Research careers

Looking for work that really matters?

With us, you can apply your technical skills to real-world economic questions. Our policy remit covers monetary, macroprudential and microprudential policy for the whole of the UK, and research underpins everything we do.

Join our large community of researchers. You’ll enjoy a rich and stimulating environment, have close engagement with policymakers, and make a key contribution to policy analysis.

Our research is centred around the five themes set out in our research agenda:

• The Monetary Toolkit 
• The Open Economy 
• The Prudential Framework
• The Future of Finance
• The Transformed World

Watch our Chief Economist Huw Pill talking about why this is a great place to start or build a career as a researcher.

Watch a recording of our 2023 information session and Q&A with Huw Pill (Chief Economist), Misa Tanaka (Head of Research), Andreas Joseph (Research Economist) and Emma-Jayne Webb (Future Talent Lead – PhD) who discuss career opportunities for PhD researchers.

We hire researchers annually, during the autumn, across three schemes: PhD Research Programme (for recent PhD graduates), Experienced Researchers and PhD Internships. See 'Our research schemes' below for more information, including how to apply to these schemes.

We also open additional vacancies throughout the year. Explore our current research job vacancies.

Our research schemes

Meet our researchers

Education

Università degli Studi di Bari 

Bachelor in Physics
Master in Theoretical Physics
PhD in Theoretical Physics 

Career story

The working environment at the Bank of England is incredibly collaborative, perhaps more than I thought it would be. My background is not in economics and I find there is so much for me to learn from my Bank colleagues, which I really enjoy.

Our approach to research here is a bit different to other central banks. Rather than having a dedicated research department we have a Research Hub, which hosts staff currently working on research projects from all policy areas. This means that you can work both on research projects and on policy work streams. The idea is that working on policy can help you find interesting research questions, and the output from research projects can better inform policy.

Education

University of Indonesia & University of Amsterdam
University of Warwick
City University of London 

BSc in Economics and Finance
MSc in Economics and International Financial Economics
PhD in Economics 

Career story

I've always wanted to work at a policy institution because I want to contribute to policymaking. As an economics graduate with a strong interest in monetary policy, it's an amazing opportunity to work at the Bank of England. When I went on the job market, the interviewers from the Bank showed interest in my research and we had a great discussion about my work. To me, this was a good signal of the working culture here.

I have found the research community here is very supportive towards young researchers. We are encouraged to attend conferences and there are various channels to take your research forward. Researchers are supportive to each other, in particular on how we can apply our skills and knowledge to policy work.

I have also been impressed with how the Bank’s research community actively approaches experts in various fields to collaborate with and learn from. For example, it invites experts to present a seminar or to become an academic consultant. This shows we are committed to being at the research frontier.

Education

University of Amsterdam
PhD in Economics

Career story

I combine my position at the Bank of England with my role as part-time Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Amsterdam.

I've been a researcher at policy institutions throughout my career as I like to get inspired by current policy debates. I took a position as research advisor in the Bank’s newly created Research Hub in 2016, and my job involves doing research and contributing to building a strong research environment here. I was attracted to the Bank’s renewed focus on research, including career tracks specifically for researchers.

It has a very dynamic research community and provides an inspiring environment for researchers interested in research relevant to our core operations. Being located in London is an added bonus because it allows for ample interaction with researchers in academia. Staff are very collaborative and friendly and there is a lot of diversity. There is ample scope for debate and for thinking outside the box.

See all researchers