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 10.03.2025
Your team
You will be part of the Market Infrastructure Management Division in the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments. The Directorate General has about 200 staff and seeks to ensure that Europe’s financial markets have a safe and efficient market infrastructure, while embracing innovation and fostering European integration. We support the provision of payment and securities settlement services and oversee the performance of financial market infrastructures and payment instruments. We also work with stakeholders to improve the overall functioning and integration of the euro area market infrastructure.
We are looking for two trainees to join the analytical team in the Market Infrastructure Management Division. The Division is responsible for managing, analysing and coordinating the daily operations of the Eurosystem’s settlement infrastructure for payments (TARGET2 and TARGET instant payment settlement) and for securities (TARGET2-Securities). This is known, collectively, as TARGET Services.
We are looking for enthusiastic and open-minded trainees with a background in quantitative analysis who are eager to learn from others but not afraid to bring their own ideas to the table. If you recognise yourself in that description, we would love to hear from you.
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 in the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments, you will:

• contribute to analytical and policy-related projects aimed at fostering efficient and integrated financial markets in the euro area and obtaining insights into key central bank functions;
• help to assess whether financial market infrastructures meet regulatory requirements, analysing their risks and interconnectedness;
• use and manage large confidential transaction-level datasets, employ econometric, mathematical and visualisation software, help to build and maintain databases and support the development of analytical tools and visualisation techniques;
• support the collection, storage, management and sharing of information in your area of responsibility, exploring new approaches for analysis and proposing creative solutions for technical issues;
• contribute to briefings, memos, papers and reports on analytical or policy-related projects, while also supporting presentations of technical subject matter to non-technical audiences.

This position offers excellent opportunities to learn about financial market infrastructures and contribute to the Eurosystem’s role in this field, while gaining exposure to a wide range of tasks in one of the most exciting areas of the ECB. You will help to enhance the safety and efficiency of financial market infrastructures and payments in the euro area and assess the potential impact of such infrastructures in terms of risk and interconnectedness. You will also have the opportunity to use cutting edge analytical tools to address issues relating to the operation 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, programming, computer science, engineering, finance, mathematics, statistics, physics or a 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 or higher in economics, business administration, econometrics, programming, computer science, engineering, finance, mathematics, statistics, physics or a related field;
• working knowledge or practical experience of data management tools (ideally Excel or SQL), mathematical, statistical and econometric packages (such as Stata, R, Python or MATLAB) or other programming languages, network analysis software packages and/or data visualisation software (e.g. Tableau);
• experience of working with financial datasets and/or knowledge of financial instruments;
• experience of working with, cleaning and operationalising large micro-level datasets;
• experience with panel data and/or time series econometrics;
• knowledge and/or experience of payment systems, securities settlement, central counterparties and/or collateral management from an operational, regulatory or oversight perspective.

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 six months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total, subject to performance and organisational needs.
Other details on the conditions applicable to traineeships at the ECB can be found on our website.
Application and selection process
The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview and a 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.

Please refer the Job description for details