European Central Bank - Traineeships in the External Developments Division

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  06.06.2024

Your team

You will be part of the Directorate General International and European Relations, which has 120 staff members. You will be assigned to a team in the External Developments Division, which analyses the global economic situation and economic conditions in key non-EU countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and China. The Division also conducts simulation and scenario analyses related to the international environment, and coordinates the global part of the ECB/Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections. Our current key projects include analysis of inflation, international trade, strategic autonomy and modelling the global economy, including climate risks.

In your role as trainee, you will be part of one of the following teams: Global, Americas, Asia-Pacific, Non-EU Europe or Modelling. Each team contributes to analytical workstreams and supports data management within the 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 perform one or more of the following tasks:

• contributing to, and possibly co-authoring, analytical reports by collecting data and setting up statistical and econometric processes;
• providing research assistance by:
• building and maintaining modelling tools using advanced econometric programming skills;
• assisting with data collection, programming tasks and analysis; 
• handling, maintaining and developing databases used to monitor global and country-specific monetary, financial and real sector developments;
• presenting key findings to relevant stakeholders within the ECB.

If you are assigned to the Global team or one of the regional teams, you will:

• contribute to the cross-country and empirical analysis of international and country macroeconomic policy issues;
• assist in the development of econometric tools and models used to support economic analyses.

If you are assigned to the Modelling team, you will:

• contribute to scenario analysis and simulations regarding the international environment;
• participate in discussions about the international environment and the use of macroeconomic models to respond to key policy questions.

You will work closely with highly qualified experts on different tasks and projects in the field of international macroeconomics, which will provide you with valuable experience for building a successful professional career. You will also be assigned a mentor and 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, statistics, data science or a related field;
• a sound understanding of international macroeconomics;
• experience in data management and handling multidimensional datasets;
• advanced knowledge of MS Office, in particular Excel;
• an intermediate knowledge of programming languages and econometric software (e.g. MATLAB, R, Julia, Stata, Python, EViews);
• 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, statistics, data science or a related field (or a master’s degree in one of these areas in the final stages of completion);
• experience with state-of-the-art modelling tools and econometric techniques or data analytics, preferably in the field of global trade, country analysis or macro modelling;
• a keen interest in policy-relevant and applied research, together with a proven ability to conduct quantitative analyses;
• experience with macroeconomic and financial market data;
• a sound knowledge of statistical and econometric techniques for data analysis;
• for the Global team and regional teams: experience of time series analysis, such as error correction models and vector autoregression models, and familiarity with international trade data;
• for the Modelling team: a sound theoretical background in New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models and experience with structural and/or semi-structural macroeconomic models, as well as proven experience in programming with MATLAB or Julia, and in using Dynare.

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

Traineeship of 4 months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total.

Other details on the conditions applicable to traineeships at the ECB can be found on our website.

Application and selection process

Further information on how to apply is available on our website.

The recruitment process for this position will include a written exercise and 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 other traineeship positions within the ECB.