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
07.05.2025
Your team
You will be part of either the Oversight Division or the Market Innovation and Integration Division in the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments. Our Directorate General works to ensure that Europe’s financial markets can rely on safe and efficient market infrastructures, while embracing innovation and fostering European integration. Our three main responsibilities are (i) coordinating and supporting the operation of market infrastructure for payments and securities settlement under the TARGET Services, (ii) interacting with market stakeholders to promote innovation and harmonisation of payments and securities settlement practices, and (iii) overseeing the Eurosystem market infrastructures and the overall payments ecosystem.
In the Oversight Division we work to ensure the safety and resilience of payment systems, instruments, schemes and arrangements, as well as securities settlement systems and central counterparties. In addition, we are responsible for maintaining and implementing the Eurosystem’s cyber resilience strategy for financial market infrastructures, which involves working with a broad range of state-of-the-art tools.
In the Market Innovation and Integration Division we are proud to be at the forefront of the application of distributed ledger technology in financial market infrastructures, retail payments, instant payment solutions, securities settlement and collateral management. We also closely analyse new developments and challenges in the field, such as crypto-assets and stablecoins.
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:
- contribute to projects that promote harmonisation, integration and innovation in European financial markets, and assess the efficiency, interconnectedness and systemic risk of financial market infrastructures;
- ensure that payment systems, instruments, schemes and arrangements, as well as securities settlement systems, comply with regulatory standards;
- assist with regulatory initiatives in payments and securities;
- support the overall Eurosystem cyber resilience strategy for financial market infrastructures as well as initiatives and tools under the Euro Cyber Resilience Board for pan-European Financial Infrastructures;
- organise internal and external events related to market infrastructures and payments;
- contribute to briefings, memos, papers and reports on analytical projects and policy topics;
- prepare presentations for relevant European working groups and committees, ECB decision-making bodies and market stakeholders;
- support the collection, management and sharing of information, exploring new approaches and proposing creative ways to address technical questions.
We are recruiting several trainees who will be working in different teams. All positions offer excellent opportunities to learn about financial market infrastructures and retail payments and to contribute to the Eurosystem’s efforts in this field. Depending on the Division and team to which you are allocated, you will primarily contribute to:
- promoting innovation and market integration in (i) securities and collateral market infrastructures or (ii) retail payments;
- ensuring the safety and efficiency of (i) payment systems; (ii) payment instruments, schemes and arrangements; or (iii) securities settlement systems;
- promoting 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:
- a bachelor’s degree or higher in economics, business administration, econometrics, computer science, engineering, finance, a related quantitative discipline (e.g. mathematics or physics), auditing, communication, law, political science or another related field;
- 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 master’s degree in economics, finance, law or political science, with a focus on financial markets or another related field;
- a basic knowledge of payment instruments, payment systems, securities settlement systems, financial market infrastructures or post-trade processing, or an awareness of key cyber resilience concepts;
- experience in drafting documents (e.g. memos or notes) in English;
- experience using different data visualisation techniques, formats (e.g. charts, maps and dashboards) and tools (e.g. Power BI, Tableau);
- experience in collecting, exploring, transforming, modelling, cleaning, analysing and validating data (using, for example, Excel, Python, R, SQL or Stata), and the ability to present complex material clearly and concisely;
- a general awareness of EU regulation and frameworks relevant to financial market infrastructures (e.g. the ECB Regulation on oversight requirements for systemically important payment systems; the Eurosystem oversight framework for electronic payment instruments, schemes and arrangements; the EU Payment Services Directive; EU post-trading regulations; and the Principles for financial market infrastructures).
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 between 3 and 6 months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total.
Application and selection process
The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview and a remote written exercise.
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.
