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
06.04.2021
Your team
Join us in the ECB’s Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments. All of our 170 staff actively contribute to achieving our objectives. We support the provision of payment and securities settlement services, the oversight of financial market infrastructures and payment instruments, and cooperation with market stakeholders to achieve integrated payments and securities settlement markets in the euro area. In today’s fast-moving digital world, we are proud to be at the forefront of retail payments, instant payment solutions, securities settlement, collateral management and cyber resilience. At the same time, we are keenly aware of new challenges that we face in the area of payment systems and financial market infrastructures more broadly – for example, crypto-assets, stablecoins or the application of distributed ledger technology. We are looking for trainees who are eager to learn by working with others and are not afraid to bring their own ideas to the table. We want enthusiastic and open-minded people who are looking for a traineeship that will give them exposure to a wide range of different roles and tasks in one of the most exciting areas of the ECB. If you feel this is you and that you would fit one of the role profiles below, then we would like to hear from you.
We are seeking to recruit trainees for various teams who fit two profiles: policy advice and quantitative analysis.
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 your gender, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability or other characteristics.
Your role
As a Trainee you will:
- contribute to analytical and/or policy-related projects aimed at either fostering euro area financial market harmonisation and integration, and/or obtaining insights on market infrastructures, their efficiency and any potential impact on systemic risk and interconnectedness;
- assist in monitoring the compliance of financial market infrastructures and payment schemes with regulatory requirements, and in shaping the EU regulatory framework in the field of financial market infrastructures;
- contribute to briefings, memos, papers and reports on analytical/research projects as well as policy topics;
- participate in the organisation of external events related to market infrastructures and payments;
- help prepare presentations to relevant European working groups and committees, ECB decision-making bodies and market participants;
- support the collection, storage, management and sharing of information in your area of responsibility, and explore new approaches, proposing creative ways to address technical questions.
Specifically in the quantitative analysis profile, you will also:
- use confidential and large transaction-level datasets, employ econometric and mathematical software, help to build and maintain database infrastructures, and support the development of analytical tools and visualisation techniques;
- be involved in presenting technical topics to a non-technical audience.
The position offers you excellent opportunities to learn about financial market infrastructures and contribute to the Eurosystem’s tasks in this field. Depending on which specific team that you will be working in, you may contribute to: enhancing the safety and efficiency of financial market infrastructures and payments (e.g. TARGET2 or TARGET2 Securities), as well as that of the overall financial system in the euro area; assessing the potential impact of these infrastructures on systemic risk and interconnectedness; applying cutting edge analytical tools to address topics of interest for the operation or oversight/supervision of financial market infrastructures; or exploring the cyber resilience of financial market infrastructures.
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 for both profiles:
- a bachelor’s degree or higher in economics, business administration, econometrics, programming, computer science, engineering, finance, a related quantitative discipline (e.g. mathematics or physics), auditing, communication, law (with a specialisation in the area of financial markets) or a similar field;
- a good knowledge of the Microsoft 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 for the policy advice profile:
- a master’s degree in economics, finance, law, or political science with a specialisation in the area of financial markets;
- knowledge and/or experience related to the functioning of financial markets and financial market infrastructures, i.e. payment systems, central securities depositories and central counterparties;
- knowledge and/or experience related to the regulatory framework applicable to financial market infrastructures (e.g. the ECB Regulation on oversight requirements for systemically important payment systems, Central Securities Depositories Regulation, European Market Infrastructure Regulation, Settlement Finality Directive and the Financial Collateral Directive);
- experience in drafting reports, briefings or analytical notes in English;
- the ability to present complex content and subject matter clearly and concisely to different audiences.
Desired for the quantitative analysis profile:
- a master’s degree or higher in economics, econometrics, programming, computer science, engineering, finance or a related quantitative discipline (e.g. mathematics or physics);
- experience in working with financial datasets and knowledge of financial instruments;
- experience in working with, cleaning, and operationalising large micro-level datasets;
- strong econometric skills, in particular with regard to panel data and time series econometrics;
- strong analytical skills, in particular with regard to transforming business requirements into test scenarios and test cases;
- working knowledge or practical experience of data management tools (Excel, SQL) and mathematical, statistical and econometric packages such as Stata, R, Python, MATLAB or EViews, or of other programming languages, network analysis software packages, and/or data visualisation software (e.g. Tableau).
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 objectives of this position.
Further information
Traineeship of six months initially. This can be extended to a total of twelve months subject to performance and organisational needs.
Application and selection process
Further information on how to join us is available on our
website.
The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview via Webex and a remote written exercise.
