Digital Specialist, G2Px – Digital Government

Digital Specialist, G2Px – Digital Government Job #: req33527 Organization: World Bank Sector: Digital Development Grade: GF Term Duration: 4 years 0 months Recruitment Type: International Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 7/1/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank consists of two entities – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). It is a global development cooperative owned by 189 member countries. As the largest development bank in the world, the World Bank provides loans, guarantees, risk management products, and advisory services to middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, and coordinates responses to regional and global challenges. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org.

Digital Transformation Vice Presidency

The Digital Transformation Vertical Vice Presidency was established on July 1, 2024, and guides 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 through two engagement pillars, six business lines, and multiple cross-cutting areas: 

• Digital Core: Building digital infrastructure through broadband network, affordable devices; Enhancing data infrastructure including data centers, cloud solutions and data governance; Enabling AI and cutting-edge technology applications; and Protecting institutions, businesses, and citizens through cybersecurity, data protection & privacy, trust services as well as online safety.
• Digital Use: Supporting the Regions and the Verticals of People, Prosperity, Planet, and Infrastructure in the digitalization efforts of clients through Digital Government (digital public infrastructure, digital government services, and digital literacy and training), Digital Economy (national ICT planning, ICT industry and jobs, and smart infra and industry) and Digital Society (digital school, digital health, etc.). 
Both pillars are the channels through which the Vertical supports World Bank achieving its objectives in cross-cutting areas like jobs and skills, climate and green, fragility, conflict and violence, and gender and inclusion. 

Digital Government Unit  

This unit develops the World Bank's approach to the following areas:

• Digital Public Infrastructure: Furthering the development and adoption of safe and inclusive digital public infrastructure (DPI) to underpin digital services across the public and private sector. This includes providing support on the development of overall DPI strategies, building specific systems according to DPI principles, and integrating DPIs into high-impact services across sectors. Under the Identification for Development (ID4D) and Digitalizing Government-to-Person Payments (G2Px) Initiatives, this workstream focuses on a core set of DPIs—digital identity and civil registration, trust services such as e-signatures, and data sharing and governance—and DPI use cases related to G2Px payments. The unit also serves as the anchor for the World Bank Group’s new Global DPI Program, which works across 13 departments and institutions and unites the work of ID4D, G2Px, and Project FASTT in the Finance, Competitive, and Innovation Department.
• Digital Public Services: Promoting the transformation of public services in the digital age through an integrated approach to service delivery and key enablers of digital government. This includes supporting the development of multi-channel access points such as mobile applications and single sign-on; building integrated service layers for interoperability; strengthening leadership and policy for whole-of government digitalization; supporting digital capacity and change management for public sector agencies; promoting digital-ready policy and regulations; integrating service-design methods; and collecting performance data to strengthen feedback loops for service improvements. 

The Unit closely collaborates and coordinates with relevant Units of the Prosperity, People, Planet, and Infrastructure Verticals, the Development Economics Group, and across the World Bank Group to design and deliver its work program. The Unit will engage through Regional Vice-Presidential Units and County Management Units to support clients.

The G2Px initiative, launched in early 2020, contributes to the broader agenda of improving G2P payments through digitization by shifting the paradigm beyond program-specific efficiency gains to one that simultaneously accelerates critical development outcomes such as financial inclusion, women’s economic empowerment, resilience and government fiscal savings. G2Px is a collaboration across the World Bank, including global practices and units working on digital development, social protection, financial inclusion, payment systems, governance, gender, agriculture, social inclusion, health, data protection, and research, among others. Through this initiative, the World Bank (WB) will establish a global framework, develop best practices and provide upstream technical assistance to radically improve G2P payments globally, ensuring that all such payments aim and design for broader inclusion and empowerment outcomes through a focus on digitization. In addition, the work aims to influence work by other development partners, humanitarian agencies, and international organizations working on G2P, social protection, and humanitarian payments broadly. 

The G2Px Initiative focuses on three mutually reinforcing pillars of work: (1) Country action – where cross-sectoral World Bank teams to provide technical assistance to over 40 countries on how to improve their delivery of G2P payments; (2) Thought leadership and analytics – to provide guidance and advance our understanding of what works and doesn’t when designing digital G2P payments architectures; and (3) Networks & Convening – to share good practices and coordinate across partners to support the development of the digital G2P global agenda. 

