Program Officer

Overview The World Bank Group is seeking a proactive, creative, and highly organized Program Officer to join the Department for Outcomes Front Office. The PO will strengthen knowledge management, learning, engagement, communications, and coordination by capturing, curating, mobilizing, and applying knowledge from the Department's work, partnerships, events, and strategic engagements. The role supports external engagements and missions, the rollout of the Outcomes Solutions Program, university and knowledge partner engagement, internal learning, and the disciplined tracking of commitments and deliverables. Responsibilities Capture, Curate, and Mobilize Knowledge from External Engagements: provide direct support to the Front Office in coordinating and knowledge-enabling the Department\'s external engagement agenda, including the Director\'s external engagements, missions, meetings, and strategic outreach activities; support the planning, preparation, execution, and follow-up of external engagements involving the Director and senior Department leadership; conduct active research and knowledge scanning to identify strategic engagement opportunities with external partners, institutions, universities, thought leaders, and other relevant stakeholders; prepare read-ahead packages, briefing notes, talking points, presentations, background notes, and follow-up documentation that organize relevant evidence and insights in clear, actionable form; capture insights, lessons, commitments, risks, and next steps from meetings, missions, and partner interactions, and codify them in accessible tracking systems and repositories for reuse; mobilize knowledge from external engagements to inform Department priorities, internal learning, partnership opportunities, and follow-up decisions. Support Strategic Communications and Business Storytelling: contribute to internal and external communications by translating the Department\'s outcomes agenda, partnerships, and knowledge into compelling messages and products for different audiences; design, draft, edit, and improve communication products for the Front Office, including briefs, stories, talking points, PowerPoint presentations, event materials, digital content, photography, videos, podcasts, and other multimedia products; use business storytelling techniques to convey complex ideas, results, and lessons in audience-appropriate, well-structured, and persuasive ways; support high-visibility engagement moments through innovative formats that encourage interaction and learning; modify, refine, and integrate new information into existing content to keep materials accurate, relevant, high quality, and aligned with strategic messages; coordinate with relevant teams to ensure consistency of messaging, quality control of materials, and timely delivery across channels. Support the Rollout of the Outcomes Solutions Program through KM and Monitoring: apply project support, monitoring, evaluation, and learning practices to engagements, results, and partnership management; coordinate meetings, outreach, engagement plans, and follow-up related to the Outcomes Solutions Program; track engagements, deliverables, commitments, results, and outcomes using disciplined systems; collect, organize, analyze, and synthesize information from program activities to identify patterns, progress, risks, and opportunities for improvement; prepare inputs for updates, reports, dashboards, presentations, and learning notes that visually represent goals, outcomes, outputs, activities, and indicators; ensure that program knowledge, decisions, lessons, and partner interactions are documented and searchable for future use. Coordinate Stakeholder Engagement and University Partnerships: support the Department\'s engagement with universities, academic institutions, and knowledge partners; map, organize, and maintain information on relevant universities, academic networks, research centers, and knowledge partners; coordinate meetings, seminars, strategic conversations, missions, and follow-up with universities and external partners; develop and maintain stakeholder engagement plans, track feedback and partner interests, and ensure timely, professional, and useful communication; broker knowledge by identifying expertise, resources, and opportunities linked to Department needs and the Outcomes Solutions Program; track commitments, next steps, deliverables, and lessons from partner engagements to strengthen continuity and accountability. Strengthen Information Management, Content Governance, and Quality Control: help the Front Office maintain high-quality knowledge and communication products for the Director and senior leadership; review, edit, and quality-control materials including briefs, notes, presentations, speaking points, and decision materials; establish and maintain systems to track commitments, deadlines, owners, and follow-up actions; apply content management and information management practices to ensure materials are accurate, organized, searchable, and accessible; use metadata and document management practices to reduce duplication and improve retrieval; identify bottlenecks, gaps, and risks and suggest practical improvements to promote cross-divisional coordination. Foster Departmental Learning, Collaboration, and Knowledge Sharing: organize and support strategic internal conversations, retreats, learning sessions, and knowledge-sharing mechanisms; coordinate agendas, materials, logistics, facilitation support, records, and action items for events; apply adult learning and facilitation principles for purposeful and interactive sessions; support communities of practice and knowledge exchange; capture and disseminate lessons learned and follow-up actions; help ensure staff are informed on priorities and tools, contributing to a culture of collaboration and continuous learning. Drive Innovation and Continuous Improvement in KM Practices: apply initiative, creativity, and a service orientation to improve knowledge flows and results using digital tools and innovative formats; identify opportunities to streamline processes, strengthen trackers, and improve information architecture; explore responsible AI-assisted approaches to improve knowledge capture, synthesis, and collaboration; test new formats, gather feedback, and iterate; demonstrate urgency while maintaining quality, discretion, and sound judgment; model empowerment and accountability by anticipating needs and following through. Qualifications A master\'s degree plus a minimum of 5 years’ experience. Demonstrated ability to capture, curate, codify, and mobilize knowledge from diverse sources and translate it into practical products, decisions, and following-up actions. Strong experience supporting projects, programs, or senior leadership workstreams, including planning, coordination, tracking, monitoring, reporting, and risk identification. Excellent written, oral, visual, and digital communication skills, with the ability to develop compelling briefs, presentations, stories, videos, podcasts, and other engagement products. Strong content management, information management, and document management skills, including organizing materials, maintaining trackers, supporting repositories, and improving searchability and reuse. Ability to build and maintain constructive relationships with internal teams, universities, academic networks, knowledge partners, and other external stakeholders. Experience organizing learning events, retreats, strategic conversations, seminars, communities of practice, or other knowledge-sharing activities. Ability to collect, analyze, synthesize, and visualize information to support monitoring, evaluation, learning, management updates, and decision-making. Proficiency with collaboration platforms and digital tools; openness to applying responsible AI and innovative technologies to improve knowledge flows and efficiency. Strong judgment, discretion, attention to detail, and ability to deliver high-quality work under tight timelines in a fast-paced Front Office environment. A proactive, creative, and service-oriented mindset with a strong sense of urgency, accountability, curiosity, and willingness to go the extra mile. Excellent command of English; ability to work effectively across teams, functions, and cultures. WBG Culture Attributes Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results. #J-18808-Ljbffr