E T Consultant - Data Scientist

World Bank Group; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The World Bank Group seeks dynamic Data Scientist Extended Term Consultants to drive outcome measurement, analytics, and AI-enabled tooling across portfolios. Based in Washington, DC, you will bridge data science with development operations, contributing to strategic decision-making and executive delivery.

You will collaborate across teams, develop indicators, forecast portfolio trajectories, and build visual dashboards for senior leaders, with emphasis on evidence-informed change and

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a quantitative field related to data science or development.
• 5+ years of professional data science, analytics or M&E experience.
• Fluent professional English with strong communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and refine outcome indicators, data collection, cleaning, and QA for portfolio level results.
• Forecast portfolio trajectories and monitor strategic targets with data-driven insights.
• Design and build AI-enabled analytics tools and data pipelines for outcomes measurement.
• Author methodological notes and guidance to support standardized reporting.
• Create executive dashboards and concise briefs for senior leadership.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Education

Master’s degree in Data Science, Economics, Statistics, or related field

Tools

Python

SQL

R

Stata

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

E T Consultant - Data Scientist

Description

Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) provides a unique opportunity to help client countries solve their great-est development challenges. The 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, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development on a livable planet. With 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.

Office of the Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer

The Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer (MDCKO) oversees the World Bank Group's knowledge and partnership agenda and helps ensure that the institution's analytical and operational work responds to the most pressing development challenges facing client countries and global partners. The office plays a key role in shaping the WBG's strategic direction, supporting key partnerships with shareholders, development agencies, academia, and other stakeholders, and strengthening how knowledge, evidence, and learning inform development impact. With the launch of the Knowledge Bank at the start of 2026, the WBG is deepening its focus on one of the areas client countries value most: global knowledge on what works, where, and why. The Knowledge Bank is intended to bring global expertise closer to country challenges, strengthen collaboration across sectors and institutions, and help scale practical solutions that can improve lives, create jobs, and support better development outcomes.

About the Department for Outcomes

The Department for Outcomes is a corporate delivery and change team at the center of the World Bank Group's shift from measuring activity to managing for impact. Its mandate is to make outcomes visible, comparable, and actionable so that leaders and teams can understand where the institution is changing lives, where progress is off track, and what needs to change next. The Department leads the implementation of the World Bank Group Scorecard as an accountability, management, and communications tool. It develops and improves outcome indicators, methodologies, and targets in areas such as jobs, climate, private capital, gender, and youth; provides quality assurance; and connects outcome ambitions to knowledge, operations, and financing. Through its Outcome Measurement and Outcome Delivery units, the De-partment combines corporate reporting with portfolio analytics, forecasting, regular stocktakes, and action plan-ning across the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA. The Department also has a growing global role. It convenes multilateral development banks, development agen-cies, researchers, and external experts to improve and align outcome approaches, build institutional capacity, and modernize the profession of results measurement. Its work reaches from project-level data to senior management decisions, and from new methodologies inside the World Bank Group to shared approaches across the internation-al development system. Technology and innovation are core to how the team works. The Department develops AI-enabled analytics, data pipelines, forecasting models, interactive visualizations, and decision-support products that turn large and com-plex datasets into clear choices for operational teams, senior management, and external stakeholders. A piece of analysis is not considered finished when it is technically correct; it is finished when it helps improve a decision, a process, or a development outcome. The culture is entrepreneurial, collaborative, and demanding. The team moves quickly because the needs are ur-gent, tests ideas early, learns from users, improves continuously, and expects high standards from concept through delivery. It values intellectual curiosity, rigorous analysis, direct communication, ownership, thoughtful risk-taking, and the readiness to challenge established practices. Young talent has been a major source of the Depart-ment's innovation and rapid delivery; the selected Data Scientist ETC will be expected not only to contribute to the agenda but to help shape it.

Position Context

The Department for Outcomes is seeking dynamic, versatile Data Scientist Extended Term Consultants (ETCs) who operate fluently across code, evidence, strategy, and executive delivery. The successful candidate will com-bine strong data science and quantitative research skills with knowledge of development operations and a passion for evidence-informed decision-making and institutional change. The position offers direct exposure to corporate strategy, high-level leadership decision-making, and the global ecosystem of multilateral development banks (MDBs). This single selection process is designed to select and hire up to four (04) Data Scientist ETCs, subject to candi-date profile, technical screening, and interview evaluations. Selected candidates will be mapped across workstreams within the Outcome Measurement and Outcome Delivery units, based on business needs. Selected consultants will join the team on-site at WBG Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

