Junior Economist (Hybrid)

Location: Bratislava, SK

This is your unique opportunity to actively contribute to the formulation of the global economic (GDP, inflation, etc) and interest rate forecasts for one of the largest global reinsurance companies! Together with a high-caliber and motivated international team, you will join a dynamic, fast and challenging work environment that allows you to expand your technical macroeconomic skill-set, gain hands-on experience of applied economics in a corporate environment and contribute to meaningful economic analysis initiatives for Swiss Re's business activities.   

About the Role

In this role based in Bratislava at the Global Economics & Themes team, you will actively contribute to economic and applied economic re/insurance market research projects on a regional and global level. The role also involves a lot of stakeholder interaction with other teams across the company. You should expect a dynamic environment and be able to demonstrate strong teamwork, flexibility, adaptability and autonomy in your daily work.

Key tasks and responsibilities include:

• Collaborate with various experienced macroeconomists and other analysts who do applied 'insurance economics' research within the Swiss Re Institute. This includes supporting the team to 1) assess economic variables (GDP, inflation, fiscal policy, central bank policy, interest rates, wider financial markets etc) for major global economies, as well as closely monitor wider geo-political and longer term structural macroeconomic themes that can influence economic variables on the regional and global levels, and 2) supporting macroeconomic risk and scenario analysis as well as develop data-driven monitoring tools for the team's global macroeconomic "house views"

• Design and improve models to further strengthen macroeconomic and financial market analysis

• Contribute and coordinate economic inputs for internal business planning and steering activities for Swiss Re (e.g. group capital financial plan, macro-economic scenario analysis and financial market stress test scenarios, interest rate estimations for IFRS discounting of insurance liabilities, and other ad hoc economic analysis on thematic macroeconomic and geo-political topics etc)

• Conduct literature and data reviews dedicated to various research projects as well as contribute to writing for the Swiss Re Institute's thought leadership reports (e.g. the economic outlook sections)

• Support senior management for external client outreach by preparing high-quality and visually appealing presentations on the economic outlook and macro themes

• Support Group Chief Economist and Head Global Economics & Themes in wider various tasks (e.g. writing background notes, designing and formatting slides, some administrative tasks, etc)

About the Team

The Global Economics & Themes team is part of the Swiss Re Institute, and is responsible for developing the macroeconomic house views and scenario analysis for Swiss Re and providing numerical forecasts on key economic parameters like GDP growth, inflation and interest rates. The team holds a crucial role in steering Swiss Re's balance sheet capital allocation through its economic projections and scenario analysis. The team also drives thematic thought leadership on topics of strategic importance for the re/insurance sector and writes research reports on these topics. The team is located across geographies (from Europe to the US to Asia), is highly visible and interacts with a wide variety of key internal decision makers at Swiss Re as well as external clients.

About You

You should expect a dynamic environment and be able to demonstrate flexibility, adaptability and autonomy in your daily work.

• Completed university degree in Economics or Finance, ideally at Master level
• Ideally some prior work experience in economic research, investment management or a related area
• Proficiency in MS Office applications (Excel, PowerPoint, Word) is required
• Econometric and programming skills in one of the major statistical softwares/programming languages (R, Stata, Matlab, Python) is a distinct advantage
• Prior experience in using economic data or financial market data platforms (e.g. Bloomberg, Macrobond, IMF database) is also an advantage because these tools will be used in the job
• Strong analytical skills and ability to break down, communicate and visualize often complex economic concepts in an easy and digestible way. Both written and verbal communication skills are excellent in English; other languages like German a plus
• Strong interest in/motivation to learn about insurance/reinsurance and how economic themes and parameters can influence the insurance/reinsurance business
• Mature and proactive can-do attitude; showing a high degree of own initiative and dedication to continuous learning and willingness to challenge and improve the status quo

Very agile and ability to work under tight timelines

For Slovakia, the base salary range for this position is between EUR 1,900 and EUR 3,200 per month for a full-time role.

The specific salary offered considers:

• The requirements, scope, complexity, and responsibilities of the role
• The applicant's own profile including education/qualifications, expertise, specialization, skills, and experience

In addition to your base salary, Swiss Re offers an attractive performance-based variable compensation component, designed to recognise your achievements. Further you will enjoy a variety of global and location specific benefits.

Eligibility may vary depending on the terms of Swiss Re policies and your employment contract.

Our company follows a hybrid work model, with an expectation to be present in the office at least 50% of working time.