60 years, CRA experts have combined rigorous cutting-edge research, state-of-the-art methodology, and proven experience to address our clients’ most complex challenges.

CRA's European Competition practice specialises in providing economic advice on matters of competition policy and regulation. We assist firms and their legal advisors in all types of competition proceedings before competition authorities and courts: mergers and acquisitions, abuse of dominance allegations, cartels, restrictive commercial agreements, market investigations, litigation and disputes, intellectual property or state aid. We also provide advice to regulatory authorities in similar matters. We have played a key role in many cases that have shaped European competition policy in recent years: from aerospace to software, and manufacturing to transportation. More recently, we have been at the forefront of economic thinking in antitrust investigations and regulation in the tech sector.

We seek candidates for our Dusseldorf and Munich, Germany locations.

Position Overview

The Consulting Associate position is the entry-level position for applicants with a postgraduate qualification in economics and up to three years of experience. Consulting Associates work closely with senior consultants, scholars and industry experts on project teams, and will have the opportunity to immediately work on some of the largest, high-profile and most significant competition cases in Europe, providing conceptual and practice input to projects. A typical Consulting Associate would:

• Identify potential issues and conduct analyses that can be used to illustrate economic arguments;
• Assemble compelling evidence from data and research that support our expert opinions and business recommendations;
• Program, build models and/or perform regression analyses in statistical analysis programs (such as Stata, Python, R), including large data projects requiring use of cloud computing;
• Assist in the development and presentation of client deliverables, including expert reports and white papers summarising opinions, conclusions, and recommendations using financial, market, industry or client-proprietary data;
• Assemble compelling evidence and identify useful analyses from data and research that illustrate economic arguments and support expert opinions and business recommendations;
• Interact with clients and communicate complicated economic concepts and arguments to non-experts in an understandable, accessible manner;
• Ensure the integrity and accuracy of analyses and opinions; and
• Participate in practice-building activities (training, recruiting, publication, expertise sharing, etc.).

Desired Qualifications

• Strong first degree in economics and a post-graduate qualification (MSc/MPhil) in economics from a well-regarded institution, with a strong foundation in microeconomics, preferably with a specialism in industrial economics;
• Up to 3 years of relevant work experience, within consulting, business, or with a competition authority preferred;
• High degree of numeracy and some comfort with data manipulation is essential, familiarity with econometric techniques is desirable;
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills;
• Demonstrated high level of initiative and leadership;
• Strong teamwork and collaboration capabilities;
• Excellent time management and task prioritization skills.

To Apply

To be considered for a position in Dusseldorf or Munich, please submit the following:

• CV – please include current contact information;
• Covering letter – please describe your interest in CRA's Antitrust and Competition practice and how this role matches your goals;
• Transcript (voluntary) – for all academic training, may be unofficial;
• Writing Sample (voluntary) – we prefer a sole-authored submission from an existing work (class paper, thesis, or work product) that includes your commentary on a quantitative analysis and/or relevant to the field of economics.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Work Location Flexibility

CRA creates a work environment that enables our colleagues to benefit from being together in the office to best deliver on our promise of career growth, mentorship and inclusivity. At the same time, we recognise that individuals realise a range of benefits when working from home periodically. We currently ask that individuals spend 3 to 4 days a week on average working in the office (which may include traveling to another CRA office or to a client's location), with specific days determined in coordination with your practice or team. At certain times of the year (e.g. holiday periods), additional remote work options are offered to those whose work commitments permit it, although our offices remain open for those who choose or need to be there.

Our Commitment to Diversity

Charles River Associates is an equal opportunity employer. As part of our focus on equity and inclusion, we work to ensure a fair and consistent hiring process. We celebrate diversity and we are committed to an inclusive work environment.

The statements included in this job description are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified.