Bank of England is hiring for their CBDC, found it on my Linkedin feed..

About the job

The Bank of England is the UK's central bank. Our mission is to deliver monetary and financial stability for the British people.

The Bank of England is a diverse organisation. Each of its 4,000 plus people are committed to public service and dedicated to promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability.

We are recruiting for a microeconomic analyst to join the Strategy & Economics team of the Bank of England’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Unit for a 12–18-month period. This is a high-profile, varied, and exciting area within the Bank. The role offers the opportunity to help shape the potential future of money itself!

We encourage applications from a range of backgrounds. The nature of the project means that candidates should be flexible, adaptable and willing to take on a variety of problems with passion. The role is targeted toward candidates with a background in microeconomics.

Directorate Overview

Like other central banks, the Bank of England is actively exploring whether it should develop and issue a retail CBDC. We call the UK version of CBDC ‘the digital pound’. A potential digital pound would – like banknotes – be a form of money issued by the central bank for everyone to use for day-to-day spending but, as the name implies, in a digital format. No decision has yet been taken on whether to issue a digital pound.

HM Treasury and the Bank of England recently issued a Consultation Paper setting out an assessment of the motivations and design choices for a potential digital pound. That paper signalled that the digital pound is likely to be needed, so our work will now move onto a design phase, which will look at the technology and policy requirements for a digital pound.

The CBDC Unit is responsible for analysing the opportunities and challenges presented by CBDC and developing the design of a digital pound. The Unit’s activities include economic analysis, work on functional design, exploration of technology options, and engaging private-sector and international counterparts.

More information on the Bank's CBDC work can be found at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/the-digital-pound

Job Description

This role sits in the Strategy & Economics Team of the CBDC Unit. The team leads economic analysis around the digital pound and, during the design phase, will lead delivery of an assessment of its costs and benefits, to inform a decision on whether the Bank and HM Treasury should progress to building the digital pound infrastructure.

We envisage a digital pound ecosystem where private sector firms would act as intermediaries between the Bank of England and end user, providing innovative payment services.

Within our overall assessment, we will therefore evaluate the viability of this proposed ecosystem. In particular, we are looking at the microeconomic dynamics of a potential digital pound ecosystem, including customer adoption, incentives for private sector participation, their business models and the market structure.

We are looking for a creative individual to join a team of economists and provide microeconomic insight and diversity of thought. You would be an integral part of the CBDC Strategy and Economics team, but you would also collaborate with a wider team of technology and policy focused colleagues.

There is some capacity to shape the role depending on the successful candidate’s skills and preferences, but the primary duties of the role are:

• Deliver high quality microeconomic analysis to support our assessment of the economic viability of the CBDC ecosystem. That will include rigorous analysis of the following topics through microeconomic modelling, data analysis, reviewing literature and carrying out industry case studies:
  • What incentives would private sector firms need to participate as digital pound intermediaries? What business models might they deploy, and are these likely to be viable and sustainable?
  • Which private sector business models are more or less appropriate to meet the Bank and HMT’s objectives for the digital pound?
  • What is the likely market structure of the private sector firms and how can we best promote competition and a diverse set of entrants?
  • What are the potential outcomes for the cost of payments faced by merchants?
• Interpreting the results of your analysis and presenting your conclusions and proposals to colleagues and senior stakeholders, both in written form (via policy papers) and in presentations.
• Collaborating with members from a cross-functional division of technologists, product specialists, economists, and policy analysts.

The role is for a fixed term of 12-18 months.

Role Requirements

Minimum Criteria

• Track record as a professional microeconomist, with experience in business models, competition economics or industrial organisation.
• Experience of working with datasets and performing statistical analysis.
• Ability to draw rigorous conclusions from analysis in order to inform policy.
• Proven interpersonal skills and experience of working collaboratively across an organisation.
• Ability to develop own ideas and work autonomously where necessary.
• Excellent written & oral communications and presentational skills with an ability to explain complex material in easy-to-understand ways to a variety of audiences.
• Experience of working flexibly across different workstreams and prioritising to tight deadlines.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills and the ability to work collaboratively with other UK authorities.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience analysing complex information on markets and firm behaviour to inform analysis
• Experience working on a market study or competition law cases
• Familiarity with policy or technology issues relevant to money and payments.

You should not be put off applying if you do not meet/ have all of these criteria – we would encourage you to get in touch to discuss what support you might need to close any gaps and/or any other skills you might have which you think could be helpful in role.

Our Approach to Inclusion

The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion. We play a key role in maintaining monetary and financial stability, and to do that effectively, we believe we need a workforce that reflects the society we serve.

At the Bank of England we want all colleagues to feel valued and respected, so we're working hard to build an inclusive culture which supports people from all backgrounds and communities to be at their best at work. We celebrate all forms of diversity, including (but not limited to) age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We believe that it’s by drawing on different perspectives and experiences that we’ll continue to make the best decisions for the public.

We welcome applications from individuals who work flexibly, including job shares and part time working patterns. We've also partnered with external organisations to support us in making adjustments for candidates and employees in the recruitment process where they're needed.

For most roles where work can be carried out at home, we aim for colleagues to spend half of their time in the office, with a minimum of 40% per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them, their team and stakeholders.

Finally, we're proud to be a member of the Disability Confident scheme. You can find more information on what this means here. If you wish to apply under this scheme, you should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

Salary And Benefits Information

This specific role offers a base salary of circa £48,000 - £60,000 per annum (depending on skills and experience) on a full-time basis. We encourage flexible working, part time working and job share arrangements. Part time salary and benefits will be on a pro-rated basis as appropriate.

In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package as detailed below:

• A non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/95th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/50th) or decrease (to 1/120th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year.
• A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
• A 7% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits. (Note that from April 2023 and for the Benefits year 2023/24, this will increase to 8%)
• 26 days’ annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
• Private medical insurance and income protection.

National Security Vetting Process

Employment in this role will be subject to the National Security Vetting clearance process (and typically can take between 6 to 12 weeks post offer) and the passing of additional Bank security checks in accordance with the Bank policy. Further information regarding the vetting and security clearance requirements for the role will be provided to the successful applicant, and information about how the Bank processes personal data for these purposes, is set out in the Bank’s Privacy Notice at Privacy and the Bank of England | Bank of England.

The Application Process

Important: Please ensure that you complete the ‘work history’ section and answer ALL the application questions fully. All candidate applications are anonymised to ensure that our hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information, including your CV, when reviewing your application details at the screening stage. It’s therefore really important that you fill out the work history and application form questions, as your answers will form a critical part of the initial selection process.

The closing date for applications is 16th July 2023.

The assessment process will comprise of two stages.

Please apply online, ensuring that you complete your work history and answer ALL the application questions fully and in detail as your application will not be considered if all mandatory questions are not fully completed.

Primary Location

UK-ENG-London

Job

Banking Operations

Organisation

240101 - CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY DIVISION

Job Posting

23-Jun-2023, 6:45:39 AM