Signe Poulsen obtained her M.Sc. in human rights from the London School of Economics & Political Science. She worked for human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, before joining the United Nations in 2005. She worked in various capacities in Liberia, Timor-Leste, Kyrgyzstan, and Papua New Guinea. In 2015, she was appointed as the Representative of the newly established field-based structure of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul.