The European Central Bank has launched: Traineeships in the Directorate General Information Systems.

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Your team

You will be part of either the Infrastructure and Operations Services (IOS) Division or the Prudential Domain Services (PRS) Division in the Directorate General Information Systems. Our Directorate General provides the ECB with the IT systems it needs to keep prices stable and safeguard the financial system. We focus on delivering IT projects on time and within budget, maintaining stable IT operations, ensuring the highest levels of cybersecurity and resilience, and exploring innovative technologies with added business value. 

The IOS Division manages the ECB’s IT infrastructure and ensures that all relevant systems and applications are regularly updated and run smoothly. In addition to designing, implementing and maintaining the technical services supporting ECB and European System of Central Banks (ESCB) applications, we provide our internal customers with communication and collaboration tools on various platforms and devices. We also manage, monitor and automate various IT services to optimise business and IT processes within the ECB.

The PRS Division is a team of 75 IT professionals delivering tailored IT solutions for ECB Banking Supervision, the Directorate General Macroprudential Policy and Financial Stability, the Directorate General Statistics and the European Systemic Risk Board.

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 Information Systems, you will be matched to a pathway within a specific team in either the IOS Division or the PRS Division based on your interests and your skill set.

Teams in the IOS Division:

• The Systems Services Section is the hub for all IT services provided at the ECB. You will interact with many different teams and customers, be exposed to different perspectives and learn what happens “behind the scenes” of major IT applications. You will have the opportunity to bring your fresh perspective to directory services, certificate services and Unix-based statistical data processing. You will also help improve documentation and processes for our customers and operational teams.
• The Platform Services Section develops systems that form the basis for all other ECB IT services. These systems include the server hosting platform, standardised databases, monitoring and alerting, network, and automation. You will help enhance our automation capabilities by developing user stories and workflows. You may also assist our migration to cloud-native technologies and help extend our tools coverage into the public cloud. 
• The End-User Services Section has, over recent years, developed several solutions to leverage productivity and collaboration in a remote workplace environment (e.g. MS Teams, Cisco Webex and Miro). You will help provide our organisation with a highly customised digital workplace. You may also help configure, test and document a new video conference solution or support the ECB-wide implementation of a telephone system based on MS Teams.
• The Delivery Services Section controls the service quality of our IT service providers. We work with sophisticated tools to measure service performance and continuously improve it in collaboration with our partners. You will help with data analysis and visualisation of our IT service management tools, working on agile delivery methods and further aligning the ECB with DevOps practices.

Teams in the PRS Division:

• The Stress Testing and Credit Review Section delivers innovative IT solutions for the performance of bank stress testing and on-site inspections. The solutions are developed in cross-functional product teams in a DevOps environment targeting cloud-native solutions. You could help further automate, enhance, re-architecture, optimise and quality assure existing and future solutions.
• The Supervisory Technologies and Data Section supports access to supervisory data for analysis, reporting and other purposes. It is also in charge of the technical implementation of the supervisory technology (Suptech digitalization program, which aims at advancing the use of pioneering technologies (machine learning, natural language procession, graph databases, etc.) for banking supervision while enhancing effectiveness, reducing costs and increasing capability.
• The Information Management System for the SSM (IMAS) Section maintains and improves applications for 6,000 supervisors across the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). IMAS supports the full supervisory cycle, including planning, execution and follow-up of all supervisory activities, via a common web application. It is complemented by a data warehouse solution, IMAS Data Reporting and Analytics (IDRA). The IMAS Portal securely centralises all procedures and information exchange between banks and ECB Banking Supervision.

Within your team, you will attend meetings, conduct analyses, advise on decisions, carry out research for and compile documents and reports, work on pilots and test innovative solutions. 

Our traineeship programme gives you:

• a chance to immerse yourself in the ECB’s IT infrastructure and gain first-hand experience of a department delivering high-quality IT services and projects;
• individualised assignments, taking your development needs into account;
• challenging tasks in which you can hone your analytical, technical and business skills;
• mentors and leaders willing to share their experience with you.

Our traineeships offer you excellent opportunities to gain insights into the way the ECB works, acquire hands-on experience in an area of interest to you, and put your theoretical knowledge into practice. 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 computer science, computer engineering, business informatics or another IT-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 background in system administration or programming on Windows or Linux systems (e.g. PowerShell, Bash or C++);
• experience in cloud application development considering a multi-tier environment (e.g. front-end, back-end, databases, file repositories);
• experience in software development with industry standard programming languages (e.g. Python, Java, Typescript or C#);
• experience in software quality assurance (e.g. automated testing of front and back-end and/or provisioning of anonymised test data); 
• knowledge of automation tools, cloud technologies (AWS or Azure) or software delivery tools (e.g. Terraform, Ansible, GitLab or Artifactory);
• experience working with communication or collaboration solutions (e.g. Confluence, MS Teams, Cisco Webex, Miro or wikis);
• knowledge of project management, Agile or DevOps delivery methods or the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework;
• knowledge of data analysis and visualisation techniques, including the use of related tools (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 aims of this position.

Closing date: 20.07.2022

Working modalities

Playing a role in European banking supervision entails collaborating in multinational and multicultural teams and operating in the context of different national frameworks, for which a strong ability to use different EU languages for business purposes is an asset.

Further information

Traineeship of between 3 and 12 months in total.

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. 

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.