Lead Specialist

Lead Specialist

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? 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 and promoting shared prosperity. 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.

The Department for Outcomes is establishing a new Outcomes Solutions Program to help governments and international institutions move from retrospective reporting to real-time delivery, adaptive management, and measurable outcomes. The agenda responds to rising demand for credible development effectiveness, stronger implementation, value for money, and modern institutional accountability in a more constrained financing environment.

The program will selectively support shareholder governments, client countries, multilateral development banks, UN agencies, and other international institutions through Reimbursable Advisory Services and strategic partnerships. It will focus on outcomes reform strategies, delivery systems, target management architectures, scorecards, results platforms, implementation monitoring, AI-enabled analytics, and institutional learning.

This is a frontier role, not a traditional results measurement position. The Lead Specialist will help define a new WBG engagement area: AI-enabled outcomes development effectiveness for the next generation of development delivery. The role combines senior government advisory work, delivery-unit practice, multilateral navigation, AI-native product development, applied research, and global university partnerships.

The appointment offers the opportunity to build a high-visibility platform that positions the WBG at the technology frontier of development effectiveness - where AI, delivery systems, real-time intelligence, and operational learning are used to improve how strategies and operations deliver results. The successful candidate must be credible in a ministerial delivery meeting, an MDB/shareholder discussion, a data science lab, and a university seminar. The profile requires hands-on experience with government delivery units or center-of-government reform structures, a strong understanding of the multilateral system, and the ability to translate AI and data into operational tools that change how institutions steer delivery.

Duties and Responsibilities

 
1. Build and lead the Outcomes Solutions Program
• Lead the design, launch, and scaling of the Outcomes Solutions Program as a high-impact advisory and knowledge platform.
• Build a selective portfolio of RAS and partnership-based engagements with shareholder governments, client countries, MDBs, UN agencies, and other institutions.
• Translate emerging demand into replicable solutions, including diagnostics, reform roadmaps, delivery playbooks, scorecards, target systems, results platforms, and implementation routines.
• Set quality standards, delivery discipline, and financial sustainability principles for the program.
• Position the WBG as a global leader in outcomes capability, institutional effectiveness, and AI-enabled operational modernization.

2. Advise governments and institutions on delivery systems
• Lead senior advisory engagements with governments and institutions seeking to strengthen outcome-focused delivery, performance management, and accountability.
• Support the design or modernization of delivery units, center-of-government routines, target systems, leadership reviews, dashboards, and problem-solving mechanisms.
• Help institutions connect strategy, financing, implementation, monitoring, and decision-making into coherent outcomes architectures.
• Shift partners from compliance-driven reporting toward active delivery management, real-time learning, and course correction.
• Lead missions, workshops, technical exchanges, and senior-level briefings for ministers, senior officials, institutional leaders, and partner teams.

3. Drive the AI and technology frontier for outcomes
• Lead the application of AI, large language models, natural language processing, machine learning, predictive analytics, and data visualization to outcomes and delivery systems.
• Guide AI-enabled tools for results framework quality, implementation risk detection, target mapping, perception analytics, real-time learning, and operational intelligence.
• Ensure that technology solutions are designed around real institutional bottlenecks and embedded in management routines, not built as stand-alone products.
• Provide thought leadership on the implications of AI for development effectiveness, public-sector delivery, institutional oversight, and multilateral operations.
• Promote responsible and trustworthy AI, including attention to ethics, transparency, bias, data governance, and quality assurance.

4. Build the research, evidence, and university partnership agenda
• Lead a research program documenting how governments, development institutions, and operations adopt stronger outcomes focus.
• Generate evidence on what works in delivery systems, target architectures, AI-enabled analytics, adaptive management, implementation monitoring, and institutional reform.
• Produce case studies, policy notes, working papers, executive briefs, and flagship knowledge products based on RAS and client engagements.
• Build partnerships with universities and research institutions for teaching, executive education, case writing, applied research, and analytical work.
• Connect operational practice to the WBG Knowledge Bank agenda by converting live implementation experience into reusable global knowledge.

5. Navigate the multilateral system and represent the WBG
• Represent the Department for Outcomes in high-level engagements with shareholders, client countries, MDBs, UN agencies, bilateral institutions, universities, foundations, and technology partners.
• Advance harmonization, interoperability, and operational consistency across results systems in the broader development architecture.
• Prepare strategic briefs, presentations, concept notes, talking points, and thought pieces for senior management and external partners.
• Strengthen trust with shareholders and partners by demonstrating practical, technology-enabled solutions to development effectiveness and value-for-money challenges.

6. Build teams and institutional capability
• Provide technical leadership to multidisciplinary teams, including delivery specialists, data scientists, consultants, and operational staff.
• Mentor staff on outcomes management, delivery-unit practice, AI-enabled analytics, senior advisory work, and client engagement.
• Establish quality assurance standards for diagnostics, advisory products, AI tools, research outputs, and partnership activities.
• Strengthen the institutional outcome reflex: the habit of using evidence, signals, and delivery routines to identify bottlenecks early and adapt in time.

Selection Criteria

• Advanced degree, preferably Master's or PhD, in economics, public policy, public administration, international development, data science, statistics, business administration, political economy, or a related field.
• At least 10-15 years of relevant experience in government delivery, development operations, outcomes management, institutional reform, strategic analytics, public-sector performance, or multilateral development.
• Significant experience working inside or directly with government delivery units, center-of-government structures, reform implementation units, prime minister/presidential offices, cabinet offices, or equivalent performance management teams.
• Strong understanding of the multilateral system, including MDBs, UN agencies, bilateral donors, shareholder dynamics, client country relationships, development effectiveness, and value-for-money debates.
• Demonstrated ability to advise ministers, senior officials, institutional leaders, boards, or shareholder representatives on delivery, outcomes, strategy execution, and accountability.
• Proven experience designing or reforming results systems, target systems, scorecards, dashboards, delivery routines, implementation monitoring systems, or institutional performance frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of AI, LLMs, predictive analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, or advanced data tools, with demonstrated ability to apply them to operational and institutional problems.
• Track record of leading complex client-facing advisory engagements, preferably including RAS, fee-based advisory work, consultancy services, or equivalent senior assignments.
• Strong writing and analytical record, including policy papers, operational research, case studies, thought leadership, evaluations, or evidence-based knowledge products.
• Experience building partnerships with universities, think tanks, technology partners, MDBs, UN agencies, or global knowledge networks.
• Exceptional communication, political judgment, and leadership skills, with ability to operate across sectors, disciplines, cultures, and institutional boundaries.
• Fluency in English required; additional languages desirable.

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.