Trainee (Portfolio Performance)

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU), located in Amsterdam. It is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU.

Traineeship opportunity at the European Medicines Agency (EMA)

The Agency is looking for motivated, qualified recent graduates or students on an Erasmus+ or other programme or PhD students or Master's students (who posses a previous degree), who are interested in gaining experience and contribute to the Agency’s work for every patient in Europe.

The purpose of a traineeship at the Agency is to perform tasks that are predominantly in the interest of the trainee’s training and principally serve to increase the trainee’s knowledge and to gain relevant experience.

Placement description

We are looking for a trainee in the Portfolio Management Office.

Specific objectives and projects

As a trainee in the Portfolio Management Office (PMO), which is the organisational capability responsible for aligning strategy with execution and optimising the flow of value creation across the organisation, you will gain hands-on exposure to how portfolio management supports the delivery of business strategy using Lean/Agile practices based on the SAFe framework. Your tasks would include:

• Contributing to building the foundations for value measurement, based on the existing KPIs across multiple teams, including helping to identify common KPIs and contributing to the standardisation of definitions related to value, benefits, cost of delay and other relevant indicators.
• Contributing to the development of common team dashboards, based on objectives and the KPIs defined previously, to help provide clearer insights and support informed decision-making.
• Contributing to benefits tracking activities, including analysing expected versus realised benefits, helping to generate portfolio insights that can support leadership decision-making processes.

Learning outcomes

This traineeship offers hands-on exposure to Portfolio Management in a large European public organisation, and you will gain insight into how the organisation measures and maximises the value delivered through its strategic initiatives, enabling data-driven investment decisions. This traineeship offers exposure to:

• Lean Portfolio Management
• Strategy-to-execution mechanics
• Executive decision processes
• Agile performance metrics
• Financial governance in agile environments
• Organisational transformation
• An overview of industry standards for Lean/Agile governance, including the SAFe framework

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for consideration for this placement, you are required to:

1. enjoy full rights as a citizen of a European Union Member State or Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway;
2. possess a university degree in IT or data engineering, business administration, or management studies (minimum of three years or more) that must have been obtained between 6 May 2025 and 6 May 2026 or be a university student on an Erasmus + or a similar programme or a PhD student or a Master's student with a previous fully finished degree in the areas mentioned before.
3. a thorough knowledge of English (at least level C1) and good knowledge of other official EU language (at least B2) of the Common European Framework for Languages

Additional skills

Essential:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to create clear, engaging and user-centered presentations and visual materials.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Proactive attitude, curiosity and willingness to learn.
• Ability to collaborate effectively in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.

Desirable:

• Experience with visual or digital design (e.g. presentations, banners, videos).
• Familiarity with collaboration, communication or design tools (e.g. Miro, PowerPoint).
• Basic understanding of agile ways of working, principles or mindset.
• Experience with tools supporting product or project management (e.g. Azure DevOps).

Behavioural Competencies

You will demonstrate the following behavioural competencies:

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Working with others
• Adaptability
• Research and analytical skills
• Learning and development

Conditions of traineeship

The traineeship is offered for 10 months (1 October 2026 – 31 July 2027) and takes place at the Agency’s premises in Amsterdam with possibility for teleworking up to 40% of working time from The Netherlands and occasional teleworking from outside The Netherlands. Traineeships are offered for either full-time or part-time (80% or 50%) if combined with university studies.

The Agency pays a monthly stipend of €2,049.77 for a full-time traineeship (reduced accordingly for 80% or 50%) and a travel contribution upon joining the Agency.

Each trainee will have a mentor at the Agency who will guide the trainee through the programme.

What do we offer?

• Meaningful work contributing to protecting the health of every individual and animal in Europe within multinational, multidisciplinary team
• Development opportunities (e.g. internal mobility, mentoring, peer coaching, career reflection programme, etc.)
• Work-life balance (flexible working arrangements, teleworking, generous annual leave plus official holidays)