Senior HR Specialist - Workforce Planning & Organization Design

Senior HR Specialist - Workforce Planning & Organization Design

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? 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 120 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

BACKGROUND AND UNIT SUMMARY

The HRDTD department has a renewed mandate to modernize talent management and development to meet changing organizational needs, enabling a "One WBG future ready workforce". The Talent Planning and Insights Center of Excellence (CoE), under which this role sits, is responsible for designing and implementing cross-cutting solutions to support integrated talent management and associated digital solutions.

The Senior HR Specialist – Talent Management (Workforce Planning and Organizational Design) plays a critical role in shaping the organization's talent strategy by leading strategic workforce planning, driving organizational design initiatives, and governing the WBG's talent architecture. This role is central to aligning human capital with business priorities and ensuring the effective operational integration and application of the skills framework within job roles across the World Bank Group.

This position is based in Washington, DC, and reports to the Manager, Talent Planning and Insights.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

•Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of the strategic workforce planning (SWP) framework and processes, enabling forward-looking skills-based workforce planning aligned with business priorities and budget projections, providing visibility into current versus future skill needs, identifying skill gaps, and supporting talent action planning. Enable business owners and HR Client Services with essential frameworks and expertise to effectively execute workforce plans.

•Drives organizational design initiatives, developing robust frameworks and methodologies to align organizational structures, roles, and capabilities with WBG strategic priorities. This includes leading the governance of WBG Job Architecture, ensuring consistent and accurate job titles and role definitions, and applying structured job analysis to identify opportunities for automation, process simplification, and alternative delivery models—guiding the evolution and redefinition of work across the organization.

•Collaborates closely with specialized internal teams to ensure the seamless integration of the organization's skills framework and its digital enablement into talent architecture processes, while also leveraging talent insights and advanced data science solutions for strategic workforce planning and job architecture initiatives.

•Builds and nurtures strong working relationships with business leaders, WBG HR colleagues, and key internal and external stakeholders to ensure talent architecture and workforce planning initiatives are aligned with business needs, informed by best practices, and responsive to emerging trends.

•Engages with external peer organizations to stay abreast of emerging trends and best practices in talent architecture, organizational design, and strategic workforce planning, applying relevant insights into the WBG's approach.

Selection Criteria

•Master’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development/Behavior, or a related field, with a minimum of eight (8) years of relevant professional experience.

•Proven expertise leading strategic workforce planning initiatives, including skill gap analysis and talent action planning.

•Experience contributing to organizational design initiatives, including framework development and supporting alignment of job titles and role definitions within complex organizations.

•Strong understanding of job architecture governance and its operational implementation.

•Familiarity with the integration and application of skills frameworks into job roles, including exposure to maintaining skill profiles in talent systems.

•Strong change management and stakeholder engagement skills, with experience influencing adoption of new frameworks and building client capability through communication, training, and hands-on support.

•Demonstrated ability to build trusted, long-term relationships and collaborate effectively across diverse client groups and WBG HR teams.

•Superb project management, planning, coordination, and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives concurrently and deliver against deadlines.

•Exposure to design thinking or human-centered approaches in developing HR or organizational solutions is an advantage.

•Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesize complex quantitative and qualitative data into clear insights and actionable, data-driven recommendations.

•Experience with AI-enabled tools is an advantage, or a demonstrated ability to quickly learn and apply such tools.

•Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate complex information clearly and concisely to varied audiences, including senior management.

•Ability to interact confidently with senior management, contributing to effective relationships and partnerships at all levels of the organization.

•Strong learning agility and curiosity, with the ability to stay abreast of emerging trends and best practices in talent architecture, organizational design, and workforce planning.

•Knowledge of data governance and ethical considerations related to talent data is an advantage.

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact.
3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

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.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC including our values and inspiring stories.