Manager, WBG Technology Innovation Office Job #: req33763 Organization: World Bank Sector: Information Technology Grade: GH Term Duration:ย 3 years 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 8/22/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
The World Bank Group (WBG) 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 and promoting shared prosperity on a livable planet. With 189 member countries and more than 150 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.ย For more information, visit www.worldbank.org
Business Unit Overview
The mission of the Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) is to leverage information and technology as a force multiplier to accelerate, deepen, and sustain development impact. Our vision is to harness information and technology for a world free of poverty on a livable planet.
WBG Technology Innovation Office (ITSTI) Overview
The WBG Technology Innovation Office began as the ITS Innovation Lab by examining Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in June 2017. It has since broadened its scope to include AI, IoT, quantum computing and other emerging and frontier technologies.
Today, the ITSTI Office serves as a catalyst and accelerator for innovation powered by technology, with the goal of achieving large-scale development impact. It provides a platform for collaboration, a hub for knowledge, and an accelerator to facilitate experimentation, prototyping, and the integration of frontier technologies and innovative business models and approaches within the WBG. ITSTI collaborates with stakeholders to explore and expand new capabilities for the WBG, driving development at scale through partnerships and frontier tech-enabled innovation.
ITSTI accelerates the adoption of transformative technologies and provides expertise, experimentation space, and guidance for innovative business solutions using emerging and frontier technologies in Cybersecurity, Blockchain, AI, IoT, 5G, Physical AI, Edge AI, Spatial Computing/Intelligence, Quantum Technologies, and more by applying design thinking, foresight, systemsโ design and transformation, and agile and lean start-up methodologies and approaches.
ITSTI promotes learning, collaboration, and innovation by developing and nurturing partnerships with both internal WBG teams and external business partners. It uses multi-pronged engagement strategies across WBG and works with development institutions and tech organizations. ITSTI adds value at events through presentations, panel discussions, research papers, knowledge sharing, tech-innovation advisory and organizing joint innovation initiativesโhelping advance technology-innovation Thought leadership in the development sector. For more information, visit WBG ITS Technology Innovation Office.
Duties and Responsibilities
Position Overview
ITS is seeking a manager to lead the WBG Technology Innovation Office (ITSTI). The ITSTI Manager will oversee the ITSTI Office and unit, reporting to the WBG CIO, and managing strategic technology innovation initiatives that support development impact in service of the WBG mission. This role involves working alongside ITS Leadership and Management team peers to achieve the goal of integrating innovation as a core enterprise capability.
ITSTI contributes to the ITS strategic agenda by delivering โInnovation as a Service,โ enabling ITS and WBG staff and teams to utilize the office's knowledge, skills, technology stack, and tools for innovation across WBG.
Core Responsibilities
Leadership & Strategic Planning
- Develop and implement technology innovation strategy aligned with organizational business priorities.
- Lead strategic planning for the technology innovation portfolio, ensuring integration with broader ITS institutional and technology strategy priorities.
- Participate in ITS senior leadership meetings and strategic reviews to drive organization-wide outcomes.
- Interface with senior business leaders/management to provide project updates, manage expectations, and resolve critical issues/concerns.
Program Delivery & Innovation Management
- Lead and oversee the development of Technology Innovation as an enterprise capability, which includes conducting Innovation maturity and readiness assessments to establish target maturity levels, assess current status and gaps, and define programs and initiatives to address those gaps, barriers, and resource requirements.
- Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of Technology Innovation Office and lab management processes, operating models, talent frameworks, skill development initiatives, and methodologies that position innovation as a fundamental competency. This enables the ITS organization, including portfolio and product teamsโto effectively support key Agile and Digital Transformation objectives.
- Oversee the end-to-end innovation work program, manage delivery and resources across all initiative lifecycles.
- Lead technology-innovation proof-of-concepts, Prototypes, TI-ld advisory (Design sprint and Futures) engagements and integrate innovations and learnings into improved enterprise service delivery, knowledge repositories and operating models.
- Oversee technology-enabled project delivery through cross-functional collaboration with ITS, WBG corporate and operations teams.
- Promote and drive adoption of innovation methodologies including Human-centered Design, Design Thinking, Sprint methodologies, Agile, Systems Thinking, and Strategic Foresight.
- Apply emerging technologies (AI, Web3, Blockchain, IoT, Quantum Computing, etc) to address development challenges as key to embedding Technology Innovation at the core.
- Ensure efficient resource utilization and timely delivery within budget parameters, institutional guardrails (architecture, security, risk) and corporate compliance requirements that accelerate and increase value to the mission.
Operations & Team Management
- Lead multi-location workforce (DC and Korea), managing recruitment, performance, career development, and succession planning.
