JOB DESCRIPTION

Product Owner (IT Officer)

Job #: req32485 Organization: World Bank Sector: Information Technology Grade: GF Term Duration: 2 years 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 4/11/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

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 130 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

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

Our vision is to transform how the World Bank Group accomplishes its mission through information and technology. In this fast-paced, ever-changing world, the formulation and implementation of the ITS strategy is an ongoing, iterative process of learning and adaptation developed through extensive consultations with business partners throughout the World Bank Group.

ITS shapes its strategy in response to changing business priorities and leverages new technologies to achieve three high-level business outcomes: business enablement, by providing Bank Group units with innovative digital tools and technologies to transform how they deliver value for their clients; empowerment and effectiveness, by ensuring that all Bank Group staff are connected, able to find information, and productive to accelerate the delivery of development solutions globally; and resilience, by equipping the Bank Group to provide risk-based cybersecurity and robust data protection for a global network and a growing cloud platform.

Implementation of the strategy is guided by three core principles. The first is to deliver solutions for business partners that are customer-centric, innovative, and transformative. The second is to provide the World Bank Group with value for money with selective and standard technologies. The third principle is to excel at the basics by providing a high performing, robust, and resilient IT environment for the organization.

Department Context

The Operations & Country Engagement Solutions (ITSOE) department in ITS deliver’s innovative products and solutions to frontline staff, business partners and clients with a global delivery model.

We are seeking an experienced and versatile Product Owner (IT Officer Business Solutions) to join our growing team. The Product Owner will collaborate with users and business partners to understand and anticipate their needs and translate them into product requirements; define the product vision and use inspection and adaptation to iterate through versions; create a product roadmap; oversee all stages of product creation including design and development; manage the product backlog and prioritize based on changing requirements; and use data to monitor and evaluate product progress at each stage of the process.
The product owner will also write effective user stories and liaise with the product team and end users to deliver updates and participate in scrum meetings and product sprints; use feedback loops to get information about the product from real users and rely on analytics to make data-driven decisions.

The candidate will work closely with business stakeholders, strategists, designers, solution architects, other product owners, and developers with an emphasis on strengthening the client centric service delivery for the related business areas, within the context of best practices in enterprise architecture, modern sourcing techniques, modular design of solutions, and appropriate integration of IT services and platforms.
We are looking for an individual who will bring a sense of client and product obsession to the team and who will ensure that our solutions meet or exceeds expectations and deliver tangible business value.

Specific Responsibilities

• Engage with business stakeholders to fully understand their needs and challenges and translate them into viable product requirements and features.

• Create product vision, product roadmap and maintain and prioritize product backlog and user stories based on the requirements.

• Drive the product execution to bring the product vision to life in collaboration with solution architects, developers, designers, and other cross-functional teams when applicable.

• Manage relationships with stakeholders and ensure alignment on product direction.

• Deliver regular status updates to clients, identify and address risks, and reflect changes in requirements and priorities.

• Plan and execute updates and future releases through a data driven and agile approach.

• Prepare estimates and communicate costs, oversee all stages of the product development, and lead the user acceptance testing process.

• Actively engage with the Design and the Digital Acceleration teams to monitor and incorporate various needs and requirements, industry trends, and user feedback into the product.

• Assess impact to end users and need for change management.

• Develop product KPIs that are measurable, actionable, and aligned with business goas and users’ objectives.

• Actively monitor client needs, industry trends, Bank priorities, KPIs, and user feedback.

Selection Criteria

• Master’s degree in business, computer science, or a related field, combined with a minimum of 5 years product management experience, or Bachelor’s degree with 7 years of product management experience.

• Strong understanding of business goals and the ability to translate them into product requirements.

• A minimum of 4 years of experience in developing and operationalizing product strategies and managing the full product lifecycle.

• A minimum of 3 years of experience in Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and strong understanding of Agile planning tracking tools such as Azure DevOps.

• Proven track record of successfully developing and launching technology products in large-scale environments.

• Solid understanding of IT development lifecycles and methodologies.

• Proven ability to collaborate with other team members across boundaries and contribute productively to the team’s work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view.

• Able to use strong interpersonal and teamwork skills to cultivate effective and productive relationships and partnerships across organizational boundaries.

• Proven ability to define and track key performance indicators relevant to the product and the business goals.

• Mastering data analytics tools to measure client satisfaction, team velocity, and product metrics.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, proficiency in creating concise reports, and presentations.

• Strong presentation and collaboration skills with proven record of leading meetings and influencing stakeholders in multicultural environments.

• Passion for innovation and staying up to date with the latest technology 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.

• Proficiency in English.

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.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements