Ottawa (Downtown), ON, CA
Student, Macrofinancial Modelling
Take a central role
The Bank of Canada has a vision to be a leading central bank—dynamic, engaged and trusted—committed to a better Canada. No other employer in the country offers you the unique opportunity to work at the very center of Canada’s economy, in an organization with significant impact on the economic and financial well-being of all Canadians. You will be challenged, energized and motivated to excel in our environment.
Building on the principles that have always guided us – excellence, integrity and respect – we strive to be forward-looking and innovative, to welcome people with diverse perspectives and talents, and to earn trust by living up to our commitments and by clearly explaining the intent of our policies and actions.
With our defined-benefit pension plan, benefits, and high flexibility for work life balance - find out more about why we are annually ranked as one of Canada's top employers: Working Here - Bank of Canada
Find out more about the next steps in our Recruitment process.
What you will do
As part of the Financial Markets Department, the Macrofinancial Modeling and Research (MMR) Team conducts research related to the Bank’s Monetary Policy function. The MMR Team develops research ideas, produces high-quality research papers, and collaborates with other teams to monitor financial markets and to conduct market analysis.
Under the general direction of the Director and Principal Economist, as a PhD student, you will:
- Clean, structure, and document large-scale earnings call transcript data to create a reusable dataset for research within the department.
- Develop and implement text-as-data methods to extract firm-level sentiment and topic measures related to firms’ business outlook (e.g., demand conditions, cost pressures, employment, investment, and credit conditions, etc.).
- Where feasible, explore the use of large language models within the Bank’s secure research environment to support in the analysis of earnings call transcript data.
- Document code, data processes, and analytical outputs to support knowledge transfer and future use within the department.
What you need to succeed
This position requires hands-on-experience with many of the following areas:
- Strong programming skills, particularly in natural-language-processing (NLP), using tools such as Python and standard NLP libraries for tokenization, embeddings, topic modeling, sentiment analysis, etc.
- Experience in collecting, organizing, and manipulating large volumes of unstructured text data.
- Familiarity with empirical research workflows, including data validation, reproducibility, and clear documentation of methods and outputs.
- Demonstrated commitment to learning and self-development, including the ability to quickly adapt existing methods from the academic literature.
- Strong work ethics and ability to work collaboratively within a team, or independently on open-ended problems.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical work to a non-techncial audience.
Nice-to-have
- Experience with Databricks and Apache Spark (e.g., Spark SQL, PySpark, etc.)
- Expierence with applying NLP methods in an economics or finance research context.
- Familiarity with earnings call transcripts and firm-level financial data.
- Familiarity with using large language models (LLMs) in a research capacity.
Your education and experience
The student must be enrolled in a PhD program in Statistics or Economics, with a strong quantitative inclination.
Innovative Mindset
We value candidates who demonstrate adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to learn new technologies, including AI and digital tools. We seek individuals who can think critically about data, question existing processes, and find ways to simplify our work while embracing change and new ways of doing things.
Language requirement
The Bank’s work environment is conducive to the use of both of Canada’s official languages - English and French. Although the position language requirement is English or French essential, we do encourage everyone to improve second their language proficiency for future career growth and to contribute towards fostering a bilingual environment.
What you need to know
- This position is full-time (37.5 hours per week).
- Priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents
- Security level required: Be eligible to obtain Reliability
- There will be no relocation assistance provided
- Please save a copy of the job poster. Once the closing date has passed, it will no longer be available.
Hybrid Work Model
The Bank offers work arrangements that provide employees with flexibility, enable high-performing teams, and support an excellent workplace culture. Most employees can telework from home for a portion of each month as part of the Bank’s hybrid work model, and they are expected on site at the Bank location a minimum of 12 days per month to help build connections between colleagues. You must live in Canada, and within reasonable commuting distance of the office.
What you can expect from us
This is a great opportunity to join a leading organization and be part of a high-performing team.
- Salary $30.94 hourly (job grade Student C)
We wish to thank all applicants for their interest and effort in applying for this position. Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.