Digital Specialist

World Bank Group•Washington, DC

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The World Bank Group (WBG) is seeking a Digital Specialist to support its Digital and AI Vertical Vice Presidency (VPU). This role is crucial for advancing the WBG's Digital and AI Strategy, which focuses on access, affordability, ecosystem, and AI readiness. The VPU supports client countries in their digital transformation journeys through financing, advisory services, knowledge products, and convening services. The Development Effectiveness (DE) unit, within which this role sits, plays a key part in strategic planning, operational delivery, and monitoring and evaluation for the VPU. The Results and Strategy team specifically acts as the VPU's operational intelligence and accountability engine, focusing on strategy implementation, results architecture, portfolio intelligence, and measurement. The Digital Specialist will be a dynamic and high-performing team member, adaptable to supporting Digital and AI teams and handling special assignments. Reporting to the DE Manager, the Specialist will contribute to the evidence layer behind Digital and AI solutions and operations, the cross-sectoral Digital and AI framework, the Digital and AI Communities of Practice, and resolving procurement and policy bottlenecks. This role requires a strong understanding of results-based management, digital and AI landscapes, and the ability to work collaboratively in a complex, international development context.

Requirements

Master's degree in economics, management, business administration, public policy, social sciences, technical studies, or another field related to a development discipline.
Minimum 5 years of relevant experience, including supporting digital and AI agendas, ideally in low- or middle-income countries.
Strong knowledge of the Digital and AI landscape.
Demonstrated expertise in results architecture and M&E, including the design of theories of change, results frameworks, indicator methodologies and baselines, for both lending operations and global business lines.
Proven experience contributing to strategy development, implementation planning and monitoring, ideally focused on digital initiatives and public sector digitalization.
Proficiency in results tracking, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis, including the use of visualization tools.
Strong client orientation and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to work cooperatively with multi-disciplinary teams, across boundaries, and with all levels of staff and managers.
Demonstrated ability to undertake a diversity of tasks within a rapidly changing and demanding environment on short deadlines.
High level of integrity and discretion, sound business judgment, rigor, and diplomatic skills.
Strong spoken and written communication skills in English, including the ability to speak and write persuasively and present ideas clearly, tactfully and concisely; the ability to listen carefully and provide sound advice in a constructive manner.
High performance in previous assignments; recognition by peers and managers for excellence and innovation in operational work.
Ability to multi-task and willingness and capacity to meet tight deadlines.
High capacity to conceptualize, organize, manage and bring to closure high-quality work quickly and independently; proven capacity to integrate and synthesize across disciplines.
Demonstrate the ability to collaborate effectively across teams, disciplines, cultures, and institutional boundaries.
Responsibly leverage digital and AI-enabled tools to enhance productivity, learning, and decision-making.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with ASA products, policies and procedures and with trust fund issues will be a plus.
Experience working in fragile, conflict-affected, and violent (FCV) contexts.

Responsibilities

Support in setting and sequencing the Unit's work programme so that measurement, evidence and strategy outputs are delivered ahead of, and in service of, the VPU's decision points.
Support the integration of the Team's outputs with other units under the DSO and represent the Team at working level with the front office, Verticals, Regions and corporate counterparts.
Contribute to the professional depth of the Team in results architecture, portfolio intelligence and operational design through peer support, documentation and internal knowledge sharing.
Support the development of theories of change for priority Digital and AI solutions, linking activities and outputs to intended outcomes and impacts, and articulating the assumptions and risks on which each results chain depends.
Set indicators and baselines where appropriate and establish the data sources and collection arrangements needed to sustain them.
Track progress against results chains on a regular cycle, flagging where delivery is on or off track, and feed learning back into operational decisions in real time rather than at reporting milestones.
Establish a measurement-of-success approach and framework for non-funding partnerships.
Establish a strong link between the scalability and replicability framework and the results agenda, so that evidence of what works informs decisions on what is scaled.
Innovate in the use of AI in the preparation of analytical and reporting outputs in support of regional and global teams.
Support the effort to standardize and improve the horizontal function of Digital and AI, working with Solutions and Innovation, Policy and Regulation, and the other Verticals.
Support the cross-sectoral initiative for Digital and AI solutions, documenting pathways into health, agriculture and energy as a starting point, and extending to further sectors as the framework matures.
Translate the framework into practical guidance that task teams can apply in project design, including entry points, sequencing and the interfaces between Digital and AI solutions and sectoral operations.
Help establish the operating structure for the Digital and AI Communities of Practice, with defined membership, cadence and terms of reference, designed to serve the delivery of the implementation plan.
Participate and contribute to CoPs as the routine channel through which task teams surface operational and policy constraints from the field and establish the protocol through which these issues are triaged, escalated and resolved.
Support working-level engagement with OPCS, LEG and FM to resolve procurement-specific bottlenecks and to establish new guidance around procurement in Digital and AI.
Maintain a live record of bottlenecks raised through the CoPs and other channels, tracking each to resolution and capturing the resulting guidance for reuse.
Prepare substantial research and written outputs on Digital and AI topics, especially those supporting project design and implementation for results, and supporting replication and scaling across the Digital VPU.
Prepare toolkits, practice notes, presentations and briefing notes for global and regional teams to support communication with CDs, clients, donors and other stakeholders.
Review lending and knowledge packages and other key documents to ensure they meet the Bank's due diligence, procedures, corporate priorities and quality standards, and that they align with the Digital strategy and its cross-cutting priorities (FCV, Gender, Climate, Jobs).
Assist project teams in managing implementation challenges, bring lessons from across the Digital portfolio to bear, and connect the dots across global teams to improve project design and implementation.