Balkaninvest is a Sofia-based recruitment agency with 15 years of experience in filling positions in an international set-up.

For our client, the H2Start project in Stara Zagora, we are currently searching for a motivated and experienced

Head of Innovation and Knowledge Management

to support the development of the project’s innovation ecosystem.

The H2Start project is one of the largest scientific projects in Bulgaria, with total funding of EUR 30M, including EUR 15M directly from the EC Horizon Europe Teaming for Excellence programme and EUR 15M from national co-funding. The project is aimed at the creation of a new hydrogen technologies-based research and innovation center in Stara Zagora at Trakia University. The project includes the Bulgarian Hydrogen Association, as well as the Italian POLITO and CNR as international partners. The project will require a high speed of organisational development and significant capacity growth to ensure high-quality research and strong sustainability during the implementation period until 2031. The objective is to reach EUR 3M annual revenues from sources other than the initial investments.

Requirements for the Candidate:

• Experience in innovation development and innovation support activities
• Excellent knowledge of Bulgarian and good knowledge of English (both oral and written)
• Excellent communication skills and willingness to work with people
• Flexibility and good negotiation skills
• Good time management skills and ability to maintain set priorities

Preferences:

• Formal higher education or professional development in the field of innovation development/management
• Academic background in a relevant scientific or technical field would be considered an advantage
• Experience working with scientific personnel
• Experience with Horizon Europe or similar EU-funded projects is considered an advantage.

Main responsibilities:

• Create and organise the innovation system
• Engage and support scientists in innovation development (ideation, coaching, roadmap planning, commercialisation)
• Organise workshops for training, inspiration, and capacity building
• Organise formal processes relevant to innovation support (IP management, data and knowledge management, legal framework)
• Organise outreach activities for external stakeholder engagement (industry, startups, funding bodies)
• Engage H2Start project partners in innovation development
• Lead relevant tasks within the H2Start project
• Establish and manage the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Center

Work conditions:

• Bulgarian Full time labour contract
• Competitive remuneration package based on qualifications and experience
• Hybrid working model with at least 30% of time in-person in Stara Zagora
• Other social benefits
• Opportunity to gain valuable experience in one of the largest scientific projects in Bulgaria

Deadline for applications: Monday, 29.06.2026

All information provided will be treated confidentially. Balkaninvest operates with recruitment license № 1757 and № 1758 issued by the National Agency of Employment.

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Balkaninvest is a Sofia-based recruitment agency with 15 years of experience in filling positions in an international set-up.

For our client, the H2Start project in Stara Zagora, we are currently searching for a motivated and experienced

Human Resources Development Manager

to cover a key role for the next years (expanding the team from 10 to 40 persons by the end of the project, with approximately 65% being scientists).

The H2Start project is one of the largest scientific projects in Bulgaria, with total funding of EUR 30M, including EUR 15M directly from the EC Horizon Europe Teaming for Excellence programme and EUR 15M from national co-funding. The project is aimed at the creation of a new hydrogen technologies-based research and innovation center in Stara Zagora at Trakia University. The project includes the Bulgarian Hydrogen Association, as well as the Italian POLITO and CNR as international partners. The project will require a high speed of organisational development and significant capacity growth to ensure high-quality research and strong sustainability during the implementation period until 2031. The objective is to reach EUR 3M annual revenues from sources other than the initial investments.

Requirements for the Candidate:

• Experience in personnel development and organising development seminars
• Experience working with a team of more than 30 employees
• Excellent knowledge of Bulgarian and good knowledge of English (both oral and written)
• Excellent communication skills and willingness to work with people
• Flexibility and good negotiation skills
• Good time management skills and ability to maintain set priorities

Preferences:

• Formal higher education or professional development in the field of personnel development and management
• Academic background in a relevant scientific or technical field would be considered an advantage
• Experience working with scientific personnel
• Experience in international recruitment

Main responsibilities:

• Establishment and implementation of a strategy for HR development of the center
• Recruitment and onboarding of the HR needed for the center (scientific and non-scientific staff)
• Organising training, development, and creative workshops (locally and with Italian and other international cooperation partners)
• Organising international scientist-to-scientist cooperation and exchange of experience
• Organising and facilitating employee attraction events
• Developing career development plans and conducting employee evaluations
• Setting up and maintaining HR management routines
• Other tasks related to personnel development

Work conditions:

• Bulgarian Full time labour contract
• Competitive remuneration package based on qualifications and experience
• Hybrid working model with at least 50% of time in-person in Stara Zagora
• Other social benefits
• Opportunity to gain valuable experience in one of the largest scientific projects in Bulgaria

Applications to be submitted via the form on our website.

Deadline for applications: Monday, 29.06.2026

All information provided will be treated confidentially. Balkaninvest operates with recruitment license № 1757 and № 1758 issued by the National Agency of Employment.

The post Human Resources Development Manager appeared first on Personalberatung Balkaninvest.

For our client, the H2Start project in Stara Zagora, we are currently searching for a motivated and experienced

Operational project manager

to support in particular the organisational development and total capacity growth.

H2Start aims to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to drive innovation in renewable hydrogen production. This initiative contributes to the transition towards a lowcarbon, energy-secure economy and is supported by Trakia University (TrU) and BGH2A, in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino (POLITO) and ITAE – CNR. It will provide modern infrastructure to attract and retain top-tier researchers, fostering academic and industry collaboration for cutting-edge innovation and technology transfer and is funded with € 30 Mio. from both EU and national funds.

Requirements for the Candidate:

• Experience as project manager or deputy in at least 3 projects during last 5 years, at least one with the size of 1M EUR
• Experience in organisational development
• Has experience with Bulgarian public procurements for at least 4 years
• Possibility to work part of the time on-site in Stara Zagora, plus conduct occasionally international business trips – mandatory
• Fluency in English (written and spoken)
• Higher education in Management or Economics

Preferences:

• Experience with scientific projects, especially in STEM field
• Work with international environment (working abroad or work with international partners)
• Has good knowledge of Horizon 2020 and/or Horizon Europe administration processes
• Fluency in Bulgarian language
• Experience with innovations and business development
• Experience in building sustained growth
• Enjoying managing change and organisational transformation (and has strong track record)
• Ability to adopt in fast growing, dynamic environments
• Leadership skills and personality to lead people thru periods of change and uncertainty, building new organisation, processes, tools

Main responsibilities:

• Overall coordination and operational management of the Horizon Europe H2Start project as a project manager
• Ensuring the key goal to build modern, highly sustainable and internationally competitive Hydrogen technologies research and innovation center in Bulgaria
• Supervision of reaching objectives, KPIs, milestones of the project
• Direct work with work package leaders and key task leaders as relevant to reach expected results
• Organization and supervision of project administration, financial, procurement and legal activities
• Organization and facilitation of project Consortium and operational meetings
• Work with international partners, boosting their engagement
• Coordination and oversight of development, compilation and submission of project periodic reports, deliverables, amendments
• Full engagement in timely setting up and development of the new H2Start Center of Excellence and all the relevant processes needed for its full operations
• Ensuring smooth implementation of the project and timely engagement of all relevant team members (H2Start center, Trakia University, Bulgarian Hydrogen Association, Polito, CNR)

Work conditions:

• Bulgarian Full time labour contract
• Hybrid working model with at least 50% of time in-person in Stara Zagora
• Other social benefits
• Opportunity to gain valuable experience in one of the largest scientific projects in Bulgaria

Please send us your application in English language using the form below.

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