E T Consultant โ Broadband and Digital Infrastructure Job #: req34837 Organization: World Bank Sector: Digital Development Grade: EC2 Term Duration:ย 1 year 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 12/6/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
The Digital Transformation Vertical Vice Presidency was established on July 1, 2024, and guides the World Bank Group efforts to establish the foundations of a digital economy, build and enhance digital and data infrastructure, ensure cybersecurity and data privacy for institutions, businesses, and citizens, and advance digital government services. Digital technologies, including AI and data, present a unique opportunity to accelerate development. The Digital Transformation Vertical has the critical mission of delivering on this development promise. The Digital Vice Presidency and its global and regional teams support client countries in building the foundational and cross-cutting elements of digital transformation.
The Connectivity and Data Infrastructure (DTFCD) unit, under the Digital Foundations Directorate, plays a pivotal role in helping client countries build the foundational infrastructure needed for digital economies and societies. DTFCD focuses on strengthening broadband connectivity, device and data affordability and data infrastructure to ensure that individuals, businesses, and governments can access and benefit from digital transformation. The unitโs work is guided by the principles of affordability, reliability, interoperability and inclusivity, with a strong emphasis on closing the digital divide and enabling cross-sectoral digital integration.
Duties and accountabilities: The Connectivity and Data Infrastructure (DTFCD) is looking for an Economist (ETC) to support analytics, insights across key themes of broadband access and affordability, and datacenters/cloud services. The selected economist will in particular cover the following thematic focus areas: (i) taxation and duties pertaining to mobile devices and mobile services as well as wider sectoral taxation and fees on equipment, licensing, permitting, etc. (ii) broadband policy, infrastructure and market diagnostics and toolkits, and (iii) affordable device access and other demand side measures to promote broadband adoption and inclusion.
Key duties and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to the following areas:
- Developing and curating global knowledge, thought leadership, and advocacy materials on broadband access and affordability, particularly on taxation (taxes and duties) related to the mobile sector, device affordability, data/broadband services affordability, and broadband policy and regulation.
- Supporting client engagement and operations through (i) developing and conducting broadband sector diagnostics, including geospatial mapping of broadband infrastructure using relevant software and (ii) conducting and supporting analyses of device affordability barriers in countries and working with teams to identify and design appropriate solutions, including by reviewing relevant project documents.
-ย Conducting and supporting data-driven economic analyses related to broadband connectivity and devices including impact modeling of policy reforms and market interventions.
- Supporting corporate priorities and management by contributing to strategic documents, events, and briefing materials in the focus areas mentioned above and the broader broadband access and affordability and datacenters/cloud agenda, as needed.
Selection Criteria
- Masterโs degree in engineering, economics, public policy, technology, business administration, international development, or any other related field.
- A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience, including in economic analysis and research, data science.
- Proven expertise in the field of telecoms/broadband infrastructure development and/or policy, particularly taxation and device affordability.
- Excellent analytical, writing and editing skills in English, including the ability to speak articulately and persuasively.
- Familiarity and experience with various quantitative and qualitative research methods, especially econometric methods, survey design, and data science, is required.
- Proficiency in Stata and/or Python is required; proficiency in other statistical and programming software is a plus.
- Strong results orientation, persistence, patience, and positive attitude.
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
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Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET appointment of three years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.