WBG Pioneer - AI Data Scientist Intern

World Bank Group • Washington, DC

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The WBG Pioneers program offers undergraduate and postgraduate students a high-impact learning experience focused on global development. Participants gain hands-on experience in a diverse and dynamic environment, contributing fresh perspectives and innovative ideas. This internship provides an opportunity to work on the systems that track financial transactions, risk management, and community protection for World Bank-financed projects. The Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidency, specifically the Fiduciary Operations unit (ITSFD), delivers technology products and services enabling the WBG's development mission. The E&S (Environmental & Social) team within ITSFD is responsible for digital systems supporting environmental and social risk management and accountability functions. Interns will gain exposure to how the Bank manages environmental and social risk, complaints, and incident tracking across its global project portfolio. Depending on their track, interns will build skills in requirements gathering, applied AI/ML for risk classification and case triage, or data engineering, contributing to tools that support accountability and protect communities.

Requirements

• Pursuing or recently completed a graduate degree (preferred) in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative field; strong undergraduate candidates with relevant project experience will also be considered.
• Candidates must have 1–6 years of relevant professional experience.
• Proficiency in Python and common ML/data science libraries (e.g., pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch/TensorFlow).
• Understanding of machine learning fundamentals, model evaluation, and basic NLP or generative AI concepts.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to communicate technical findings clearly.
• Strong analytical, research, and problem-solving skills.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency in English; additional languages may be required depending on the role.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum concepts and practices is a plus.
• Prior exposure to real-world datasets or applied projects is a plus.
• Demonstrated interest in development work and the World Bank Group’s mission.

Responsibilities

• Support the design, development, and testing of AI/ML models to support E&S case triage, risk classification, or analytics use cases.
• Assist in data preparation, feature engineering, and model evaluation using structured and unstructured data from case management systems.
• Contribute to proof-of-concept work exploring generative AI and automation opportunities within E&S workflows.
• Collaborate with data engineers and product owners to translate business problems into data science solutions.
• Document methodologies, model performance, and findings for technical and non-technical audiences.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern