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: 08.04.2025

Your team

You will be part of the Financial Reporting Section in the Directorate Finance.

In your role as trainee, you will be part of a team of 25 members of staff responsible for the accounting and financial reporting of the European System of Central Banks. Our work includes preparing the financial statements of the ECB and the Eurosystem, producing forecasts on the ECB’s financial situation for its decision-making bodies, and calculating and settling the monetary income of euro area national central banks. We work closely with other ECB business areas, including the Directorate General Market Operations, the Directorate Risk Management and the Directorate General Monetary Policy, and with euro area national central banks.

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 financial reporting you will:

• help prepare ECB and Eurosystem financial statements and reports;
• support accounting for the ECB’s market operations and financial instruments, perform the related reconciliation process and follow up with relevant ECB business areas;
• collect and analyse balance sheets of national central banks and other financial data;
• provide analytical and quantitative support and address financial reporting queries, extracting relevant data from the ECB’s financial information systems and producing analyses for various stakeholders;
• collaborate and share knowledge with other ECB business areas and national central banks on various financial accounting and reporting topics;
• support the administration and development of information systems that are used for ECB and Eurosystem financial reporting;
• contribute to our digitalisation, automation and innovation plans.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to gain insight into how the ECB works, acquire hands on experience in the field of finance 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 accounting, finance, business administration or another relevant field;
• a good understanding of one or more of the following areas: accounting and financial reporting, financial markets, financial instruments, financial statement analysis, financial risk management and information technology for financial applications;
• a good knowledge of the MS Office package, especially Word, Excel and PowerPoint;
• 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:

• good presentational skills;
• an advanced knowledge of MS Excel and other data management and analysis tools;
• experience in data processing and visualisation;
• knowledge of enterprise resource planning systems (such as SAP).

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 6 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.

For additional information on this specific vacancy, you can speak to Konstantinos Apostolou on +49 (0)69 1344 6432 between 15:00 and 17:00 on Wednesday, 2 April 2025.

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.