The European Central Bank (ECB) is offering paid traineeship opportunities for EU nationals at its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Applications are open for the Traineeship and PhD Traineeship in the Directorate General Macroprudential Policy and Financial Stability.

Closing date for applications: 3 November 2025

About the Role

Trainees will be part of the Financial Regulation and Policy Division, which provides analysis and policy advice on issues related to financial stability, the banking sector, financial regulation, and macroprudential policy.

You will contribute to:

• Assessing macroprudential and financial regulatory policies.
• Analytical projects and publications, such as the Financial Stability Review and the Macroprudential Bulletin.
• Data collection, research assistance, and programming.
• Maintaining and developing databases used for policy analysis.

Grant and Benefits

The ECB offers two levels of grants, plus an accommodation allowance:

• Traineeship Grant: €1,170 per month (for candidates with a bachelor's degree or higher).
• PhD Traineeship Grant: €2,120 per month (for candidates with a master's degree and at least two years of PhD studies).

The initial traineeship is for 3-6 months, with a possible extension up to 12 months. The earliest start date will be March 2026.

Essential Qualifications

• For the €1,170 Traineeship: A bachelor’s degree or higher in finance, economics, statistics, mathematics, engineering, business administration, computer science, or a related discipline.
• For the €2,120 PhD Traineeship: A master’s degree and at least two years of PhD studies in one of the fields listed above.
• 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.
• Advanced knowledge of MS Office, particularly Excel.
• Experience in preparing, handling, and analysing datasets.

Desired Skills

• Knowledge of financial sector analysis, financial policy, and regulation.
• Experience with bank balance sheet or financial market data.
• Strong IT and programming skills (e.g., SQL, R, MATLAB, Stata, Python).
• Experience in econometrics (e.g., microeconometrics, time series analysis, machine learning).
• Familiarity with standard macroeconomic and financial databases (e.g., Refinitiv Datastream, Orbis, Bloomberg).

Initial traineeship/PhD traineeship of between three and six months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total.

The earliest starting date will be March 2026 and additional dates will be available throughout 2026.

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

Application Process

The recruitment process will include an online interview.

For details on how to apply, click this link .

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.