Graduate Traineeship in Policy Advisory and Political Risk
GéoPoly Global LLC | New York
Format: Remote
Eligibility: Continuing graduate students at a New York State institution, physically located in New York State
Duration: 120 hours total, 24 weeks, five hours per week, February 1 to July 16, 2027
Compensation: Unpaid. Academic credit required.
Places available: 3
Application deadline: November 29, 2026, 11:59pm ET
About GéoPoly Global
GéoPoly Global is a policy advisory and risk analysis firm based in New York City, founded in 2022. We work with clients and partners on international security, technology policy, and global health, producing analysis and advice that informs decisions.
The traineeship
This traineeship shows you how political risk and advisory analysis are practiced professionally. Over 120 hours, you will learn how an advisory firm scopes a question, identifies and weighs political risk, reasons under uncertainty, decides what to include and omit, and writes to the standard the industry expects.
Each week covers one competency, introduced through instruction and then applied to case material. Later in the program you will take a policy question of your own choosing and apply those methods to it, producing analysis in professional form.
This is a teaching program. It is not a job, and it is not a staffing arrangement. GéoPoly Global dedicates senior time to instruction, and trainees produce no work for the firm.
What you will learn
Political risk assessment: identifying drivers, indicators, and thresholds
Advisory analysis
Scoping: translating a broad question into an answerable one
Frameworks: stakeholder analysis, signaling, market translation
Forecasting fundamentals, including the expression and calibration of uncertainty
Cognitive bias and the psychology of judgment under uncertainty
Advisory writing
Style: normative and non-normative analysis, and the descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive registers
Structure: concision, framing, assumptions, variables, and the discipline of omission
Analytic technique and the logic of argument construction
Presenting findings to a non-specialist audience
Instruction uses public and hypothetical case material. No client material is used at any point.
Your week
Every week follows the same structure, and half of it is direct instruction and supervision:
Two hours of discussion with the cohort, led by a GéoPoly Global officer, covering the week’s competency and the accompanying case material
Two and a half hours of independent reading and applied work
Thirty minutes of individual review with your supervisor
You will be supervised throughout by an assigned GéoPoly Global officer. Other members of the firm may join particular sessions where their expertise is relevant.
Your project
Partway through the program you will choose a policy question that genuinely interests you. Your supervisor will help you sharpen it into something tractable, and you will then apply the competencies from the sessions to produce a piece of advisory analysis on it. At the end of the program you will present the finished work to the cohort and to your supervisor.
The project is yours. It is your own work, on your own subject, developed for your own academic and professional purposes. GéoPoly Global does not commission it and retains no rights in it. You keep all intellectual property in what you produce. Publication is not part of the program, and you are free to use or publish your work wherever you choose.
Where your university requires an evaluation, GéoPoly Global completes the university’s own supervisor assessment of your learning.
About you
We are not looking for a particular skill set. No prior policy advisory experience is required, and we do not expect you to arrive already knowing how advisory work is done. That is what the program teaches.
What matters is intent. The strongest applicants intend to work in policy advisory, political risk, or an adjacent field, and want to understand the craft before entering it. Coursework in policy, international affairs, security, economics, public health, or a related discipline is useful context, and we are interested in what you have studied and why.
Eligibility
You must:
Be enrolled in a graduate program at an institution in New York State, and not be graduating before the traineeship concludes in July 2027
Be physically located in New York State for the full duration of the traineeship
Provide proof of current enrollment: certificate of enrollment
Receive academic credit for the traineeship from your institution
Before the traineeship begins, you must provide confirmation from your institution that the traineeship is approved for academic credit. This can take any form your school normally uses, including an email from your department or internship office, a signed internship approval form, or proof of registration in the relevant course. Placements are confirmed only once that confirmation is received.
International students require Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorization from their institution, arranged by the institution and covering the full duration of the traineeship.
How to apply
Applications are submitted through the form on our application page. You will be asked for:
A curriculum vitae or resume
A short letter, no more than one page, explaining your interest in policy advisory and political risk work and what you hope to take from the program
A writing sample of no more than 2,500 words. It should be analytical rather than creative or opinion based. A policy memo, research paper, or analytical essay is ideal, and academic coursework is entirely appropriate. Excerpts from longer work are acceptable if you indicate the context.
Proof of current enrollment
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a conversation with the program supervisor before decisions are made.
Applications are assessed on academic preparation, demonstrated interest in the field, and fit with the program’s stated learning objectives. Selection is not a hiring process and does not evaluate candidates against the firm’s staffing needs.
Deadline: November 29, 2026, 11:59pm ET
Shortlist notice: December 7, 2026
Interviews: week of December 7, 2026
Final decisions: by December 15, 2026
Credit confirmation due: January 25, 2027
Program begins: February 1, 2027
Late applications will not be considered. Placements are confirmed only once your institution has confirmed that the traineeship is approved for academic credit, and where required, CPT authorization is in place.
What this program is not
This traineeship is not employment, and it does not create an employment relationship. Trainees are not employees of GéoPoly Global LLC and receive no wages, salary, stipend, or benefits. The program does not substitute for paid staff, and no GéoPoly Global work is assigned to trainees. It is not client facing: trainees undertake no client work, see no client material, and have no access to confidential information or proprietary firm tools. Completion confers no eligibility for engagement with GéoPoly Global or its analyst network.
Equal opportunity
GéoPoly Global LLC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, marital or partnership status, military status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, New York State, or New York City law. This applies to trainees as well as employees. Applicants requiring an accommodation in the application process or in the program should contact info@geopoly.co.