Key Responsibilities: 
The roles and responsibilities include but not limited to:  
• Provide strategic and operational inputs to the cross-GP initiative and ideate on new areas of work.
  o Support with translating the strategic guidance provided by the Director Working group into actionable program(s) to be implemented by the participating Departments /Global Themes and sectors, and in consultation with external partners.  
  o Identify and integrate emerging initiatives and technologies—such as agentic AI, tokenization, programmable infrastructure, and decentralized architectures—into the evolving work program to ensure digital solutions remain future-ready, scalable, and responsive to shifting citizen expectations and technological trends.
  o Closely monitor progress in the implementation of the work program and prepare comprehensive progress reports for donors, highlighting key achievements and challenges.
• Manage the day-to-day implementation of the initiative including monitoring and coordinating grants. 
   o Systematically monitor progress with G2Px grants for country implementations and analytical products, ensuring timely updates to the trackers and briefs that the initiative maintains as well as ensuring compliance with World Bank policies and procedures.  
   o Maintain and regularly update project management and tracking tools (e.g., Monday.com) to monitor the status of country-level activities, analytical products, and deliverables.
• Facilitate country implementation of cross-sectoral solutions to digitalizing G2P payments.
  o Coordinate the G2Px-supported country engagement portfolio, including implementation support for digital payment systems and foundational DPI components (e.g., ID, data sharing). 
  o Provide guidance across the program cycle—from diagnostic and co-design to scale-up and iteration—ensuring digital G2P and DPI/DPS solutions are built to be modular, interoperable, and citizen-centered.
  o Apply human-centered design methods (e.g., design thinking, participatory co-creation, agile delivery) to ensure solutions are inclusive and aligned with user needs and government capacity.
• Support the rollout of digital public infrastructure and services.
  o Contribute to the design and implementation of DPI components across payments (G2P, G2G), digital ID, trust services, and data-sharing platforms.
  o Support sectoral integration of digital public services in social protection, education, health, agriculture, and other priority areas.
  o Communicate with clients and effectively implement business model innovations in the practical application of DPI/DPS delivery. 
  o Help country teams apply emerging global practices and adapt solutions to fit institutional and infrastructure realities.
• Support the adoption of innovative practices in service design and delivery models into practice.
  o Advocate for adaptable, forward-compatible DPI systems and digital government service model implementation that meet today’s needs while remaining resilient to future shifts, ensuring digital solutions are future-ready, scalable, and responsive to evolving technological trends and citizen expectations.
  o Adopt human-centered design approaches—including design thinking, participatory design, and agile delivery—to ensure services are inclusive, usable, and responsive to citizen needs.
  o Focus on future-proof digital infrastructure by integrating modular architecture, open APIs, and interoperability standards into delivery efforts.
  o Serve as a technical translator to bridge communications between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders, helping interpret complex requirements and implementation tradeoffs. Digest complex technical concepts into practical, actionable insights for country teams and government stakeholders, ensuring relevance and feasibility.
  o Scan the trends in financial technology, digital inclusion, digital government and translate them into insights for service delivery innovation (e.g., agentic wallets, programmable payments, etc.).
• Contribute to the development of knowledge in the digital G2P agenda.
  o Develop, contribute to and shepherd--in collaboration with other WB departments--analytical reports, technical and policy briefs, and other knowledge products to help countries and other development partners better understand and implement the good practices and design principles that G2Px advocates for. 
  o Ensure these products provide practical, actionable guidance for teams, government clients, and external partners.
  o Development of tools, templates, and architectural frameworks to support scalable DPI and DPS implementations across regions.
• Contribute to the development of “How to?” implementation toolkits and guidance in the digitalization of G2P payments.
  o Translate findings from country engagements and analytics into practical “How to?”  implementation toolkits and templates for internal and external audiences.
  o Represent G2Px and the broader Digital Government Unit in stakeholder dialogues, forums, and global platforms to strengthen partnerships and influence the global DPI and digital government agenda.
• Contribute to other programmatic work as required.
  o Work collaboratively with adjacent programs to provide technical support and strategic inputs.
  o Bring a future-focused lens and user-first mindset to all workstreams, helping governments adapt to evolving technology and citizen expectations.

Selection Criteria

• Master’s degree in public policy, finances, economics, information technology/information systems, or related field.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in a similar role. 
• In-depth experience working on financial inclusion, gender, social protection, digital development, or payment systems in a developing country context, with familiarity or hands-on experience supporting DPS delivery.
• Proven experience with program management, donor coordination, and results reporting, including tracking multi-stakeholder workstreams across sectors.
• Demonstrated expertise in G2P payment processes, including an understanding of operational bottlenecks and recipient-side barriers (e.g., access, usability, trust) that may affect uptake or impact.
• Strong ability to apply or support human-centered design methods (such as design thinking, user journey mapping, or service prototyping) to improve the usability and effectiveness of digital systems and services.
• Demonstrated ability to translate technical concepts into actionable guidance for non-technical audiences, and to serve as a \"technical translator\" across government, private sector, and development actors.
• Interest in or familiarity with emerging technologies (e.g., AI, agentic systems, digital wallets, programmable payments) and a future-proofing mindset to support governments in building resilient, adaptable digital infrastructure and services.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical and policy concepts into accessible material for diverse audiences (e.g., government clients, donors, technical teams, and non-technical stakeholders).
• Strong interpersonal skills, with demonstrated capacity to work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams and across institutional boundaries.
• Ability to operate independently, exercise sound judgment under pressure, and proactively engage senior staff when faced with complex issues or trade-offs.
• Sensitivity and adaptability to work in multicultural environments and with clients and colleagues from diverse backgrounds.

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of Urgency – Anticipating and quickly reacting to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful Risk Taking – Taking informed and thoughtful risks and making courageous decisions to push boundaries for greater impact.
3. Empowerment and Accountability – Engaging with others in an empowered and accountable manner for impactful 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 the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.