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 28.05.2026

Your team

You will be part of the Oversight Division in the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments. Our Directorate General works to ensure that Europe’s financial markets can rely on safe and efficient market infrastructures, while embracing innovation and fostering European integration. Our three main responsibilities are: (i) coordinating and supporting the operation of market infrastructure for payments and securities settlement offered under TARGET Services; (ii) working with market stakeholders to promote the innovation and harmonisation of payments and securities settlement practices; and (iii) overseeing Eurosystem market infrastructures and the overall payments ecosystem.

In the Oversight Division, we work to ensure the safety and resilience of payment systems, payment instruments, payment schemes and arrangements, securities settlement systems and central counterparties. We are also responsible for maintaining and implementing the Eurosystem’s cyber resilience strategy for financial market infrastructures, which involves working with a broad range of state-of-the-art tools.

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:

• help assess the efficiency, interconnectedness and systemic risk of financial market infrastructures;
• ensure that payment systems (including TARGET Services), payment instruments, payment schemes and arrangements, central securities depositaries, securities settlement systems and distributed ledger technology settlement systems comply with regulatory standards;
• contribute to regulatory initiatives in the fields of payments and securities;
• support the overall Eurosystem cyber resilience strategy for financial market infrastructures as well as initiatives and the tools used by the Euro Cyber Resilience Board for pan-European financial infrastructures;
• contribute to briefings, memos, papers and reports on analytical projects and oversight policy topics;
• help prepare presentations for relevant European working groups and committees, ECB decision-making bodies and market stakeholders;
• help collect, manage and share information, exploring new approaches and proposing creative ways to address technical questions.

This traineeship offers you excellent opportunities to learn about financial market infrastructures and retail payments and contribute to the Eurosystem’s efforts in this field. 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, computer science, engineering, finance, a related quantitative discipline (e.g. mathematics or physics), auditing, communications, law or another 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 in economics, finance, law or political science, with a focus on financial markets or another related field;
• a basic knowledge of payment instruments, financial market infrastructures (such as payment systems, central securities depositaries, securities settlement systems and distributed ledger technology settlement systems), post-trade processing, and/or key cyber resilience concepts;
• experience in drafting documents (e.g. memos or notes) in English;
• experience in using different data visualisation techniques, formats (e.g. charts, maps and dashboards) and tools (e.g. Power BI and Tableau);
• experience in collecting, exploring, transforming, modelling, cleaning, analysing and validating data (using, for example, Excel, Python, R, SQL or Stata), and the ability to present complex material clearly and concisely.
• a general awareness of EU regulation and frameworks relevant to financial market infrastructures.

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.

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 and a remote written exercise.

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.