The European Central Bank has launched a new traineeship: Traineeship in the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments – policy advice.

Your team

Join us in the ECB's Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments. All of our 170 staff members actively contribute to achieving our objectives. We support the provision of payment and securities settlement services, the oversight of financial market infrastructures and payment instruments, and cooperation with market stakeholders to deliver integrated payments and securities settlement markets in the euro area. In today's fast-moving digital world, we are proud to be at the forefront of retail payments, instant payment solutions, securities settlement, collateral management, cyber resilience and research into a potential digital euro. At the same time, we are keenly aware of new challenges that we face in the area of payment systems and financial market infrastructures more broadly – for example, crypto-assets, stablecoins or the application of distributed ledger technology. We are looking for trainees who are eager to learn by working with others and are not afraid to bring their own ideas to the table. We want enthusiastic and open-minded people who would like a traineeship that exposes them to a wide range of roles and tasks in one of the most exciting areas of the ECB. If you feel this is you and that you would fit the role profile below, then we would like to hear from you.

We are seeking to recruit two trainees: one for the Market Innovation and Integration Division and one for the Oversight Division.

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 policy-related projects aimed at either fostering euro area financial market harmonisation and integration, and/or obtaining insights into market infrastructures;
• assist in monitoring the compliance of financial market infrastructures with oversight and regulatory requirements, and in shaping the EU regulatory framework in the field of financial market infrastructures;
• contribute to briefings, memos, papers and reports on analytical/research projects and policy topics;
• participate in the organisation of external events related to market infrastructures and payments;
• help to prepare presentations to relevant European working groups and committees, ECB decision-making bodies and market participants;
• support the collection, storage, management and sharing of information in your area of responsibility, and explore new approaches, proposing creative ways to address technical questions.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to learn about financial market infrastructures and contribute to the Eurosystem's tasks in this field. Depending on whether you will be working in the Market Innovation and Integration Division or the Oversight Division, you will be able to contribute either to enhancing the safety and efficiency of financial market infrastructures and payments (e.g. TARGET2 or TARGET2-Securities), and of the euro area financial system as a whole, or to assessing the potential impact of those infrastructures on systemic risk and interconnectedness.

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, a related quantitative discipline (e.g. mathematics or physics), auditing, communication, law (with specialisation in the area of financial markets) or a similar 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 specialisation in the area of financial markets;
• knowledge and/or experience of the functioning of financial markets and financial market infrastructures, i.e. payment systems, central securities depositories and central counterparties;
• knowledge and/or experience of the oversight and regulatory framework applicable to financial market infrastructures (e.g. the CPMI-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures, the Central Securities Depositories Regulation, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, the Settlement Finality Directive and the Financial Collateral Directive);
• experience in drafting reports, briefings or analytical notes in English;
• the ability to present complex content and subject matter clearly and concisely to different audiences;
• knowledge of packages such as R, Python or of other programming languages and/or data visualisation software (e.g. Tableau).

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 objectives of this position.

Who can apply?  EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme.

Closing date: 25.1.2022

Further information

Traineeship of six months, with a possible extension of up to 12 months subject to performance and organisational needs.

Application and selection process

Further information on how to join us is available on our website.

The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview via Webex and a remote written exercise.

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.