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: 11.10.2024

Your team

The Directorate General Monetary Policy is responsible for preparing the monetary policy decisions of the ECB’s Governing Council. It analyses the ECB’s monetary policy strategy and financial developments and also contributes to external communications (e.g. through economic research papers, speeches and official ECB publications). If selected, you will be offered a traineeship in one of the following two Divisions within the Directorate General.

The Capital Markets and Financial Structure Division analyses financial markets from a monetary policy perspective. It assesses the non-bank transmission of monetary policy, covering the term structure of interest rates, sovereign bonds, corporate bonds, stock markets and the financing structure of non-financial corporations. The Division analyses the impact of the ECB’s policy measures on financial markets using quantitative models, and contributes to internal and external publications on monetary policy and euro area financial markets. 

The Monetary Policy Strategy Division analyses and assesses the ECB’s monetary policy stance and longer-term strategic issues. It contributes to preparing supporting analysis for the Governing Council’s decisions on the ECB’s key interest rates and other monetary policy measures. It also develops models and tools with the aim of analysing euro area money markets and the impact of monetary policy instruments on financial conditions and the wider economy. In addition, it contributes to ECB communications on monetary policy and to research on the design and impact of a digital euro. 

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:

• work extensively with datasets, including macroeconomic and microeconomic data and financial and intraday data, and maintain, update and further develop the data infrastructure;
• contribute to updating charts and tables for regular internal and external reports and presentations in liaison with other business areas within the ECB;
• work closely with your Division’s economists on enhancing analytical, numerical and econometric tools; 
• maintain and further develop the existing modelling infrastructure;
• contribute to quantitative analyses and analytical projects that feature in policy reports or working papers, both of which may be published externally.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to enhance your quantitative skills, work on analytical tasks and collaborate with experienced central bank economists. During your traineeship you will benefit from hands-on experience, significantly improving your programming and data analysis skills by applying them in a real-world policy environment. The traineeship also provides a unique opportunity to gain insight into analysis and policy preparations within a central bank. 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, finance, econometrics, mathematics, statistics, data science, social sciences or a related field;
• practical experience in working with any of the following programming languages: MATLAB, Python, R, Stata or SQL;
• experience with one or more of the following types of economic data: macroeconomic data, financial market data, firm-level data, transaction-level data, high-frequency data, panel data, survey data, other micro data or large datasets;
• a sound understanding of the economic issues covered by at least one of the two Divisions described above;
• a good knowledge of the MS Office package;
• experience of importing data, charting, data analysis and pivot tables in MS Excel;
• 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 (completed or in the final stages of completion) in economics, finance, econometrics, mathematics, statistics, data science or a related field;
• a solid background in econometrics (in particular time series and panel econometrics), statistics or data science (e.g. web scraping, text analysis or machine learning);
• practical experience of working with relational databases, using SQL and/or other big data analytic tools in Hadoop, Spark or similar big data frameworks;
• proven expertise in independently developing code and utilising diverse programming techniques in any of the following languages: MATLAB, Python, R, Stata or SQL;
• basic experience with collaborative development and version control systems (e.g. Git);
• practical experience using visualisation tools such as Power BI, Tableau or R shiny;
• experience of assisting in research;
• experience of using market data services such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters/Refinitiv (Eikon and/or DataStream), iBoxx, Haver Analytics, SNL Financial, Bureau van Dijk Orbis Bank Focus (formerly Bankscope) or Orbis Europe.

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. Flexible starting dates, from spring 2025 onwards.

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. 

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.