Jan Menzer studied political science with a special focus on international relations and psychology at Leipzig University. He has worked for various members of the Bundestag (German Parliament) as a foreign affairs specialist as well as a speechwriter. He was also on Angela Merkel's election campaign team at the CDU headquarters in 2013.

Jan has taught at the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt-University, and MGIMO University in Moscow. Currently, he is a lecturer in foreign policy, international security policy and international law at Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) and at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Science.

From 2015 to 2018, he was an associate fellow at the Kyiv Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation (IEAC). In cooperation with the USAID RADA Program, he advised on the parliamentary reform in Ukraine.

For many years Jan has been a spokesperson for the regional research group "Eastern Europe/Caucasus/Central Asia" of the Cologne Forum for International Relations and Security Policy (KFIBS) and Regional Representative for the Berlin Office of KFIBS.

Since 2019, Jan is an associate fellow at the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES) in Vienna and at the Institute for Parliamentary Research in Berlin. His research focuses on German and U.S. policies regarding Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, as well as security policy in Eastern Europe and NATO.