IT Officer, Business Solutions I Job #: req34510 Organization: World Bank Sector: Information Technology Grade: GF Term Duration:ย 2 years 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Sofia,Bulgaria Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 10/15/2025 (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 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 ย
ITS Vice Presidency Context:ย
The Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) enables the World Bank Group to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet by delivering transformative information and technologies to its staff in over 150+ locations. For more information on ITS, see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VTFGffa1Y7wย
Department Context:ย
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.ย
Unit Context:ย
The ITS Country Engagement unit (ITSCE) provides digital support for global and country-specific products, aiding thousands of task teams and country management units in better planning, tracking, and managing their operations, thereby improving country engagement. Additionally, ITSCE enables geospatial capabilities through self-service tools and analytics, allowing teams to monitor project preparation and implementation from anywhere.ย
ย
The ITSCE unit is looking for a Product Owner who is passionate about AI innovation and committed to delivering solutions that meet user needs and business goals and has a strong Agile product management expertise to lead the rapid design and delivery of CMU-focused AI-first solutions. This role focuses on translating business needs into scalable AI products that drive measurable impact.ย
The Product Owner will collaborate with the 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. ย
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.ย
The incumbent will work closely with business stakeholders, product managers, system architects, designers, 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.ย
Product Owner Specific Responsibilitiesย
- Engage with business stakeholders to fully understand their needs and challenges and translate them into viable product requirements and features.ย
- Create product vision, product roadmap and maintain and prioritize product backlog and user stories based on the requirements.ย
-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.ย
- Manage relationships with stakeholders and ensure alignment on product direction.ย
- Deliver regular status updates to clients, identify and address risks, and reflect changes in requirements and priorities.ย
- Plan and execute updates and future releases through a data driven and agile approach.ย
- Prepare and communicate effort and cost estimates, oversee all stages of the product development, and lead the user acceptance testing process.ย
- Assess impact to end users and need for change management.ย
- Develop product KPIs that are measurable, actionable, and aligned with business goals and usersโ objectives.ย
- Actively monitor client needs, industry trends, Bank priorities, KPIs, and user feedback.ย
- Manage vendor engagements to support product delivery and compliance.ย
Selection Criteria
Selection Criteriaย
* Master's degree in business, computer science, or a related field, combined with a minimum of 5 years relevant experience, or Bachelorโs degree with 7 years of product management experience.ย
* Demonstrated expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI), with solid knowledge of machine learning, natural language processing, and AI-driven solution development. Proven ability to translate complex business requirements into impactful AI-enabled product features.ย
* A minimum of 4 years of experience in developing and operationalizing product strategies and managing the full product lifecycle.ย
* A minimum of 3 years of experience in Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and strong understanding of Agile planning tracking tools such as Azure DevOps.ย
* Recommended Certifications in SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager.ย
* Proven track record of successfully developing and launching technology products in large-scale environments.ย
* Experience managing vendor engagements.ย
* Solid understanding of IT development lifecycles and methodologies.ย
* Strong understanding of business goals and the ability to translate them into product requirements.ย
* 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.ย
* Able to use strong interpersonal and teamwork skills to cultivate effective and productive relationships and partnerships across organizational boundaries.ย
* Proven ability to define and track key performance indicators relevant to the product and the business goals.ย
* Mastering data analytics tools to measure client satisfaction, team velocity, and product metrics.ย
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills, proficiency in creating concise reports, and presentations.ย
* Strong presentation and collaboration skills with proven record of leading meetings and influencing stakeholders in multicultural environments.ย
* Passion for innovation and staying up to date with the latest technology trends.ย
* Ability to learn quickly and adapt to changing priorities.ย
* Able to take personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results and has the personal organization to do so.ย
* Proficiency in English.ย
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 theย World Bankย andย IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.