General Information
Type of contract
Fixed-term contract, which may be extended subject to individual performance and organisational needs
Who can apply?
EU nationals
Salary
F/G (bracket 1 - step 1) full time monthly net salary: €5,743 plus benefits, for further information see
what we offer.
Role specialisation
Market Ops Policy & Implementation
Working time
Full time
On-call?
Yes
Shift?
Yes
Place of work
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Closing date
08.07.2024
Your team
You will be part of the Financial Operations Services Division in the Directorate General Market Operations. In this Directorate General, we prepare the monetary policy and foreign exchange operations of the Eurosystem, execute those operations which are centralised and coordinate those which are decentralised. We manage the ECB’s foreign exchange reserves and own funds, and we develop and maintain the framework for all financial market-related activities. We also maintain relationships with financial market participants, central banks and official institutions and monitor and analyse the market developments which are relevant for the conduct of market operations.
The Financial Operations Services Division performs a wide range of settlement, payment and post-trade activities related to the ECB’s financial operations and acts as fiscal and paying agent for EU/euro area institutions. Other responsibilities include working on strategic developments and projects, and contributing to European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and Eurosystem task forces, working groups’ and committees’ dossiers, with a view to enhancing settlement and post-trade processes and procedures.
In your role as Market Operations Expert, you will be part of a team of 20-25 members of staff responsible for:
- performing the back-office and post-trade activities for the outright operations in euro executed by the ECB, the ECB’s foreign reserves and ERM II operations, and coordinating Eurosystem/ESCB post-trade and back office activities;
- managing contracts and legal documentation with the ECB’s counterparties and financial intermediaries for foreign exchange, foreign reserve and own funds management operations;
- coordinating and enhancing the Eurosystem Reserve Management Services (ERMS);
- acting as fiscal and paying agent (correspondent bank) for the lending and issuance activities of EU/euro area institutions.
- This position in this highly stimulating environment is an excellent opportunity for a dynamic professional wishing to actively contribute to the development of the euro area and achieve further personal growth.
The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other characteristics.
Your role
As a Market Operations Expert in our Back Office Settlement team you will:
- perform the timely and impeccable settlement of the ECB’s market operations, including payment operations and other post-trade tasks;
- help to enhance processes and procedures in line with regulatory and market developments, taking into account technological innovation and managing related risks;
- provide notes, reports and procedures relating to back office operations and associated risks, financial market regulatory initiatives and requirements, and contribute to strategic dossiers as assigned by management;
- participate in IT projects to leverage technological developments and optimise back office processes;
- engage with colleagues from other ECB business areas (legal, IT, financial reporting, etc.) and back offices of counterparties, national central banks and other external counterparts.
The position offers you excellent opportunities to be involved in the implementation of monetary policy operations and in providing important settlement services to other EU institutions in a highly motivated environment. You will be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens.
Qualifications, experience and skills
Essential:
- a master’s degree or equivalent in finance, economics or another relevant field, (see How you can join us for details on degree equivalences);
- in addition to the above, minimum of three years’ professional experience in settlement and post-trade activities, including working with SWIFT messages and recent developments in ISO 20022 standard
- a sound knowledge of financial markets and instruments;
- an ability to analyse complex issues, solve problems, deliver results and interact with external counterparties;
- experience in drafting policy notes, preparing briefings and presenting findings and arguments in non-technical terms;
- an excellent knowledge of the standard MS Office suite, and document management systems such as OpenText;
- an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Desired:
- knowledge of a treasury management system (ideally Wallstreet Suite);
- professional experience in using SWIFT Alliance and of ISO 20022 (CBPR+) adoption-related tasks;
- professional experience in defining requirements, designing new workflows, end-user testing and reviewing design documents for settlement and other post-trade tasks;
- a working knowledge of programming languages such as VBA, Python or SQL and visualisation tools such as Tableau or PowerBI.
You engage collaboratively with others. You pursue team goals and learn willingly from other people’s diverse perspectives. You signal any need for change by explaining it and proposing alternative solutions. You analyse complex information effectively and can evaluate different views to arrive at solutions. You know and anticipate stakeholder needs.
You are motivated to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the objectives of this position.
Working modalities
To enable the Division to cover the European and part of the Asian and US trading sessions, you will be expected to work under a shift system.
To enable the Division to maintain its business continuity capability, you will occasionally be expected to perform work during non-standard working hours and work at the ECB’s standby sites.
We would be happy to discuss a part-time arrangement for this role.
Further information
The contract offered will be fixed-term, the appointment being until December 2025 as of the exact starting date of the selected person.
Temporary appointments may be extended or made permanent subject to organisational needs and budgetary constraints. This may result in a staff member with a non-convertible fixed-term contract being offered a convertible contract in accordance with the ECB Conditions of Employment.
For additional information on this specific vacancy, you can speak to the hiring manager, Emily Witt, on +49 (0)69 1344 7711 between 11:00 and 12:00 on Mondays up until the closing date for applications.
Application and selection process
The recruitment process for this position will be conducted remotely. It will include a written exercise, a presentation, and interviews.
If you are not selected for this position but are still considered suitable, you will be placed on a reserve list (see step 4 of
How we hire), from which you might be considered for similar positions within the ECB.
