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
01.11.2022
Your team
You will join the Monetary Analysis Division within the Directorate General Monetary Policy. Our Division is made up of approximatively 35 people divided into two sections – the Bank Lending Conditions Section and the Money, Credit and Financial Accounts Section. The Division is responsible for monitoring and analysing monetary and financial developments in the euro area from a microeconomic and macroeconomic perspective with a view to advising on the conduct of monetary policy. More specifically, the two sections contribute to the calibration of standard and non-standard monetary policy measures working through bank and non-bank intermediaries.
The Division also contributes to core policy processes and publications, including Eurosystem/ECB staff macroeconomic projection exercises and the ECB’s Economic Bulletin. Other broader fields in which we offer analysis from the perspective of the transmission of monetary policy include climate change and central bank digital currencies. The main outlets of much of our analytical work are policy notes and presentations for the ECB’s Governing Council, contributions to official ECB publications, as well as external publications, including research papers.
In conducting our tasks, we exploit information from a wide range of datasets and employ state-of-the-art modelling and data visualisation techniques. These range from microeconometric analysis based on granular data on individual bank or firm balance sheets and credit registers to macro models based on more aggregate data and accounting for macro-financial linkages. Coding, programming and managing and analysing large datasets are important parts of our daily routine.
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 closely with your Division’s economists and research analysts, contributing to the daily tasks of the Division as well as to longer-term analytical projects;
- collaborate with economists on enhancing analytical and econometric tools;
- contribute to empirical analyses and analytical projects;
- work extensively with datasets, including macroeconomic and microeconomic data, financial data and intraday data, as well as maintaining, updating and further developing the data infrastructure;
- maintain and further develop the existing quantitative tools and modelling infrastructure;
- update charts and tables for regular internal and external reports and presentations in liaison with other business areas within the ECB.
The position offers you excellent opportunities to enhance your quantitative skills, work on analytical tasks and collaborate with experienced central bank economists. It also provides a unique opportunity to gain insight into analysis and policy within a central bank and to further develop your career. 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 economics, finance, econometrics, mathematics, statistics, data science, social sciences or a related field;
- knowledge of statistical and econometric software, such as MATLAB, Python, R, Stata or VBA Excel;
- experience with one or more of the following types of economic data: macroeconomic data, financial market data, firm-level data, accounting/supervisory bank data, transaction level data, other micro data or large datasets (“big data”);
- an advanced knowledge of MS Office, in particular Excel and PowerPoint;
- a sound understanding of the economic issues covered by the Division;
- 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 master’s degree or higher in economics, finance, econometrics, mathematics, statistics, data science or a related field, or being close to completing such studies in the course of 2023 (PhD students who at the time of application are in their first or second year of studies are also invited to apply);
- a solid background in econometrics (in particular, time series econometrics, econometrics of panel data and microeconometrics) or statistics and data science (for example web-scraping, text analysis or other advanced machine learning techniques);
- previous experience with DSGE models would be an asset;
- practical experience in working with relational databases, using SQL and/or other big data analytics tools on Hadoop, Spark or similar big data frameworks;
- practical experience in using visualisation tools, such as Tableau or R Shiny;
- research assistance experience;
- experience in using market data services, such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters/Refinitiv (Eikon and/or Datastream), IHS Markit iBoxx, Haver Analytics, SNL Financial, Bureau van Dijk Orbis BankFocus (formerly Bankscope) for bank balance sheet data and Orbis Europe for firm balance sheet data.
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
Traineeship of between 3 and 12 months in total.
For additional information on this specific vacancy, you can speak to the Head of Section, Sarah Holton, on +49 (0)69 1344 23711 between 12:00 and 13:00 on Thursday, 20 October.
Application and selection process
Further information on
how to apply is available on our website.
For candidates selected following the initial pre-screening of applications, the recruitment process will include a remote written exercise and an online interview .
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 similar positions within the ECB.
