The European Central Bank has launched: Traineeship – Quantitative Analysis in the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments.

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Your team

You will join the Analytical team in the Market Infrastructure Management Division, which forms part of the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments.

Our Directorate General, which has 170 staff, supports the provision of payment and securities settlement services, oversees financial market infrastructure and payment instruments, and works with market stakeholders to achieve integrated payment and securities settlement markets in the euro area. In today's fast-moving digital world, we are proud to be at the forefront of work in the areas of retail payments, instant payment solutions, securities settlement, collateral management and cyber resilience. At the same time, we are keenly aware of the new challenges that we face in relation to payment systems and financial market infrastructure more broadly – e.g. as regards crypto assets, stablecoins or the application of distributed ledger technology.

The Market Infrastructure Management Division coordinates the operations of TARGET services, which allow the settlement of large-value payments (TARGET2), instant payments (TIPS) and securities (TARGET2-Securities).

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, you will:

• contribute to analytical and policy-related projects aimed at fostering efficient and integrated financial markets in the euro area or obtaining insights in relation to key central bank functions;
• help to assess financial market infrastructure against regulatory requirements, as well as analysing its potential impact on systemic risk and interconnectedness;
• use and manage large confidential transaction-level datasets, employ econometric, mathematical and visualisation software, help to build and maintain database infrastructure, and support the development of analytical tools and visualisation techniques;
• support the collection, storage, management and sharing of information in your area of responsibility, and explore new approaches to analysis, proposing creative ways of addressing technical issues;
• contribute to briefings, memos, papers and reports on analytical or policy projects, as well as helping to present technical subject matter to non-technical audiences.

This position will offer excellent opportunities to learn about financial market infrastructure and contribute to the Eurosystem's tasks in this field, gaining exposure to a wide range of roles and tasks in one of the most exciting areas of the ECB. You could, for example, be involved in (i) enhancing the safety and efficiency of financial market infrastructure (e.g. TARGET2, TIPS or TARGET2-Securities) and the euro area financial system as a whole, (ii) assessing the potential impact of such infrastructure in terms of systemic risk and interconnectedness, or (iii) using cutting edge analytical tools to address issues relating to the operation or regulatory compliance of financial market infrastructure. 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, econometrics, programming, computer science, engineering, finance, mathematics, statistics or physics;
• a 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), 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;
• strong econometric skills, particularly as regards panel data and time series econometrics;
• knowledge and/or experience of payment systems, securities settlement or collateral management, from either an operational or a regulatory 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 objectives of this position.

Who can apply:

EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme.

All candidates should:

• be a national of a Member State of the EU or of an acceding country;

• be at least 18 years old;
• 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.

Closing date: 19.04.2022

Further information

Initially, this will be a six-month traineeship. It may be extended, up to a total of 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.