WBG Director, Education and Skills Job #: req35069 Organization: World Bank Sector: Education Grade: GI Term Duration: 4 years 0 months Recruitment Type: International Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 12/17/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
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.worldbankgroup.com
VPU Context:
The WBG People Vice Presidency is responsible for getting the right public and private sector solutions to our operational teams and to our clients, and to produce scalable impact. Its mandate is to deliver knowledge for impact and business to enable and support the WBG to achieve its goals in support of our mission and specifically: providing guidance on creating more and better jobs; supporting foundational infrastructure and human capital, policy environment, and private sector mobilization; focusing on agribusiness, healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing, and tourism; and support and accelerate specific targets such as M300, Health 1.5bn, and SP 500. The VPU’s objectives in driving outcomes include replicating and scaling effective solutions, enhancing thought leadership and innovation, and delivering timely knowledge to client teams.
WBG Director Education and Skills:
WBG Director, Education and Skills, People will report to the WBG Vice President, People who is accountable to IBRD/IDA, IFC, and MIGA Managing Directors. The Department is comprised of 2 Managers and 50 staff.
Duties and accountabilities:
The WBG Director for Education and Skills, People will lead a diverse and multidisciplinary team of staff with skills from across IBRD/IDA, IFC, and MIGA institutions and business contexts. The WBG Global Director will report to the World Bank Group Vice President, People.
The WBG Education and Skills Director is responsible for delivery of the new Education and Skills Strategy. The Strategy rests on four interconnected pillars: getting children off to the right start by expanding access and quality of early childhood development; ensuring all children learn and stay in school by improving foundational learning; building job-relevant skills throughout the lifecycle by modernizing skilling systems to create individualized, market-driven learning pathways; and putting skills to work by developing agile digital labor market systems that provide credentials to workers and connect them to opportunities in priority sectors.
The WBG Global Director will be accountable for modeling WBG leadership values and managerial behavior and ensuring that the unit delivers on its commitments. Accountability means being answerable for making strategic choices, managing quality, risks, results, institutional initiatives, external and internal resources, and compliance with WBG policies and procedures.
Key responsibilities include:
Strategic Leadership:
• Provide vision and direction for the WBG Education and Skills department to deliver thought leadership (policy and regulations) and scaling and replication (solutions and impact) for public and private sector clients that helps to unlock private sector financing and drive impactful change.
• Lead the implementation of the Education and Skills Strategy as a WBG initiative in close partnership with Social Policy and other Departments.
• Lead new WBG approach to thought leadership and scaling for the Education and Skills department, including driving organizational change.
• Mobilize and lead Policy and Regulations and Solutions and Impact teams and ensure alignment between the two functions: (1) produce, curate, validate, and share knowledge with operational teams, clients, and partners, and (2) capture, scale, and replicate innovations. Monitor the impact of solutions.
• Establish the Education and Skills Department as a thought leader in education finance and analytics, including the new Policy and Governance Review for Education.
• Lead the development of sector and industry strategies and assist in mobilizing private finance for clients.
• Collaborate with WBG Directors of other sectors, verticals, and horizontals, Regions, and with DEC to deliver multi-sectoral solutions in Education and Skills.
• Represent the VPU on WBG corporate strategic issues.
Operational Delivery
• Support pipeline and project development across Regions, ensuring that the most promising WBG development solutions get scaled and replicated, in partnership with Regions.
• Oversee the delivery of timely, high quality advisory services led by Vertical teams to public and private sector clients.
Relationship Management:
• Foster a culture of partnership and trust, whereby all internal and external parties appreciate the mutual benefits of working together.
• Lead coordination and collaboration with public and private sector partners across the WBG institutions and globally to strengthen delivery of solutions for impact.
• Strategically engage with and manage senior-level relationships with governments, the private sector and other key stakeholders.
Global Engagement:
• Lead global engagement efforts, including participation in global education fora, G7/G20, COP, UNGA, and other advocacy and partnership initiatives.
• Position the WBG as a global thought leader by understanding and influencing major directional trends (e.g., on education finance).
Internal Engagement and Capacity Building:
• Engage with operational counterparts to support a culture of WBG knowledge and delivery of joint public and private sector solutions to clients. Build internal understanding of WBG Education and Skills, People strategy, solutions and accountability framework.
• Empower teams to work with WBG regions to develop client capacity, including facilitating \"south-south\" learning. Enhance the quality of client work, particularly for high-risk projects, and increase contestability across the WBG.
