Manager, Corporate Business Solutions (ITSCB) chez World Bank Group

Description

Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) provides a unique opportunity to help client countries solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending poverty on a livable planet. 

With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, the World Bank Group works with public and private partners, invests in groundbreaking projects and uses data, research, and technology to develop solutions to pressing global, regional and local challenges. For more information, please visit http: http://www.worldbank.org..

The organization has undertaken an ambitious exercise to revise its mandate, products and structure to adjust to the multiple, intertwined crises affecting the world today (see Evolution Roadmap), in the move to becoming a better Bank.

Business Unit Overview

The mission of the Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) is to leverage information and technology as a force multiplier to accelerate, deepen, and sustain development impact. Their vision is to harness information and technology for a world free of poverty on a livable planet. For more information on ITS, check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VTFGffa1Y7w. 

Department Context

The WBG Corporate Solutions Department (ITSCO) is focused on the digital transformation of essential corporate services to ensure WBG operations are seamless, resilient, and future‑ready. Uniting digitalization roadmaps, experience design, process optimization, application delivery, systems management, and technology modernization across some 170 products and services, the department links business ambition with operational excellence—from intuitive employee experiences and precision payroll to data-driven decision making, intelligent automation, and AI enablement. Operating from Washington, Chennai, Sofia, and Singapore in a global delivery model, the team seeks to combine disciplined strategic planning with focused roadmaps, agile product delivery, design‑forward innovation, digital engineering, automation, and AI to produce solutions that are engaging, impactful, and efficient. The goal is a unified, OneWBG corporate backbone—streamlined, connected, and adaptive—that empowers leaders, staff, partners, and shareholders with the processes, capabilities, and insights to advance the WBG's mission at scale.

The department comprises of four distinct but complementary units which work closely together to deliver on the department's mandate:

- Corporate Digital Acceleration unit: Accelerates digital transformation for corporate business functions through design thinking, digital innovation, rapid prototyping, reimagining processes, and AI enablement, e.g. AI-first work digitalization strategies.

- Corporate Experience Solutions unit: Delivers optimal digital experiences for WBG employees, clients, partners, shareholders, and beneficiaries through engaging, effective, and user-centric solutions, e.g. intranets, self service, work productivity and decision-support systems.

- Corporate Business Solutions unit: Enables critical corporate business processes and functions of the WBG through accurate, efficient, and resilient back-office systems, e.g. ERP systems supporting human resources and budget functions.

- Corporate Digital Backbone unit: Creates an autonomous digital backbone for the orchestration of data, transactions, processes, and insights across the diverse corporate portfolio, e.g. application modernization, technology debt reduction, efficient data exchange, enterprise integration, automated business processes, and agentic-AI.

Unit Context

The Corporate Business Solutions unit, within the department, will serve as both the steadfast guardian and an active innovator of the World Bank Group’s most essential corporate back‑office business processes and the technology systems that support them—those critical capabilities that underpin the organization’s ability to operate efficiently and with integrity. The unit will oversee vital corporate systems such as personnel administration, global payroll, benefits, tax, pension, budget and planning, cost and expense management, internal audit, ethics and justice processes, heath services, and other essential corporate services. These operations—and their supporting platforms—demand uncompromising accuracy, confidentiality, and resilience, operating in environments where reliability is non‑negotiable. Through rigorous governance, assurance, and compliance practices, the unit will ensure these processes and systems remain stable, secure, and audit‑ready—while simultaneously advancing modernization to drive automation, integration, and greater institutional value. The six teams that fall under this unit include:

- Personnel, Compensation, & Benefits Management: Responsible for core personnel lifecycle, employee compensation, and benefits management for the WBG's global workforce.

- Global Payroll & Taxes: Provides secure and compliant payroll and tax platforms, incorporating automation, self-service, and regulatory best practices to ensure accuracy and transparency.

- Pension Management: Responsible for the WBG's pension systems including end-to-end solutions for WBG retirees.
Budget & Costs: Delivers financial planning and cost management solutions, embedding industry-leading practices in flexible budgeting, cost management, forecasting, reporting, predictive analytics, and AI-based insights.

