E T Consultant- Data Scientist Consultant, Washington DC

E T Consultant- Data Scientist Consultant Job #: req37769 Organization: World Bank Sector: Disaster Risk Management Grade: EC2 Term Duration: 1 year 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): French, Spanish or Portuguese Closing Date: 8/4/2026 (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 to help clients address their most pressing 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 world’s largest development bank, it 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

Infrastructure Vertical

The World Bank Group (WBG) Infrastructure Vertical provides public and private solutions to operational teams and clients across the WBG to produce scalable impact. Its mandate is to deliver knowledge for impact to support the WBG to achieve its goals in support of our mission and specifically: providing guidance on creating more and better jobs by: (i) supporting foundational infrastructure and human capital, (ii) policy environment, and (iii) enabling and mobilizing private sector capital. With 60 years of experience, the WBG is poised to support the sector becoming an engine of growth and jobs through improving policies and governance, foundational infrastructure and private sector investments. WBG lending in the sector is expected to grow substantially. The Infrastructure VPU’s objectives in driving outcomes include replicating and scaling effective solutions, enhancing thought leadership and innovation, and delivering timely knowledge to client teams.   For more information:

The Disaster Management, Solutions & Impact Unit (KIUSD) supports low and middle-income countries to understand, manage, and reduce their risks from natural hazards and climate change. Within KIUSD, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) umbrella trust fund is a global partnership that helps low- and middle-income countries better understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. GFDRR supports analytics and technical assistance to governments in the most vulnerable countries and communities where it will have the greatest positive impact. As a donor-funded program, GFDRR consults regularly with donors and actively strives to maintain and develop new partnerships for increased impact. For more information:
Please note this position is financed by a Trust Fund and renewal is contingent upon availability of funding, in addition to other factors, including but not limited to business needs, staff performance and skills fit.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

The overall objective of the assignment is to develop and apply in-house resilient infrastructure analytics covering exposure, vulnerability, criticality analyses. 

The Data Scientist will support the Resilient Infrastructure thematic area in GFDRR (RI). The immediate focus is to further develop and apply the “Infrascan” tool, which produces multi-hazard exposure, vulnerability, and risk assessments for infrastructure assets. RI anticipates strong demand for these outputs from World Bank task teams, both for operations and for advisory and advocacy products. The Data Scientist will play a key role in responding to task teams by producing semi-standardized “Infrascan” notes and supporting teams in interpreting and communicating results, including in policy preliminary investment dialogues. On tool development, the Data Scientist will help refine and expand the tool by: adding additional hazards (potentially including drought, extreme heat, and wildfires); increasing automation to make the workflow as close to plug-and-play as feasible across sectors and hazards; and contributing to a bottom-up repository of local datasets covering infrastructure assets, hazards, vulnerability curves, and asset cost estimates.

In addition, the Data Scientist will contribute to other RI workstreams and help catalyze collaboration with other GFDRR thematic areas and relevant analytics produced by WBG teams. This includes: (i) running network analysis tools to assess the impacts of hazard-related transport disruptions at urban and inter-regional scales; (ii) advancing the development and analytics for geospatial “predicted employment” layers based on an existing algorithm; (iii) supporting the application of methodologies to generate extreme event damage scenarios for system stress testing; and (iv) contributing to other RI analytics, including work on cost–benefit ratios of resilience investments and the identification of critical elements required to maintain infrastructure services.

The Data Scientist will be a core member of the RI, providing analytics to support World Bank regional teams and strengthen the systematic integration of resilience into infrastructure-related policy and investment operations, including:

• Take a leading role in the development and application of geospatial and other quantitative tools within RI.
• Support the development and delivery of knowledge products and operational toolkits to enhance capacity of task teams to deliver operations related to resilient infrastructure, including assessing impacts and identifying mitigation measures for climate-related hazards and geohazards.
• Support task teams in communicating results from RI tool applications through presentations, training, talking points, and concise summaries in multiple formats.
• Coordinate with key partners inside and outside the WBG that manage or develop geospatial tools.
• Contribute to program deliverables, including preparation of GFDRR communication and dissemination materials, results monitoring, reporting, budgeting, and branding.
• Deliver presentations and workshops in a variety of settings, including with task teams, government counterparts, and internal and external events.
• Carry out other tasks, as needed, to support the overall objective of the position.

Selection Criteria

1)Master’s degree in a related field (e.g., data science, engineering, applied mathematics, or GIS). A PhD is preferred.
2)At least five years of progressively responsible professional experience (internships excluded), with a focus on the economics or engineering of resilience, climate change adaptation, or infrastructure.

Technical expertise:
3)Strong programming background with demonstrated geospatial and quantitative skills, including fluency in Python, Stata, and R; cloud computing; Google Earth Engine; and open-source GIS software (e.g., QGIS).
4)Experience in statistics, economics/econometrics, and/or network analysis is strongly valued.
5)Demonstrated experience processing and analyzing hazard and exposure data, and interpreting physical asset vulnerability models.
6)Excellent problem-solving abilities, especially in debugging and refining code.
7)Relevant project-management experience, including managing a software vendor and delivering technology-oriented products (e.g., dashboards or websites).

International & Interpersonal Skills:
8)International experience and demonstrated ability to work in diverse, multicultural environments are required.
9)Strong analytical skills, ability to think strategically, analyze and synthesize data and information and communicate this to diverse audiences.
10)Strong problem-solving skills and proven ability to apply these in carrying out research and operational tasks, presenting findings and recommendations, and contributing to resolution of sector and/or country issues.
11)Knowledge of the World Bank key Resilience and Disaster Risk Management priorities and programs is a plus but not essential.
12)Excellent organizational skills with ability to work under tight deadlines and handle multiple requests simultaneously, while being detail oriented.
13)Excellent written and spoken English is essential; knowledge of other languages—especially Spanish, French, and Portuguese—is highly desirable.

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

As per WBG policy, an Extended Term (ET) appointment is subject to a lifetime maximum of three (3) years. Former and current ET staff who have completed or are in the process of completing their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.

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.