Senior Digital Specialist - Digital Skilling

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The World Bank Group is a unique global partnership of five institutions driven by a bold vision to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. As one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, we help solve the world’s greatest development challenges. When you join the World Bank Group, you become part of a dynamic, diverse organization with 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide. We work with public and private sector partners, invest in groundbreaking projects, and use data, research, and technology to bring tangible and transformative change around the globe. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

 The Digital Transformation Vertical Vice Presidency was established on July 1, 2024, and guides the 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.

The Digital Economy and Society unit within the Digital Public infrastructure (DPI) and Services department of the Digital Vice Presidency helps client countries turn digital access into meaningful human and economic outcomes. The Digital Society agenda focuses on ensuring that digital transformation benefits everyone through inclusion, resilience, and innovation, by expanding access to digital opportunities, building skills, promoting locally relevant content, and strengthening human capital delivery systems.

Duties and Accountabilities: The Senior Digital Specialist for Digital Skilling will provide program leadership in the design and delivery of digitally enabled skilling initiatives across sectors, ensuring solutions are scalable, inclusive, and aligned with labor market needs.

The Senior Digital Specialist will:

• Provide program leadership on the design and implementation of digitally enabled skilling initiatives that equip youth and workers with the competencies required for the digital economy including digital, technical, vocational, and soft skills.
• Support governments in scaling the use of digital platforms and tools for skills development across multiple sectors (education, health, agriculture, workforce programs).
• Work with other units of the Digital Vertical, mobilize the wider ecosystem, including device manufacturers, telecom operators, financiers, training providers, and platform/content providers, to enable large-scale skilling through sustainable access, device-financing models, and collaborative approaches.
• Influence sector policies and strategies to embed digitally enabled skilling as a national and cross-sector priority.
• Structure and manage public–private partnerships that expand access to scalable platforms, content, and credentials.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategy and Policy Advisory

• Support governments in developing and implementing sectoral and national policies and strategies that prioritize skills development through digital technologies.
• Advise on governance, quality assurance, and financing models for digitally enabled skilling ecosystems.
• Promote integration of digitally enabled skilling into broader human capital, workforce, and economic development agendas.

2. Program and Ecosystem Design

• Lead the design of scalable, digitally enabled skilling programs across sectors.
• Ensure programs address ecosystem enablers such as devices, connectivity, financing schemes, interoperability standards, and local content.
• Provide program leadership and inputs to Bank-financed operations and support monitoring and evaluation of skilling outcomes.

3. Partnerships and Resource Mobilization

• Build partnerships with technology firms, telecom operators, training providers, financiers, and donors to support skilling programs.
• Structure public–private partnerships that mobilize financing and expand access to devices, platforms, and content.
• Facilitate collaboration between governments, employers, and innovators to align training with labor market demand.

4. Knowledge and Learning

• Lead or contribute to flagship reports, toolkits, and case studies on digitally enabled skills development and ecosystem approaches.
• Capture and disseminate lessons from Bank operations and cross-country programs.
• Monitor global trends in digital platforms, AI-enabled learning, micro-credentials, and modular training, and assess relevance for LMICs.

5. Inclusion and Equity

• Ensure digitally enabled skilling initiatives expand opportunities for youth, women, and underserved groups.
• Promote innovative approaches (e.g., device-financing schemes, community hubs) to expand access in low-resource and low-connectivity contexts.