Operations Officer

IFC—a member of the World Bank—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2023, IFC committed a record $43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises. 

IFC’s 3.0 strategy aims to stimulate more investment activity across emerging markets, especially in Low Income Countries (LICs) and Fragile and Conflict affected States (FCS). This strategy aims to create new opportunities for private investments in riskier markets and sectors by proactively working “upstream” to create, deepen, and expand markets and design and develop potential investment projects.  The Upstream and Advisory Global Secretariat (CUACS), within the Cross Cutting Solutions Vice Presidency, is tasked with driving the effectiveness of upstream and advisory operations in support of the IFC 3.0 strategy and 2030 commitments focused on enabling investment opportunities, enhancing investment outcomes, and improving investment conditions.

The CUACS unit is seeking an Operations Officer to support a subset of upstream/advisory business units across the Asia region by providing operational management and client support.  Staff position will be based in Singapore to ensure maximum coverage across Asia clients and tasks and be co-located with Asia regional focal point. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Apply critical thinking to provide tailored advice to upstream and advisory project teams (in assigned industries/business areas) on program structuring, design and course correction; governance/ADM application and compliance and portfolio and pipeline monitoring including fit with strategy.
• Help strengthen project quality at entry and promote effective portfolio supervision and course correction throughout project lifecycle, including conducting quality reviews of project documents (CNs/IPs/PSRs/PCRs/etc) across various project types. This will be achieved through project monitoring, support to Managers and TTLs on portfolio issues, and flagging issues for attention of the results measurement team among other approaches.
• Contribute to management reporting efforts to facilitate regional and operational management oversight of portfolio performance and pipeline progress, especially in relation to committed KPIs and strategic directions.  Additionally, promote information quality and feedback into reporting enhancements to address management needs or highlight areas where attention needed.
• Lead or play an important role in the pipeline and portfolio reviews of Advisory and Upstream, including monthly reports, deep dive sessions with management and other data dissemination.
• Play a pro-active role in identifying performance flags from the Upstream/Advisory portfolio, make recommendations for improvements and escalate issues as needed to the CUACS Regional Focal Point, Regional Management or Results Measurement.
• Provide analytical/implementation support for regional and corporate cross cutting activities e.g., portfolio/pipeline review meetings, inputs for IORs and briefing books preparation of regional reports, Client Survey, Country Driven Budgeting implementation, etc.
• Deliver training on governance, procedures, systems and best practices, as well as, support onboarding of new managers/directors
• Build relationships with operational/country managers in supporting overall quality improvement initiatives and adherence to governance.
• Identify and suggest recommendations on any cross-cutting concerns raised by project teams that need adjustment (e.g., iPortal, shadow systems and practices, governance issues, reporting gaps etc.).  Share across Asia and global team with goal to improve current/new projects development and processing. 
• Assist with onboarding/mentoring of junior staff/STCs in the team.
• Collaborate with Partnerships, Finance, Results Measurement, Legal and other corporate support functions as needed.
• Support Asia focal point and dept/VPU level on any ad-hoc regional/corporate initiatives as needed.

Selection Criteria

• Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Economics, International Development, or related field and a minimum of 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Prior demonstrated experience and knowledge in providing advisory/upstream operational support and investment operational support strongly preferred.  Includes areas of governance, project/transaction processing and corporate systems.
• Strong knowledge of operations (including products), particularly with industry operations is desired.
• Knowledge of IFC systems (iPortal, etc) a plus.
• Experience in or knowledge of project design and project management.
• Working knowledge of WBG and IFC strategic priorities/directions (Evolution Roadmap. Corporate scorecard, etc).
• Expertise in standard Office software and systems, particularly Excel and PowerPoint. Familiarity with a range of other systems (including AI) and software is welcome.
• Proven success in developing and maintaining strong client relationships, intellectual leadership, and organizational effectiveness.
• Ability to closely collaborate across IFC, partnering with functions in operations and corporate units to develop solutions, ensuring quality, efficiency and timeliness in the delivery of initiatives.
• Self-starter with strong problem-solving, conceptual, and analytical skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including ability to interact with people at all levels and capacity to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary team environment.
• Ability to work effectively in situations of high demand/pressure and tight deadlines; and demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Excellent written and oral English communication and presentation.
• Practices CORE World Bank values of Impact, Integrity

Source: https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=27505&site=1