Senior Product Owner

World Bank Group • Washington, DC

12h

About The Position

Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 130 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org

ITS Vice Presidency Context:

The Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) enables the World Bank Group to achieve its mission of ending extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet by delivering transformative information and technologies to its staff working in over 150+ locations. For more information on ITS, see this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VTFGffa1Y7w
Department Context

The WBG Corporate Solutions Department (ITSCO) is focused on the digital transformation of essential corporate services to ensure WBG operations are seamless, resilient, and future-ready. Uniting digitalization roadmaps, experience design, process optimization, application delivery, systems management, and technology modernization across some 170 products and services, the department links business ambition with operational excellence—from intuitive employee experiences and precision payroll to data-driven decision making, intelligent automation, and AI enablement. Operating from multiple locations in a global delivery model, the team seeks to combine disciplined strategic planning with focused roadmaps, agile product delivery, design-forward innovation, digital engineering, automation, and AI to produce solutions that are engaging, impactful, and efficient. The goal is a unified, OneWBG corporate backbone—streamlined, connected, and adaptive—that empowers leaders, staff, partners, and shareholders with the processes, capabilities, and insights to advance the WBG's mission at scale. forward innovation, digital engineering, automation, and AI to produce solutions that are engaging, impactful, and efficient.

Unit & Team Context

The Corporate Experience Solutions (ITSCX) unit serves as the World Bank Group’s hub for designing, delivering, and evolving the digital interactions that connect our people and partners to the organization. Loosely aligned with the “systems of engagement” concept, this unit will focus on the full spectrum of stakeholder experiences — encompassing employees, shareholders, partners, the public, and beyond. Our purview includes high-impact corporate platforms such as the intranet, external websites, and tools supporting employee engagement, Board relations, recruitment, onboarding, talent development, learning, travel, leave, time recording, desk booking, and other solutions that touch the day-to-day work of the WBG’s global workforce and millions of external users. These are mission-critical, high visibility products, where speed, intuitiveness, and agility are paramount. The Employee Experience team within ITSCX delivers digital platforms and initiatives, such as the WBG intranet and dozens of internal websites and apps, that foster communications, collaboration, and community, leveraging data-driven insights and best practices to strengthen organizational culture and performance.

Duties and accountabilities:

Role Scope

The Senior Product Owner oversees a single complex and/or high-profile product by shaping and driving product vision and roadmap to ensure strategic alignment with organizational objectives and customer needs. As a subject matter expert in Product and Portfolio Management, this role focuses on the team backlog and directs large cross-functional team collaboration to deliver innovative, high-quality products and optimize value across the product lifecycle. The Senior Product Owner also oversees product performance monitoring, identifies opportunities for improvement, and informs decision-making and ensures successful execution.

Senior professional recognized as a subject matter expert in the job area.

• Routinely leads complex projects and integrates work of other (often multi-disciplinary) professional staff, contributes to strategy, analysis and policy formulation, and provides advice to functional management in area of specialization to contribute to functional area’s long-term objectives.
• Identifies and evaluates overall systemic issues and analyzes complex issues.
• Collaborates and partners with internal stakeholders on matters of strategic importance for the area of focus and department, may interact with external stakeholders to support department objectives.
• Provides guidance, coaching, and training to more junior staff within the job area, serving as an authoritative expert and key resource for other professionals and leadership.
• Requires comprehensive and in-depth expertise either in a broad area of specialization or in a narrowly specialized field.

Requirements

• Master’s degree and 8+ years progressively responsible experience; or Bachelor’s with 10+ years; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Proven experience managing global digital engagement platforms and solutions.
• Product Backlog Management, Product Roadmap, Agile Methodologies (SAFe): Proven ability to define product vision and translate it into actionable roadmaps, prioritize features based on business value, and deliver incremental improvements through iterative development cycles. Experience with enterprise-scale Agile frameworks ensures alignment across multiple teams and dependencies.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Cross-functional Collaboration: Skilled at building consensus among diverse groups including executives, business units, and technical teams. Capable of managing competing priorities, facilitating tough decisions, and maintaining productive relationships in complex organizational structures typical of enterprise environments.
• Proven Subject Matter Expertise: Experience working within the WBG digital engagement and knowledge sharing ecosystem (internal communications, intranet platforms, search, OneCMS, etc.).
• Business Requirements Analysis, Market Research, User Research, Feature Definition: Strong analytical capabilities to gather insights from customers, users, and market trends, then translate them into well-defined user stories and product requirements. Focuses on solving real business problems while balancing technical feasibility, user needs, and operational efficiency.
• Agile Tooling & Metrics: Proficiency with industry-standard platforms (Jira, Azure DevOps, Rally) and comfort using product metrics, KPIs, and analytics to measure success, identify improvements, and make evidence-based prioritization decisions rather than relying solely on intuition.
• Technical Acumen & AI Integration: Solid grasp of software architecture, development constraints, and emerging AI technologies (machine learning, natural language processing, predictive analytics) to effectively communicate with engineering teams, evaluate technical trade-offs, and champion intelligent automation features that drive competitive advantage.
• Business & Soft Skills: Strong business acumen and judgment—able to simplify complex concepts, prioritize investments for value, and deliver results under pressure. Outstanding interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills; ability to facilitate, negotiate, and influence successful outcomes.

Nice To Haves

• Recommended certifications: SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager; IDEO U Foundational Design Thinking Certificate; SAFe Lean Portfolio Manager (LPM)

Responsibilities

• Engages with large cross-functional teams to define complex product requirements and goals.
• Oversee market trend analysis and user insight reporting to guide product enhancements
• Defines and oversee the execution of the product's goals, vision, and roadmap
• Prioritizes complex product backlog to align with business objectives and customer needs
• Ensures comprehensive documentation of product features and user stories
• Contributes strategically to sprint planning and reviews to support timely product delivery.
• Leads stakeholder communication to identify opportunities for product improvements and efficiency gains
• Directs stakeholder updates at a regular cadence about product progress and updates
• Oversees the development and execution of test plans to ensure quality deliverables.
• Core corporate focus including internal communications and Human Resources
• Broader intranet platform modernization for AI-driven communications, collaboration, content management, personalization, and knowledge sharing across the WBG.

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