- Coordinate operations between headquarters and regional innovation hubs.
- Foster an inclusive, high-performance culture focused on learning, accountability, and team effectiveness.
- Manage ITSTI budget and ensure compliance with financial policies.
- Oversee the management and optimization of the ITSTI Lab, Technical environments, equipment asset management and operations i.e. updating and maintaining ITSTI Sandbox.
- Oversee legal and procurement processes for technology partnerships and equipment.
- Collaborate with HR on talent strategies, compensation, and organizational development.
- Foster a healthy, trust-based work environment, conduct effectiveness assessments, and lead performance reviews.
Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement
- Establish and manage a trusted ecosystem focused on innovation-centric partnerships.
- Represent WBG technology innovation at strategic forums, both internally and externally, within IT and international development sectors.
- Establish and manage key WBG stakeholder relationships and engagements across WBG corporate and operations units; including development of strategic relationships with newly established units and departments such as in the Digital Vice Presidency, Innovation Vertical, Knowledge, and others.
- Build and maintain trusted relationships with key external stakeholders, including government officials, private sector leaders, and development partners.
- Engage with partners from public and private sectors, universities, innovation labs, and entrepreneurial/start-up communities.
- Lead contract negotiations and manage intellectual property strategy, technology licensing, and risk management frameworks, collaborating with Legal, Risk, Procurement, and other institutional counterparts on Innovation-centric topics and issues.
- Work closely with Procurement on due diligence processes for technology partnerships, licensing, and vendor relationships.
Knowledge Exchange & Collaboration
- Lead collaboration among innovation ecosystem players, including central banks, regulatory agencies, donor organizations, academia, think tanks, and development partners.
- Facilitate the development and experimentation of technology solutions and knowledge exchange through partnerships with startups, university labs, and entrepreneurial communities.
- Oversee the design and delivery of innovation initiatives such as hackathons, catalyst teams, challenges, design/decision sprints, TI-led Technology advisory and technical prototypes.
- Establish systems for innovation documentation and dissemination of best practices tailored to audience needs.
- Develop methodologies, toolkits, playbooks, and training materials to build and scale enterprise innovation capacity.
- Provide research support and technological guidance to stakeholders, integrating innovation insights into organizational knowledge systems and collaborating with external networks to adopt global best practices.
Technical Domain Expertise
- Deep understanding of institutional technology strategies and international development environments, including key priorities and operational challenges.ย
- Track record of leading, developing, and coaching technical teams including software engineers, solution architects, data scientists, infrastructure and emerging technology specialists (AI/ML, Robotics, Spatial, IoT, Mobile & Device infrastructure).
- Demonstrated technical expertise in previous technical roles, hands-on experience in software development, systems architecture, and emerging technology implementations.
- Experience in establishing and operationalizing technical standards and development processes to ensure quality deliverables. This includes conducting technical assurance of deliverables, undertaking code reviews, defining interoperability practices and standards, and scaling from experimentation to larger scale pilots and operations of innovative technology solutions.
- Technical problem solving with ability to diagnose complex technical challenges and guide teams through technical design, integration and implementation decisions.
- Knowledge of institutional technology strategies and international development settings, including familiarity in addressing limitations in underlying infrastructure, connectivity, and energy access in resource-constrained environments.
- Expertise in digital transformation and technology innovation lifecycles within large enterprises and developing country contexts.
- Broad working knowledge of information technology domains including infrastructure, application development, information security, enterprise architecture, data & analytics, technical project delivery, Agile SDLC, data privacy regulations, and risk management in technology innovation.
- Knowledge of emerging technology-driven business models (platform economies, green/circular economies, etc.).
- Experience and ability to integrate innovative and emerging technologies with existing enterprise systems and infrastructure, with proven experience in directing and conducting technical assessments and due diligence assessments and reports.
Leadership & Business Acumen
- Demonstrated success in technical leadership and mentorship, having developed technical talent through coaching, knowledge sharing and career development planning.
- Strong analytical skills to optimize organizational efficiency and eliminate redundancies.
- Ability to present complex technical concepts to diverse audiences and levels of technical ability, including senior leadership, government officials, and development partners.
- Exceptional conceptual, analytical, and business judgment capabilities.
- Diplomatic approach to identifying cost-effective solutions that meet complex business requirements.
- Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, with ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical audiences.
- Corporate innovation, entrepreneurial or start-up experience preferred.
Relationship Building & Stakeholder Management
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strategic partnerships with diverse stakeholders.
- Experience engaging effectively with senior executives, government officials, private sector leaders, and development partners.
- Track record of creating collaborative multi-stakeholder alliances across public and private sectors.