Associate Product Owner

Associate Product Owner

Job #: req38514 Organization: World Bank Group Sector: Information Technology Grade: GF Term Duration: Term Staff (TERM-TR) Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 11/5/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

At the World Bank, a member of the World Bank Group (WBG), you'll join a diverse, global community working across cultures, disciplines, and borders to address the world's most pressing development challenges. With 1.2 billion young people reaching working age in the decade ahead, the challenge of job creation has never been greater. Through partnerships across 145 countries and more than 182 offices worldwide, we work with governments, private sector, development partners and other stakeholders to invest in people, strengthen markets, and deliver scalable, data-driven solutions that generate more and better jobs and improve lives. For more information, visit https://www.worldbank.org/en/who-we-are/ibrd

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

ITS Operations and Country Engagement Department (ITSOE) delivers innovative products and services to frontline staff working on over 6,000 projects throughout every Region and Global Practice. Our teams support and enable Bank priorities, boost operations efficiency and effectiveness, and facilitate Operational knowledge discovery. Our delivery model leverages global expertise, design and architecture, leading technology, and robust processes to deliver business solutions that ensure value for money.

Unit Context

The ITS Country Engagement unit (ITSCE) delivers digital support for global and country-specific products, supports systems aligned with the new Country Engagement model, and provides geospatial solutions for geo-tagging of projects to improve spatial visibility and impact tracking. It also drives the delivery of AI-powered business solutions for regional operations.

The ITSCE unit is looking for a Product Owner to work across its portfolio of country engagement and operational solutions, geospatial platforms and services, and AI-enabled solutions for regional operations. The Product Owner will help translate business priorities into clear product roadmaps and requirements, manage priorities and dependencies across initiatives, and work with cross-functional teams to deliver solutions that address operational needs and provide measurable business value.

Within this context, the Product Owner plays a key role in supporting a portfolio of digital products and capabilities that serve Country Management Units, Regions, Global Practices, and operational teams across the World Bank Group. Working across the ITSCE unit, the Product Owner provides a portfolio-wide perspective, helping align priorities, manage dependencies, identify opportunities for reuse, and ensure investments deliver maximum business value. The role works closely with business stakeholders, operational teams, architects, engineers, and delivery partners to connect business needs with product strategy and execution.

Operating across multiple product areas, the Product Owner is responsible for maintaining visibility across products, data, workflows, and shared capabilities to ensure solutions evolve in a coordinated, scalable, and user-centered manner. The role helps drive consistency across the portfolio, reduce duplication, strengthen alignment between initiatives, and support informed prioritization and investment decisions.

Specific Responsibilities:

• Own and drive priorities, roadmaps, and delivery plans across assigned ITSCE products and capabilities and contribute to cross-unit initiatives and priorities across ITSOE.
• Partner with business stakeholders to understand priorities, confirm requirements, identify opportunities, and ensure products deliver measurable business value.
• Manage and prioritize product backlogs across multiple initiatives, balancing business demand, strategic priorities, delivery capacity, dependencies, and risks.
• Maintain visibility across products, business processes, data assets, and technology capabilities to identify overlaps, dependencies, integration opportunities, and areas for simplification within ITSCE and across related ITSOE products and capabilities.
• Define product requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and success measures in collaboration with business and technical teams.
• Coordinate delivery across engineering, architecture, data, security, and user experience teams on department level to ensure timely and high-quality execution.
• Drive roadmap planning and release prioritization, ensuring alignment with business objectives and portfolio priorities in alignment with other teams.
• Support unit-level planning and governance by providing recommendations on priorities, trade-offs, dependencies, risks, and investment decisions.
• Work with peers from across ITSOE units to identify and advance opportunities for integration, reuse, and alignment across products, platforms, data, and workflows.
• Facilitate stakeholder engagement, communications, demonstrations, and feedback sessions throughout the product lifecycle.
• Identify opportunities to improve operational effectiveness through process simplification, automation, shared capabilities, and better use of technology.

Selection Criteria

• Master's degree in business, STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), computer science, or a related field, with a minimum of five (5) years of relevant experience; or a Bachelor's degree with a minimum of seven (7) years of relevant product ownership experience.
• Demonstrated product ownership experience in ITSOE, including working across products, business areas, and technology teams to deliver integrated solutions and business value.
• Commits to delivering products that maximize business value through the management of product design, innovation, and lifecycle in accordance with Agile processes.
• Ability to collaborate closely with business stakeholders to identify and shape demand, strategize opportunities, and drive the development and delivery of IT products across multiple business and product areas.
• Recommended Certifications in SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager and/or SAFe DevOps Practitioner.
• Demonstrated ability to perform advanced-level research and analyses in the field of specialization and oversee complex products, platforms, initiatives, or processes, with limited supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to work across multiple stakeholders, priorities, and workstreams, balancing competing demands and managing dependencies across teams.
• Demonstrated ability to provide knowledge-based guidance, coaching, and training to more junior staff within the job area, serving as a technical resource for other professionals.
• Ability to identify opportunities for alignment, simplification, integration, and reuse across products, processes, data, and technology capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, proficiency in creating concise reports, and presentations.
• Strong presentation and collaboration skills with a proven record of leading meetings and influencing stakeholders in multicultural environments.
• Passion for innovation and staying up to date with the latest technological trends.
• Ability to learn quickly and adapt to changing priorities.
• Able to take personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results and has the personal organization to do so.

As the World Bank Group continues to evolve, we value candidates who:

• Demonstrate the ability to collaborate effectively across teams, disciplines, cultures, and institutional boundaries.

• Responsibly leverage digital and AI-enabled tools to enhance productivity, learning, and decision-making.

• Bring experience working in fragile, conflict-affected, and violent (FCV) contexts and are encouraged to highlight relevant experience in their application materials, where applicable.

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.