Traineeship in the Budgeting and Controlling Division

As a trainee in the Budgeting and Controlling Division, you will be part of the Budget and Controlling Division in the Directorate Finance. As the finance budget partner of all ECB business areas, the Division supports the planning, monitoring, reporting and controlling of resources across the ECB and provides decision-making support to internal and external stakeholders. It also delivers secretariat services for three committees and is responsible for the supervisory fee framework. Additional tasks include implementing systems innovation in the Directorate Finance and providing functional support for the ECB’s procure-to-pay process.

General Information

Type of contract Traineeship

Who can apply? EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme

Closing date 24.09.2026

Your role

As a trainee in the Budgeting and Controlling Division you will work on a wide range of operational and policy tasks linked to the ECB’s budget and controlling activities. Your tasks may include:

• contributing to financial data analysis;
• supporting budget planning and regular expenditure monitoring;
• helping to optimise data, knowledge management structures and analytical tools;
• assisting with reporting and forecasting;
• carrying out financial dashboard activities and IT system-related work;
• helping to improve and monitor adherence to organisational compliance frameworks and rules related to budgeting and controlling;
• contributing to project performance control from a financial perspective;
• managing system administration tasks (document management, workflow management, internal communication and team support);
• providing horizontal support for financial process across the institution, offering technical expertise and analytical insights.

The traineeship offers you excellent opportunities to gain insights into the way the ECB works, acquire hands-on experience in the area 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 or public administration, risk management, statistics, information technology or another relevant field;
• good knowledge of the MS Office package, including 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:

• advanced knowledge of MS Excel and other data management and analysis tools;
• working knowledge of other software applications to automate and digitalise processes (e.g. VBA, Python, Mendix, Power Automate), data visualisation tools (e.g. Power BI) and enterprise resource planning systems (e.g. SAP);
• experience in data analysis and an ability to interpret data;
• knowledge of, and/or some experience in, one or more of the following fields:

• budgeting and controlling;
• accounting/finance;
• digital tools/applications for finance;
• financial statement analysis;
• natural language processing or other AI applications.

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 in the same division or in another division or section within the Directorate Finance.