WBG Young Professional

Are you ready for a career with a lasting impact? The World Bank Group’s Young Professionals Program (YPP) offers exceptional professionals from around the world the opportunity to apply their specialized technical expertise, broaden their experience, and contribute to solutions to some of the most pressing development challenges. Young Professionals (YPs) work across the World Bank, IFC, MIGA, and ICSID in support of our mission to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. For more than 60 years, this highly competitive program has selected outstanding professionals to contribute to the institution’s work and develop as future leaders in global development. We seek candidates who demonstrate strong leadership potential, exceptional technical skills, and a clear commitment to our mission and values. As a YP, you will collaborate with colleagues across disciplines and institutions, applying your expertise to help address pressing development challenges and improve lives around the world. YPs join the World Bank Group on an initial two-year term contract, renewable subject to satisfactory performance. During this period, YPs complete three eight-month rotations: one with their primary function and area of expertise, one cross-institutional rotation, and at least one rotation based in a country office. These assignments enable YPs deepen their technical and operational knowledge while gaining experience across different areas of the institution. Through the YP Academy, YPs undertake a structured learning and development journey that includes technical and operational training, language programs, negotiation and business skills, and leadership development. They also receive individual coaching, connect with mentors, and participate in strategic dialogues with senior leaders. The unit generates rigorous evidence and works with governments, operational teams, and development partners to use data, advanced analytics, experimentation, and research to improve public policy and development outcomes. The department builds systems that generate, organize, and apply evidence to decision-making, supporting adaptive problem-solving, institutional learning, and the World Bank Group's Knowledge Bank ambition. The unit operates across the full knowledge cycle, from evidence generation and organization to operational delivery, replication, and scaling. Its work combines applied economic research, data science, artificial intelligence, and field implementation to help teams determine what works, for whom, under what conditions, and how promising solutions can be adapted and scaled cost-effectively. What You’ll Deliver • Design and implement applied research embedded in World Bank operations, using randomized and quasi-experimental methods to determine what works, for whom, and under what conditions. • Develop, test, deploy, and maintain data and AI applications tailored to development contexts, moving solutions from prototype to operational use by World Bank teams and government counterparts. • Support LEADS engagements, including portfolio design workshops, learning agendas, rapid experiments, A/B tests, and evidence-based adaptation of projects and programs. • Assess whether evidence-backed solutions are ready to scale, require further adaptation and testing, or are not suitable for replication in a specific context. • Build predictive and analytical models that inform targeting, implementation, replication, adaptation, and scaling decisions. • Work with administrative, survey, geospatial, satellite, text, audio, and other non-traditional data, including data generated under real-world operational constraints. • Contribute to DECDI's institutional platforms and global public goods, including LEADS, ImpactAI, and MEGA, to make evidence and analytics accessible within World Bank workflows. • Apply responsible AI and sound data governance practices, including privacy and data protection, bias and robustness testing, model evaluation, reproducibility, and clear documentation of limitations. • Produce decision-oriented outputs, including analytical products, academic papers, policy briefs, presentations, technical documentation, and training materials. • Collaborate with government counterparts, operational teams, researchers, engineers, and field staff, and help build client capacity through workshops and training programs.