What You’ll Deliver

• Indicator Methodology, Design & Quality Assurance: Support the development, testing, and refinement of outcome indicators and methodologies at both the project and portfolio level. This includes end-to-end data collection, data cleaning, exploratory analysis, and rigorous quality assurance of WBG Scorecard indicators, as well as conducting manual and automated reviews of results frameworks in operational project documents (e.g., Project Appraisal Documents [PADs], Implementation Status and Results Reports [ISRs], and Imple-mentation Completion and Results Reports [ICRs]) when required.
• Outcome Targets & Predictive Forecasting: Support the formulation and regular monitoring of outcome targets to inform evidence-based decisions on corporate strategies and operational portfolios. Responsibilities include in-depth reviews of strategy and project documentation, curation of outcome datasets, application of statistical and forecasting techniques to project future portfolio-level trajectories, and synthesis of strategic findings.
• AI for Outcomes Engineering & Tool Development: Actively contribute to the AI for Outcomes program by designing, building, evaluating, and maintaining analytical tools, data pipelines, and intelligent products. This includes engineering applications powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning to strengthen outcomes measurement, extract operational insights from unstruc-tured text, and support evidence-based decision-making.
• Methodological Notes & Guidance Development: Author and contribute to methodological notes, indicator reference sheets, and technical guidance documents. Ensure quality assurance of results data by drawing on leading research and evaluation methods used across MDBs and international partners, directly strengthening the credibility, consistency, and comparability of reported outcomes.
• Portfolio Analytics & Strategic Executive Insights: Analyze outcome metrics from across WBG operations, aggregate portfolio results, and monitor where and how the institution is delivering on its development com-mitments. Extract actionable insights and strategic signals to feed into corporate decision-support platforms utilized by WBG Senior Leadership.
• Executive Visualization & Strategic Communication: Translate complex, multidimensional analytical findings into clear, visually compelling, and consulting-style deliverables. This includes crafting high-level executive slide decks, briefs, interactive dashboards, talking points, and briefing memos tailored for senior management, technical peers, and non-specialist audiences.
• Thematic Workstreams & Action Plans: Contribute to the rollout of outcome-related corporate action plans and cross-cutting thematic work (such as jobs, climate, private capital mobilization, women, and youth) in close collaboration with Regional operational teams, vertical Vice Presidencies, IFC, and MIGA.
• Stakeholder Convening & Global Partnerships: Support the Department’s convening, learning, and capaci-ty-building engagements with internal and external stakeholders, including working groups with other multi-lateral development banks, partner development agencies, academic experts, and external advisory bodies such as the Jobs Council.
• Workstream & Project Management: Provide proactive project management support across analytical workstreams, including scoping tasks, coordinating inputs from multidisciplinary teams, tracking milestones, managing delivery timelines, and ensuring outputs meet the highest standards of technical rigor.
• Ad-Hoc Program Delivery: Contribute flexibly to additional emerging work program priorities, rapid-response analytical requests, and corporate initiatives of the Department for Outcomes as needed.

Selection Criteria

• Minimum of a master’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Economics, Statistics, Applied Mathemat-ics, Information Systems, Public Policy, Public Administration, International Development, Business Man-agement, or a closely related quantitative field, ideally with a strong concentration in analytics. A Ph.D. is considered an advantage.
• Professional Experience:
• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in data science, analytics, results measurement, monitor-ing and evaluation (M&E), portfolio management, management consulting, development finance, or public policy.
• Prior experience in management consulting or portfolio management with direct exposure to senior executive audiences is a distinct advantage.
• Proven ability to bridge the gap between technical code, data pipelines, and strategic business value for insti-tutional decision-makers.
• Technical & Methodological Competencies:
• Programming & Modeling: High proficiency in Python and SQL (proficiency in R and/or Stata is also an asset). Strong applied knowledge of statistical analysis, predictive modeling, machine learning, NLP, and modern LLM application workflows.
• Data Engineering & Workflow Discipline: Working knowledge of modern software engineering best prac-tices (version control with Git, modular code architecture, rigorous testing, and reproducible analytical work-flows). Experience processing structured and unstructured datasets, interacting with APIs, managing relational databases, and conducting data quality validation. Experience deploying interactive dashboards or end-to-end data pipelines is an advantage.
• Research, Indicators & Evaluation: Solid understanding of empirical research, indicator development, evi-dence sources, and evaluation methodologies, including approaches standard across MDBs and international organizations.
• Operational Literacy: Familiarity with development operations, operational project cycles (PADs, ISRs, ICRs), results measurement frameworks, or the WBG Scorecard is an advantage.
• Visualization & Communication: Advanced skills in data visualization and executive presentation (includ-ing high proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint), with a demonstrated knack for structuring complex data into clean, executive-ready visual narratives.
• Behavioral & Interpersonal Competencies:
• Integrative & Strategic Thinking: Demonstrated capacity to synthesize disparate technical, operational, and qualitative inputs from across sectoral boundaries into an integrated institutional perspective.
• Client Orientation & Delivery Under Pressure: High sense of ownership, adaptability, and an outside-in mindset capable of prioritizing and delivering high-quality products under tight deadlines in a fast-paced en-vironment.
• Teamwork & Collaboration: Demonstrated success collaborating effectively in diverse, multicultural, mul-tidisciplinary teams, serving as an effective bridge between technical engineers and operational specialists.
• Language Skills: Full professional fluency in English (verbal and written) is required. Working proficiency in another official WBG language (French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, or Chinese) is an asset.

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.

As per WBG policy, an Extended Term (ET) appointment is subject to a lifetime maximum of three (3) years. Former and current ET staff who have completed or are in the process of completing their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.

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.