- Procurement: Manages end-to-end procure-to-pay systems including sourcing, purchasing, contracting, and payments leveraging workflows, automation, spend analytics, and supplier relationship best practices.

- Case Management: Helps WBG units to track, manage, and resolve issues and sensitive cases through modern case management platforms, ensuring privacy, accountability, and measurable service-level performance.

Balancing precision with progress, the Corporate Business Solutions Unit will combine strong operational discipline and proactive risk management with a forward‑looking agenda for continuous improvement. This includes adopting modern technologies to streamline and standardize processes, integrating systems and data flows to support better analytics, insight, and agility, and automating transactional activities to create capacity for higher‑value strategic work, including through responsible agentic-AI. By safeguarding the Bank’s core operational backbone while reimagining how it can be made more efficient, connected, and adaptive, the unit will maintain the trust, efficiency, and integrity on which the institution depends—while positioning its back‑office functions to be not only resilient but also future‑ready in service of the Bank’s global mission.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Manager, Corporate Business Solutions combines strategic vision, product leadership, and agile delivery to lead the World Bank Group’s portfolio of core corporate business systems, ensuring secure, compliant, and resilient operations while driving process efficiency, systems integration, and innovation.

The Manager will work closely with the Director and other Managers in the WBG Corporate Solutions department to ensure business transformation priorities, product and systems development, and technology capabilities are aligned and connected to maximize impact, efficiency, and value. The primary roles and responsibilities for this position include:

Leadership & Strategic Planning

- Drive and deliver the strategic direction for the unit’s product and technology investments aligned with the WBG's business goals through the creation of well-defined product roadmaps and solution architectures, that comply with product management and agile software delivery best practices (e.g. design thinking, SAFe).

- Partner with business leaders and key stakeholders to generate thought leadership, strengthen engagement, and co-create investment priorities and roadmaps consistent with leading technology governance and investment frameworks (e.g. SAFe LPM).

- Lead the planning, delivery, and lifecycle management of core enterprise platforms, including ERP — spanning finance, HR, procurement, personnel administration, payroll, benefits, internal audit, and related back‑office systems.

Delivery, Efficiency, & Continuous Improvement

- Accountable for delivery, optimization, and continuous improvement of mission‑critical systems (human resources, budget and planning, corporate procurement, etc), ensuring cost effective and timely delivery and measuring reliability and value.

- Build a culture of product quality and technical excellence by implementing modern software delivery practices, updating technology solutions, driving down costs, and improving measurable value and quality metrics across the portfolio (e.g. lead and cycle times, failure rates, velocity, and customer satisfaction).

- Oversee solution architecture, system design, and integration to ensure seamless interoperability across corporate platforms, eliminating duplication and enabling streamlined processes. Embed process efficiency and automation into system improvement plans, reducing manual work, reducing operational costs, and enhancing service delivery. Key platforms include PeopleSoft Oracle ERP, SAP ERP, Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Azure, multiple SaaS and enterprise cloud solutions, and a host of custom applications.

- Achieve delivery excellence and ensure all portfolio initiatives, including the capital budget program, are managed to budget, timelines, and expected quality standards by understanding, quantifying and communicating impact, milestones, interdependence and value measures and playing a leadership role in managing risk, removing impediments, and ensuring interventions and escalations are meeting the overarching goals of the organization.

- Accelerate innovation across the portfolio through the proactive and aggressive implementation of new digital capabilities, including automation and AI, throughout both the product portfolio and ways of working, to scale impact, drive efficiency, and accelerate impact. Drive adoption of modern, user‑centric approaches such as Human‑Centered Design, Design Thinking, Agile, Sprints, Systems Thinking, and Strategic Foresight to accelerate time‑to‑value.

- Proactively assess and mitigate risks across availability, security, business continuity, data integrity, and regulatory compliance through well‑defined controls and incident planning, and ensure successful compliance with audit requirements, e.g. ICFR.

People Management & Culture Leadership

- Lead and develop a high‑performing, globally distributed team (Washington, Chennai, Sofia, Singapore, and other locations), setting clear objectives, coaching for growth, and enabling career development and succession planning.

