Research Assistant

DUNE Strategy; Dubai; Remote; AED 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Dune Strategy, a Dubai-based boutique consulting firm, seeks a Research Assistant to support partners with high-quality briefing notes. You will gather and verify information on counterparties, map ownership, and track regulatory developments across the region.

Your work feeds into client meetings and decision-making processes with clear sourcing. You will draft notes, ensure numbers tie to sources, and keep internal files organized for efficient handoffs.

Qualifications

• Strong basic research skills across topics and sources.
• Excellent written English suitable for partner briefs and summaries.
• Ability to handle incomplete information and clearly state what is known vs. unknown.

Responsibilities

• Gather and check information on companies, family groups and counterparties using filings, registries, public statements and press coverage.
• Map who owns what and who decides what, and note where the picture is still unclear.
• Track regulatory developments across the region and keep a running record of what changed and when.
• Assemble briefing material for partner meetings: background, key facts, open questions, a short read on the situation.
• Draft and edit research notes so the reasoning is easy to follow and the numbers tie back to a source.
• Keep the internal files tidy, so the next person can pick up a subject without starting over.

Skills

Basic research skills

Clear written English

Comfort with incomplete information

Practical streak

Care with numbers and sources

Deadline reliability

Tools

Spreadsheets

Document reading

Job description

A partner needs a one-page note on a counterparty by Thursday morning, and the file has three contradictory figures in it. Or a client asks whether a licensing change affects their entry plan, and nobody in the room has read the actual text yet. The Research Assistant sits close to those moments: reading the source material, checking the numbers, and putting together the briefing a partner uses in the meeting.

About Dune Strategy

Dune Strategy is a small management consulting firm based in Dubai. The work is commercial: market entry, regional expansion, transactions and joint ventures, mostly for international investors, family groups and sovereign-linked entities. The firm keeps a deliberately short list of active engagements so that partners stay in the conversations where decisions are made, and research sits right next to that work.

What you will do

• Gather and check information on companies, family groups and counterparties, using filings, registries, public statements and press coverage.
• Map who owns what and who decides what, and note where the picture is still unclear.
• Track regulatory developments across the region and keep a running record of what changed and when.
• Assemble briefing material for partner meetings: background, key facts, open questions, a short read on the situation.
• Draft and edit research notes so the reasoning is easy to follow and the numbers tie back to a source.
• Keep the internal files tidy, so the next person can pick up a subject without starting over.

What we are looking for

• Basic research skills from any starting point: university work, an internship, a research project, a job where you had to find something out properly.
• Clear written English. If a partner reads your note on the way to a meeting, it should hold up.
• Comfort with incomplete information, and the patience to say what is known and what is not.
• A practical streak. You look for the useful answer, not the longest one.
• Care with numbers and sources, since a briefing that cannot be traced is not much use.
• Reliability on deadlines and discretion with material that stays inside the firm.

Helpful background

• An interest in finance, economics, law or politics, whether from study or from reading on your own.
• Arabic or another language used in the region.
• Some exposure to a sector such as real estate, energy, logistics or financial services.
• Previous research or analysis work of any kind, including student projects and part-time roles.
• Comfort with spreadsheets and with reading documents closely.

What we offer

This is a permanent, full-time role, worked remotely from Dubai. You will work directly with partners at every stage, which means your notes get read and your questions get answered. You will see how sovereign capital, family ownership and regulation affect a commercial call on live engagements, with real files and real deadlines. The firm is small, so the range of subjects you touch is wide, and there is room to take on more as your judgment develops.

How we work

The team is small and the days are shaped by whatever the client needs that week. Partners stay involved in the detail, so feedback comes early and comes directly. Reading time is protected, because a position built on a thin reading of the market does not survive contact with the counterparty.

After a year here, you should be able to run your own briefing: take a vague question, find the material that answers it, and hand over something a partner can carry into a meeting. You will start to see the commercial call early, often before it is written down, and be trusted with a counterparty on your own. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and it is a fair measure for this role too.