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
11.04.2023
Your team
You will be part of one of the five divisions of the Directorate General Market Operations.
Our Directorate has around 180 staff responsible for preparing and executing the monetary policy and foreign exchange operations of the Eurosystem. We manage the ECB’s foreign reserves and own funds, and we develop and maintain the framework for its financial market activities. We also coordinate the implementation of the Eurosystem’s asset purchase programme and the reserve management services that the Eurosystem provides to non euro area central banks, monetary authorities, public financial institutions and international institutions. In addition, we monitor and analyse financial market developments that are relevant for market operations. As well as maintaining regular contact with financial market participants, the Directorate works closely with other ECB business areas, the national central banks (NCBs) of the EU Member States and the non-EU Group of Ten central banks.
The traineeships are aimed primarily at graduates with an interest in financial markets and/or monetary policy implementation. Our data teams offer great learning opportunities for applicants with a strong quantitative background, while our back office teams provide the perfect environment for candidates with a strong understanding of operations to thrive.
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
You will join either a data team or a back office team. In both cases, you will contribute to the operational tasks of your division, working closely with experts on a wide spectrum of operational and monetary policy activities. You will have a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience delivering insights, findings, reports, presentations and further analytical outputs to colleagues in your division, the Directorate’s senior management and the Eurosystem task forces and working groups.
You will build on your skills, gaining more experience in business processes and/or analytics workflows. You will participate in innovation, digitalisation and automation initiatives, contributing to the implementation of new processes and technologies in the Directorate.
As part of our teams, but especially as part of our data teams, you will also showcase and expand your data analysis skills as you:
- collect and process data (from structured data to market intelligence, and from ad hoc requests to daily automated scenarios);
- investigate and integrate data from different sources (from microdata to big data, and from MS Excel files to Oracle databases and big data platforms);
- visualise and communicate findings using interactive tools such as Tableau (from setting up dashboards for experts in the division to developing tools for the Eurosystem);
- assist professional teams in developing IT applications (from an end-user or business analyst perspective).
Throughout your traineeship you will be given opportunities to learn and contribute to the goals of your team, all while collaborating with more senior colleagues on some of the activities listed below.
Bond Markets and International Operations Division:
- support the coordination and implementation of the asset purchase programmes, and the management of foreign reserve portfolios and other ECB portfolios managed by the Division;
- contribute to the regular production of various reports on the financial markets, covering, for example, developments in US, Japanese, Chinese and euro area government bonds, bank and corporate bonds, foreign exchange and commodity markets;
- assist with the production of ad hoc analyses and summaries of meetings with external counterparties, in particular investment banks.
Financial Operations Services Division:
- assist with the reconciliation of ECB nostro cash, gold and custody accounts used in connection with the ECB’s own funds, monetary policy, centralised foreign exchange and a range of other transactions carried out by the ECB, and of Eurosystem NCB accounts used for operations involving the ECB’s foreign reserve assets;
- contribute to managing legal documentation related to the ECB’s counterparties and intermediaries, and help analyse and follow up on regulatory changes.
Money Market and Liquidity Division:
- analyse money market developments using transaction-level financial market data and gathering feedback from external parties;
- help analyse bidding behaviour in the ECB’s monetary policy operations, examining changes in the Eurosystem balance sheet and investigating the effects of monetary policy decisions on liquidity conditions and the money market;
- support our monitoring of the new benchmark rate, the euro short-term rate, and the coordination of market contact groups.
Market Operations Analysis Division:
- monitor and analyse the performance of the Eurosystem monetary policy implementation framework while contributing to the preparation of policy proposals for its improvement;
- help maintain and enhance the Eurosystem collateral framework on a policy, operational and technical level by performing data analysis activities, testing software and improving internal business intelligence reporting;
- monitor and assess the financial eligibility of monetary policy counterparties while contributing to the analysis of topics such as minimum reserve requirements, targeted longer-term refinancing operations, emergency liquidity assistance and Eurosystem balance sheet items.
Market Operations Systems Division:
- contribute to the functional configuration of the ECB’s treasury management system by providing daily monitoring reports, maintaining static data, configuring new financial instruments and integrating new business requirements;
- provide functional support, interacting directly with end users in the front and back offices of the ECB and the NCBs, investigating any operational issues reported and assisting with the creation and maintenance of user and internal process documentation;
- contribute to maintaining and improving the quality of market operations systems by helping to develop a test strategy, assisting experts with the collection and documentation of functional user requirements, preparing test material and participating in software testing;
- identify business processes for automation, data analytics and visualisations of market operations data, participating in the development of new solutions.
These positions offer you excellent opportunities to experience the practical approaches to monetary policy implementation and investment in a central bank; enhance your knowledge of financial markets; gain experience handling and analysing financial data; and develop your teamwork skills. You will also be able to participate in projects on the business implementation, maintenance, development and testing of IT applications for market operations.
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 finance, economics, econometrics, mathematics, statistics, accounting, computer science or a related discipline;
- an awareness of financial market structures, financial market developments or market operations;
- experience using one or more of the following: SQL, VBA, R, Python, Java, MATLAB, Stata, Tableau, MS Power BI, Bloomberg, KNIME or Refinitiv Eikon;
- experience working with complex data (i.e. data preparation, analysis and visualisation);
- a good knowledge of the MS Office package, including an advanced knowledge of MS Excel;
- 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 in finance, economics, econometrics, mathematics, statistics, accounting, computer science or a related discipline.
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
Traineeships of between six and 12 months in total, with starting dates as of July 2023.
Application and selection process
Further information on
how to apply is available on our website.
The recruitment process for this position will include 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 other positions within the ECB.