- Increase organizational resilience by equipping staff with the mindsets, tools, and support systems needed to adapt to continuous changes, maintain productivity under uncertainty, and recover quickly from disruption. Emphasize innovation as a skill, a growth mindset, urgency, transparency and accountability in all that is done.

- Own the unit's adoption of the SAFe methodology to drive delivery, including the creation of ARTs, agile teams, and other agile conventions.

- Foster a psychologically safe, trust-based environment where feedback and diverse perspectives are encouraged and valued.

- Serve as a core member of the ITS management team, actively contributing to strategic planning and cross-organizational transformation initiatives. Fulfill fiduciary responsibilities, including cost optimization, budget management, and staff development.

Within the first year, this leader will deliver the following:

- Assess the Corporate Business Solutions team and identify opportunities for improvement.

- Deliver product roadmaps and solution architectures for the ten largest products in the unit's portfolio.

- Successfully deliver the capital program assigned to the unit

- Define a target state and roadmap for the Peoplesoft ERP system.

- Deliver on the integrated planning solution for the WBG.

- Deliver on the modernized corporate procurement solution for the WBG.

- Establish well functioning agile teams within the unit and effective collaboration across the department.

Selection Criteria

In addition to having a strong work ethic and unquestionable integrity, the selected leader will have the presence to establish immediate credibility with managers, peers, and a complex group of stakeholders. They will possess outstanding intellect, leadership and analytical abilities as well as excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills. A successful candidate will possess qualifications such as:

* Master’s degree in computer science, business, or related disciplines, and post-graduate coursework or certification in large-scale ERP product management, solution architecture, and application delivery with at least ten years of experience in a global IT organization, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

* Ten-plus years in ERP management, solution architecture, application delivery, for enterprise-scale business systems (human resources, budget and planning, corporate procurement, etc.), delivering reliable, efficient, and secure experiences for back-office business units.

* Proven ability to define and execute roadmaps aligned to business priorities, leveraging agile delivery, process design, and modern development practices to achieve measurable outcomes.

* Proven expertise in ERP system design, integration, and lifecycle management, including aligning technology platforms with global standards and business priorities. Demonstrated ability to drive process efficiency, automation, and robust data governance across foundational business functions (finance, HR, procurement).

* Proven expertise in designing solution architectures and thorough knowledge of technical processes and life cycle methodologies (Agile, DevOps) from project management to software development and execution using modern application frameworks, including AI and automation.

* Proven track record managing risk, business continuity, security, and compliance for critical business systems; ensuring safety, reliability, and efficient operations, including governance and change management; and managing and passing audits (e.g. ICFR).

* Deep experience with Oracle PeopleSoft ERP, SAP ERP, Microsoft Sharepoint Online, Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Azure, and other leading enterprise cloud technologies.

* Proven experience leading multidisciplinary, technical, distributed teams and vendors, building high-performance cultures focused on impact, iteration, and continuous improvement with global scaled agile IT delivery model.

* Proven ability to effectively partner with business stakeholders and vendors to build strong partnerships, foster good governance, ensure strategic business/IT alignment, and transform relationships.

* Strong collaborator with outstanding interpersonal and diplomatic skills, including the ability to facilitate, negotiate, and influence successful outcomes. Ability to influence decision makers through collaboration, education, and working partnerships. 

* Strong business acumen and judgment—able to simplify complex concepts, prioritize investments for value, and deliver results under pressure.

* A deep passion for the mission of the WBG.

Certifications

Required:

- Leading SAFe (SA/SAFe Agilist)

- SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM)

Preferred:

- Digital Transformation certification

- Change Management certification

- Azure Fundamentals certification

- Certified Agile Practitioner (e.g. SAFe, Scrum Master)

- Lean Portfolio Management (SAFe LPM)

The World Bank Group values diversity and encourages all qualified candidates who are nationals of World Bank Group member countries to apply, regardless of gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.  Sub-Saharan African nationals, Caribbean nationals, and female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.