Innovation Officer – GF  

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank 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 

Office of the Senior Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships

The Senior Managing Director’s (SMD) key mandate includes overseeing the Bank’s knowledge and partnership programs and ensuring that the Bank’s analytical work continues to address the pressing development challenges facing client countries and global partners. The office is responsible for the Evolution Roadmap, G20 and G7 engagements, the implementation of the Knowledge Compact, as well as the replenishment of IDA, the Bank’s concessional lending arm for the poorest countries. It provides strategic guidance on the WB’s global knowledge and IDA corporate commitments; oversees key partnerships with shareholders, development agencies, other multilateral development banks (MDBs) and academia; helps shape and drive the Bank’s strategic directions; and through the Trust Fund portfolio in Global Practices, mobilizes support and financial resources across the international community to bring concessionally to our work.
 
Building on the progress of past efforts, the WBG Knowledge Compact for Action aims to empower clients, public and private, by systematically making the latest knowledge available to respond more effectively to increasingly complex development challenges. This includes knowledge embedded in policy advice, expertise and know-how, including from financing operations, as well as the latest research, data and tools to formulate robust development policies and programs. The Compact will deliver this knowledge to clients under the four pillars of enhanced products, partnerships, learning and systems. To advance the knowledge agenda, the practice groups will be organized into five vertical vice presidencies aligned with the new mission (People, Prosperity, Planet, Infrastructure and Digital). In addition, three new departments are being created to enhance coordination, integration and outcome orientation across the WBG.

The Department for Innovation will develop and pilot new initiatives and drive forward-thinking approaches to address complex development challenges facing the world today. It will do so by identifying and testing new ideas to tackle complex and persistent development issues, fostering a culture of innovation within the Bank, collaborating with external partners and across the WBG to tap into expertise, and spreading the successful ideas to inform future Bank engagements. 

Duties and accountabilities: 

The Director of Innovation is seeking an Innovation Officer who is highly motivated, a self-starter staff member to work with them on tasks including: 

• Identifying three priority innovation initiatives that will cut across at least two verticals and with potential to provide significant development impact.  The Director is working with a senior external innovation advisor and engaging with Bank leaders to generate the areas of focus.  The Innovation Officer will provide project management support, including tracking timelines, preparing materials that capture the content being generated and providing input on how to bring the project forward. 
• Thinking through how to define the goals, structure, activities of the innovation team, as well as the key areas of work needed to develop the innovation function so that it can have the best impact. The Innovation Officer will support the Director by capturing questions/ideas, organizing them and keeping track of them, capturing how they connect (e.g via a mind map?), identifying priority questions to address, reaching out to others in the institution to follow up. 
• Provide quantitative and qualitative analytical support for a wide range of corporate initiatives in order to inform leadership team discussions.
• Assist in the preparation of emails, talking points, briefing notes, and other background notes required for the Director of Innovation. 
• Provide analytical support to the team as needed.
• Gathering inputs from colleagues internally and externally to inform item 2.  This includes:
a) Internally, identifying/mapping what are the innovative offerings, services, initiatives underway already in the institution, who are the people involved.
• Engaging with colleagues in other development agencies where innovation functions exist to get their inputs and learn what has worked for them in running innovation teams. 
• Project support around capturing meeting notes, synthesizing information, drafting emails, pulling together short, snappy pieces of research, reaching out to arrange meetings, following up to get help when needed from other parts of the organization etc.

Selection Criteria

The candidate is expected to be a strategic, clear and creative thinker, with passion and experience leading innovations and transformative projects to create impact and drive sustainable changes. The selected person is expected to be an excellent collaborator, a strong communicator, resourceful, entrepreneurial, with skills in writing, PowerPoint, excel, and tech savvy.

• Master’s degree in a relevant field/discipline (Manufacturing and Design, Information Systems, Business Administration, Engineering or another relevant field). 
• At least 5+ years of relevant experience in leading innovation and transformative projects, with strong skills in guiding strategic initiatives. 
• Proven ability in facilitating cross-functional collaborations with experience in establishing new teams to define priorities and achieve challenging goals. 
• Proven track-record in project management with strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills.
• High-level of strategic thinking and problem solving. 
• High-level of integrity and discretion, sound business judgment, and inter-personal skills with proven ability to work cooperatively with multi-disciplinary teams, and with all levels of staff and managers.
• Passionate about driving innovation and solving complex global challenges.
• Fluency in English is required.

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.

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