Senior IT Officer, Business Solutions (Product Manager)

World Bank Group • Washington, DC

12d

About The Position

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The World Bank Group is a unique global partnership of five institutions driven by a bold vision to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. As one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, we help solve the world’s greatest development challenges. When you join the World Bank Group, you become part of a dynamic, diverse organization with 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide. We work with public and private sector partners, invest in groundbreaking projects, and use data, research, and technology to bring tangible and transformative changes around the globe. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

VPU Context
The mission of the Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) is to leverage information and technology as a force multiplier to accelerate, deepen, and sustain development impact. Their vision is to harness information and technology for a world free of poverty on a livable planet. For more information on ITS, check this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VTFGffa1Y7w.
Department Context

The Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit supports the World Bank Group’s mission by delivering transformative digital solutions to staff across 150+ global locations. Within ITS, the Fiduciary Operations unit (ITSFD), part of the Operations & Country Engagement Solutions department (ITSOE) department, leads efforts to enhance operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making in Bank’s Operations.

Operational Procurement Product Manager

Role Overview

The Operational Procurement Product Manager is responsible for leading the vision, strategy, and delivery of next-generation procurement systems that enable efficient, transparent, compliant, and insight-driven procurement operations. The role focuses on modernizing procurement workflows through intelligent systems, automation, AI-driven decision support, and low-code/no-code innovation.

This role serves as the primary bridge between procurement operations, business stakeholders, ITS technical teams, and Agile delivery units. The Product Manager ensures that procurement platforms deliver measurable value, improve user experience, strengthen fiduciary controls, and support evolving institutional procurement policies.

The Product Manager operates as a strategic leader, capable of driving complex work programs, orchestrating multiple delivery teams, managing dependencies, and ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, data governance, and cybersecurity standards. The role demands strong leadership and the ability to champion digital transformation across procurement functions.

Requirements

• Proven experience in product management, business analysis, or solution leadership in procurement, supply chain, or financial domains.
• Strong understanding of operational procurement policies, sourcing processes, and vendor management.
• Hands-on experience with Agile methodologies (Scrum, SAFe) and working with cross-functional teams.
• Practical knowledge of foundation models/LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), tool-use/function-calling, multi‑agent orchestration, autonomous workflow agents with human-in-the-loop controls, prompt engineering, and safety/guardrails.
• Familiarity with model lifecycle management (data preparation, training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, drift detection, and rollback), feature stores, experiment tracking, and CI/CD for ML pipelines.
• Solid understanding and working knowledge of designing cloud-native, event-driven microservices following domain-driven design (DDD), API-first approaches (REST/GraphQL), asynchronous messaging and streaming platforms (such as Kafka or Event Hub), CQRS, and saga patterns. Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, as well as serverless architectures where applicable.
• Working knowledge of data lakes/warehouses, ELT/ETL pipelines, metadata/catalog, vector databases, and secure integration with enterprise systems (ERP, IAM) via APIs and iPaaS.
• Understanding of IAM (RBAC/ABAC), secrets management, encryption, privacy and responsible AI, auditability, and model governance in regulated environments.
• Working knowledge telemetry for apps and models (logging, tracing, metrics), reliability engineering, and cost/performance optimization.
• Experience with low-code/no-code platforms and workflow automation technologies.
• Exceptional communication, analytical, and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

• Certifications such as CSPO, SAFe POPM, PMP, or procurement‑related credentials are desirable.
• Demonstrated experience delivering large-scale, high-impact digital products in complex enterprise environments.
• Proven track record leading modernization initiatives involving AI, automation, and workflow intelligence.
• Deep understanding of procurement operations, policies, sourcing processes, vendor lifecycle management, and compliance frameworks will be plus.
• Ability to translate complex business rules, policies, and risk considerations into well‑structured system requirements.
• Strong analytical and strategic decision-making abilities with a demonstrated capacity to prioritize competing demands under tight timelines.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional teams and managing dependencies across multiple Agile workstreams.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with procurement policy units, legal teams, risk and audit functions, ITS delivery teams, and enterprise architects.
• Demonstrated experience influencing senior stakeholders, framing technology decisions, and driving alignment in governance settings.
• Strong understanding of AI-driven systems, agentic automation models, and intelligent system design from a product delivery perspective.
• Proven ability to work in fast-paced, high‑ambiguity environments and drive clarity, structure, and forward momentum.
• Experience leading enterprise procurement transformation programs.
• Working knowledge in intelligent document processing, NLP, fraud/irregularity detection, or supplier analytics.
• Ability to shape long-term digital strategy for procurement functions.
• Experience working with multi-ART delivery structures in SAFe environments.
• Ability to represent procurement technology strategy in senior-level governance forums.
• Previous leadership of modernization initiatives using AI, automation, or low-code platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain a clear vision for modern procurement systems powered by AI, automation, and intelligent workflows.
• Develop multi-year product roadmaps aligned with operational procurement needs, digital transformation priorities, and emerging technology capabilities.
• Identify high‑value opportunities to modernize procurement processing, risk screening, document analysis, vendor evaluation, and insights delivery.
• Engage procurement specialists, policy owners, buyers, and operational staff to understand needs and pain points.
• Translate procurement policies and business rules into system capabilities, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead user validation, design reviews, and continuous feedback cycles.
• Champion adoption of AI-driven capabilities such as automated document analysis, supplier risk scoring, and intelligent workflow routing.
• Integrate agentic AI models that autonomously execute procurement tasks under human supervision.
• Drive low-code/no-code solutions to accelerate delivery, reduce manual effort, and enable self-service modernization.
• Lead Agile ceremonies, PI Planning, prioritization, and cross-team alignment.
• Coordinate multiple Scrum teams, ensuring synchronized delivery across platforms, integrations, and data layers.
• Remove blockers, manage dependencies, and ensure focus on product goals.
• Ensure procurement systems align with security, governance, and policy controls.
• Support functional testing, AI model validation, workflow simulations, and UAT.
• Partner with enterprise architects to ensure scalable, modular, cloud-ready solutions.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for procurement leadership and business owners.
• Provide transparent communication on roadmap progress, risks, decisions, and change impacts.
• Influence and guide stakeholders across procurement, ITS, legal, finance, and audit teams.
• Identify opportunities to enhance user experience through automation, improved analytics, and process reengineering.
• Stay current on procurement technology trends, AI evolution, regulatory changes, and best practices.
• Drive a culture of data-driven decision-making and digital-first procurement.

Benefits

• The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level