Traineeship in Compliance and Governance

Secretariat
9542

General Information

Type of contract Traineeship

Who can apply? EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme

Grant The trainee grant is €1,170 per month plus an accommodation allowance (see further information section)

Working time Full time

Place of work Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Closing date 08.04.2024

Your team

You will be part of the Compliance and Governance Division in the Directorate General Secretariat. Our Division has 25 members of staff in three teams: the Ethics and Integrity team, promoting ethical standards of behaviour within the ECB, the Eurosystem and the Single Supervisory Mechanism; the Governance and Risk monitoring team, monitoring conduct risk and strengthening good governance; and the Transparency and Access to documents team, dealing with accountability and transparency issues. Ongoing tasks and projects include advising ECB staff on ethics-related issues, coordinating the ECB’s responses to public access requests, requests from national authorities or enquiries from the European Ombudsman, and organising training or awareness activities in these fields of work. 

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 trainee you will work on ongoing projects with members of the team to which you are assigned, gaining an insight into the work of the Division and the functioning of the ECB. The tasks allocated to you may include the following:

In the area of ethics and integrity:
  • contributing to outreach activities by developing ethics-related training, creating and managing dashboards and analysis/monitoring of data; 
  • contacting and advising staff about conflicts of interest, the acceptance of gifts and hospitality, post-employment restrictions and other ethics-related issues.

In the area of governance and risk monitoring:
  • contributing to the development of a structured, holistic conduct risk framework for the ECB;
  • advising staff on governance-related aspects of communication and interaction with external stakeholders.

In the area of transparency and access to documents:
  • contributing to the assessment of requests for disclosure of documents under the public access regime or under the relevant framework applicable to national authorities.

In all areas:
  • conducting policy or legal research and benchmarking exercises on topical issues;
  • regularly monitoring and reporting on current developments in the fields of ethics, integrity, governance, conduct risk management and transparency at both the national and the EU level; 
  • contributing to the development of outreach and knowledge management activities and resources (e.g. e-learning, workshops and awareness campaigns); 
  • contributing to the digitalisation and automation of internal processes, which is ongoing and currently includes both a new virtual assistant and a new case manager, both digital;
  • putting to use and further developing your IT skills to help us maintain and enhance two of our main tools: a virtual assistant (IBM Watson) and an application developed using Mendix;
  • reviewing data collection and preparing statistics.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to challenge yourself, familiarise yourself with new tasks and gain experience in matters related to ethics, integrity, management of conduct risk, good governance and transparency and the use of technology in these fields. 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 bachelor’s degree or higher in law or public administration, ideally from a university within the EU;
  • a sound understanding of EU institutions, EU administrative law and banking or financial law;
  • a sound understanding of current trends and challenges in the areas of ethics, integrity, management of conduct risk, governance or transparency at national, EU or international level;
  • a good knowledge of the MS Office package; 
  • 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: 
  • a demonstrable interest in ethics, good governance or accountability and transparency issues;
  • experience in conducting legal analysis as a member of a team;
  • experience with analysing data and visualising information, including use of Excel or any advanced tools;
  • experience in process analysis and/or optimisation.

You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.

You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe. You are keen to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the aims of this position.

Further information

Initial traineeship of six months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total.

Other details on the conditions applicable to traineeships at the ECB can be found on our website.

Application and selection process

The recruitment process for this position will include a pre-recorded video interview in the pre-selection phase and – if you are invited to participate in the subsequent selection phase – a written exercise and an online interview. 

Further information on how to apply is available on our website.

If you are not selected for this position but are still considered suitable, you will be placed on a reserve list for 12 months from the closing date for applications, from which you might be considered for other traineeship positions within the ECB.