Selection procedure reference: EMA/TR/11418
Deadline for applications: 06 May 2026 23:59 CET
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU), located in Amsterdam. It began operating in 1995. It is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU.
This traineeship opportunity is now open for applications until 06 May 2026 23:59 CET, with an intake on 1 October 2026.
About the traineeship programme
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 Digital Change workstream (DCX).
Specific objectives and projects
The trainee will be involved in a range of software development, data analytics, and experimentation projects within the Analytics Centre of Excellence (ACE), supporting automation and digital innovation at the Agency. The trainee will work closely with the Digital Innovation Lab (DigiLab) and the data analytics platform team, contributing to the design, development, and delivery of digital solutions.
The projects carried out by ACE typically range from developing software applications and services to designing and implementing APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that integrate analytics and data-driven capabilities. To deliver these solutions, the trainee will work on tasks such as integrating data from multiple data sources and databases, developing backend services, implementing data processing pipelines, automating document analysis, scraping and consuming public data, and building software to support or improve business processes.
The trainee will contribute to different projects by developing analytical and data-enabled applications following software engineering best practices, including version control, testing, documentation, and collaborative development. The trainee will also have opportunity to work on data science and AI technologies, including the integration of AI components (e.g. Large Language Models) into applications where relevant. This includes participating in experimentation activities aimed at creating solutions that interact with documents and structured or unstructured data sources.
Examples of projects in which the trainee may be involved include, but are not limited to:
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Developing a software application to automatically extract and structure information from specific reports, storing the results in a database and exposing them via an API.
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Developing an application or service to support the automatic population of product information templates for human medicines, integrating data from multiple systems.
The trainee will also collaborate with EMA colleagues with different technical and business backgrounds to understand business needs, translate them into technical requirements and software solutions, and communicate results and outcomes clearly.
Learning outcomes
The trainee will learn to
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Use software and programming languages used in analytics and software development such as Python, R, SQL, etc.
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Use data visualization and application tools such as Power BI, Shiny, etc.
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Understand, clean, and integrate data sets and demonstrate familiarity with the data modelling workflow
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Develop solutions with data-driven and software components to enable decision-making, process improvement, and process automation
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Familiarise with Azure services and infrastructure (e.g. cognitive services, web app services, AI search and more)
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Work closely with software developers, testers, architects, data experts and data scientists to deliver results
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Communicate with business users to understand their requirements and to present results in a clear and structured manner
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Prepare reports and presentations with possible recommendations/trends/scenarios to support business reviews in a visual and clear manner
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for consideration for this placement, you are required to:
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enjoy full rights as a citizen of a European Union Member State or Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway;
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possess a university degree in Software Development , Engineering, Data Science, Computer Science or related field (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.
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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
For criteria 1 and 2, you will be required to provide proof in the application form and at the interview stage. Failing to present these documents may result in the disqualification from the procedure.
Additional skills
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Excellent presentation and communication skills
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Pro-active approach to work
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Analysing and creative problem-solving
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Good Software development practices
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Good in communicating visualisations of solutions in Power Point, or MIRO or other digital tools
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Customer centricity
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Team collaboration
Behavioural Competencies
You will demonstrate the following behavioural competencies:
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.
The conditions of employment are stated in the Executive Decision on rules governing the traineeship programme at the EMA available here .
Expected selection timelines
Deadline for applications
06 May 2026 23:59 CET
Assessments (remote)
From mid-June 2026 to mid-July 2026
Decision and offers
By end of July 2026
Placement start
1 October 2026
Domenico Scarlattilaan 6 - 1083 HS Amsterdam - The Netherlands
Telephone +31 (0)88 781 6000 - Email recruitment@ema.europa.eu
© European Medicines Agency, 2024. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.