Senior Market Operations Expert – Back Office Settlement

Fin. Markets & Market Infrastructure Ops
Market Operations
4787
You can no longer apply

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 2 - step 1) full time monthly net salary: €6,032 plus benefits, for further information see what we offer.

Working time Full time

Shift? Yes

Place of work Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Closing date 14.02.2022

Your team

You will be part of the Financial Operations Services (FOS) Division in the Directorate General Market Operations. Our Directorate General ensures the operational implementation of the ECB’s monetary policy and the sound management of its financial assets by providing state-of-the-art frameworks and high-quality market intelligence. This position will involve working in a highly stimulating environment and is an opportunity for a dynamic professional wishing to actively contribute to the development of the euro area and achieve further personal growth and to put attention to detail to ensure impeccable operations. 

The FOS Division performs a wide range of settlement, payment and post-trade activities for the ECB’s financial operations. 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 to enhance settlement and post-trade processes and procedures.

In your role as Senior Market Operations Expert, you will be part of a team of 20-25 members of staff responsible for: 
  • performing back office and post-trade activities for 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 agent (correspondent bank) for the lending activities of EU/euro area institutions.

The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the citizens 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 Senior Market Operations Expert in our Back Office Settlement Team you will:
  • perform the timely and impeccable settlement of the ECB’s market operations, including payments and other post-trade tasks; 
  • help to enhance processes and procedures in line with regulatory and market developments, considering technological innovation and managing related risks;
  • provide notes, reports and procedures on back office operations and associated risks as well as 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 the back offices of counterparties, national central banks and other external counterparts.

We are seeking a candidate for this role who demonstrates the potential for growth, and we support the selected candidate’s future development of the required knowledge, skills or competencies.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to be involved in the implementation of monetary policy operations 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 business administration, economics, finance or another relevant field (click here for details on degree equivalences);
  • a sound knowledge of financial markets and instruments;
  • a minimum of seven years of professional experience other than traineeship in settlement and post-trade activities, working with SWIFT messages; 
  • 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;
  • excellent knowledge of the standard MS Office suite, in particular Word, Excel and PowerPoint, 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:
  • hands-on experience of working with a treasury management system (TMS), such as Wallstreet Suite;
  • 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 or SQL.

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 a shift system.

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 for 18 months 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 Thursday, 20 January, or Tuesday, 10 February.

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.

Find out how to apply for a position at the European Central Bank. Read more about joining us.