The European Central Bank has launched a new traineeship campaign in General Market Infrastructure and Payments: https://talent.ecb.europa.eu/careers/JobDetail/Traineeship-in-the-Directorate-General-Market-Infrastructure-and-Payments-quantitative-analysis-policy-advice/3109   

Traineeship in the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments – quantitative analysis & policy advice

Join us in the ECB’s Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments. All of our 170 staff 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 achieve 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 and cyber resilience. 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 are looking for a traineeship that will give them exposure to a wide range of different roles and tasks in one of the most exciting areas of the ECB. If you feel this is you and that you would fit one of the role profiles below, then we would like to hear from you.

We are seeking to recruit trainees for various teams who fit two profiles: policy advice and quantitative analysis.

Your role

As a Trainee you will: 

• contribute to analytical and/or policy-related projects aimed at either fostering euro area financial market harmonisation and integration, and/or obtaining insights on market infrastructures, their efficiency and any potential impact on systemic risk and interconnectedness; 
• assist in monitoring the compliance of financial market infrastructures and payment schemes with 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 as well as policy topics;
• participate in the organisation of external events related to market infrastructures and payments;
• help 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.

Specifically in the quantitative analysis profile, you will also:

• use confidential and large transaction-level datasets, employ econometric and mathematical software, help to build and maintain database infrastructures, and support the development of analytical tools and visualisation techniques;
• be involved in presenting technical topics to a non-technical audience. 

The position offers you excellent opportunities to learn about financial market infrastructures and contribute to the Eurosystem’s tasks in this field. Depending on which specific team that you will be working in, you may contribute to: enhancing the safety and efficiency of financial market infrastructures and payments (e.g. TARGET2 or TARGET2 Securities), as well as that of the overall financial system in the euro area; assessing the potential impact of these infrastructures on systemic risk and interconnectedness; applying cutting edge analytical tools to address topics of interest for the operation or oversight/supervision of financial market infrastructures; or exploring 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. 

Who can apply

Students, including PhD students, or recent graduates can apply for a traineeship.

All candidates should:

• be at least 18 years old;
• be a national of a Member State of the EU or of an acceding country;
• have completed at least a first cycle qualification (minimum bachelor’s degree);
• be fluent in English and in another official language of the EU.

Following their most recent qualification candidates should:

• have a maximum of 12 months’ professional experience;
• have been a trainee for no more than six months;
• not have been an ECB trainee or have worked for the ECB previously.

If you would like to know more about our traineeships, please visit the European Central Bank’s Traineeship pages or send us an e-mail with your question.

As you might notice, we are now sending out the traineeship opportunities via this new e-mail address: University.Outreach@ecb.europa.eu, please add it to your trusted contacts so future updates do not land in the junk folder.