Knowledge Management and Communications:
• Cultivate an environment of openness that encourages innovation and rewards knowledge sharing and dissemination to drive impact.
• Support country teams to apply global knowledge and adapt them to local contexts, incorporating complexities of local political economy.
• Disseminate best practices and lessons learned and manages learning and knowledge flows, including full suite of WBG products and solutions.
• Ensure the implementation of the access to information policy.
• Lead on communicating the results of engagements internally and externally, in coordination with the communications team.
• Build a strategic, focused and selective program of analytical and knowledge work that responds to the priorities of WBG clients and responds to global challenges, develop engagement and dissemination efforts that support take-up and use of knowledge for results.
• Lead efforts to collect, curate, validate and disseminate Education and Skills data, including contributions to the Data360; and work with partners (e.g. UN agencies) to support data for policy making in Education and Skills.
• Help clients scale proven solutions, and design, implement and deliver training, learning and capacity building programs for staff and clients, including through the WBG Academy.
People/Talent Management:
• Model exemplary WBG leadership values and managerial behavior and reinforces these qualities in the management team and staff
• Lead, mentor, and support a high-performing teams of WBG Education and Skills professionals. Foster a culture of rigor, inclusion, collaboration, and ethical leadership.
• Drive and encourage technical excellence within the team by creating an environment of learning and innovation that attracts and develops the best talent reflective of the diversity of our clients.
• Foster and lead a strong and collaborative management team including Regional and Global Managers and working closely across the WBG.
• Coordinate talent management efforts across the WBG.
• Lead talent review for Education and Skills-mapped staff and support performance and talent mobility by convening and chairing regular meetings of all WBG Managers that manage and advise on the career of Education and Skills-mapped staff. This body also focuses on ensuring that technical staff maintain sharp and current technical skills while being exposed to an ample set of experiences – operational, analytical, and leadership.
• Serve as member of the Education and Skills Leadership Team who along with People Directors in the Regions support talent management and career development for staff in People and ensure a technically strong and diverse pipeline for technical and managerial leadership across the institution.
• Coordinate and support management in developing and implementing appropriate strategies for global staffing, deployment, staff learning and development as well as career progression and talent and performance management.
Resource Management:
• Manage the department’s budget to support the implementation of the Directorate strategy.
• Ensure Management accountability for delivering the agreed-upon work program through cost-effective use of resources (human and budget) within the agreed parameters and in compliance with internal WBG fiduciary and safeguard controls and policies and ensures timely delivery and overall quality of the region’s outputs.
• Ensure implementation of an appropriate risk management framework to meet unit’s objectives.
Selection Criteria
The ideal candidate for the role of WBG Global Director for Education and Skills will be a seasoned executive with a deep understanding of Education and Skills, strategic leadership in complex organizations, and the credibility to operate independently while influencing at the highest levels of both government and the private sector.
Required qualifications and experience:
• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Education, or a related field, with a minimum of 15 years of experience in positions of increasing responsibility and complexity.
• Recognized leader in the field of Education and Skills Development, either within the World Bank Group or externally (e.g., development institutions, government, private sector, academia), with a proven track record of applying technical and operational knowledge to deliver impactful, sustainable development outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to engage at senior levels with government counterparts, private sector leaders, and international stakeholders, and to represent the institution effectively in high-level policy discussions and global forums.
• Proven thought leadership on education and skills—reflected in strategic influence, internal advisory roles, public speaking, or recognized contributions to research, policy development, or operational reform.
• Significant field-based experience working in client countries across regions, with deep familiarity with WBG operations and policies, or comparable areas in other international financial institutions or regulatory bodies.
• Demonstrated ability to work across institutional and disciplinary boundaries, with experience coordinating across sectors and with diverse stakeholders—including Education and Skills teams—to build consensus and drive results.
• Extensive experience in managing complex, multi-institutional portfolios, including responsibility for strategy, staffing, budgets, and performance oversight of large-scale or complex programs.
• Proven track record of building and managing teams, achieving a mutually supportive, team-oriented mindset across a large unit or units, and creating an enabling work environment that delivers results.
• Proven ability to effectively work with colleagues and integrate the work of multiple business units covering diverse activities.
• Proven capability to lead and implement organizational change and reform initiatives, with a focus on improving efficiency, accountability, and clarity in roles, processes, and institutional culture.
WBG Managerial Competencies
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.
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.