E T Consultant

Job #:
req37337

Organization:
World Bank

Sector:
Economics

Grade:
EC1

Term Duration:
1 year 0 months

Recruitment Type:
Local Recruitment

Location:
Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s):
English

Preferred Language(s):
English

Closing Date:
6/30/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

VPU Context: The Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) is the World Bank's central reservoir of fresh insights into the most pressing challenges of development. It is led by the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group, who advises the President and senior managers, serves as the community leader for the WBG's economists, and helps to keep the institution in the forefront of thinking about development policy. DEC constitutes one of the world's largest teams of economists focused on policy solutions for developing economies.

Unit Context:
Located within the Development Economics Vice Presidency, the Development Research Group is the World Bank's principal research department. With its cross-cutting expertise on a broad range of topics and countries, the department is one of the most influential centers of development research in the world.

DECRG experts are often cited by the media, the academic community, and other stakeholders interested in international development. Our researchers also provide support to the World Bank's Regions and Global Practices to help ensure that the institution's policy advice is firmly grounded in current knowledge.

The department produces most of the World Bank's research and enjoys a high international profile. The work of our researchers appears in academic journals, the Policy Research Working Papers, books, blogs, and special publications such as the Policy Research Reports.

More information can be found at https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/unit-dec/research/about

Background & General Description:

The DaTax Lab is a collaborative initiative that brings together researchers and practitioners from across the World Bank Group, spanning research, operational, and regional units, to conduct analytical work using micro-level administrative tax data. Its goal is to support the development of equitable and sustainable public finance systems. The Lab collaborates with tax administrations and Ministries of Finance in over 15 countries globally, working with administrative tax records - including corporate tax filings, VAT records, property registers, and trade data - to produce rigorous, policy-relevant research on the distributional impact of tax systems, firm dynamics, and labor market outcomes. In addition to its research activities, the DaTax Lab provides training for government officials and World Bank staff in working with micro administrative data, contributing to policy design and institutional knowledge sharing.

The Lab's work is characterized by close, trust-based partnerships with national tax authorities, formal data-sharing frameworks that require sustained engagement with counterpart institutions, and multi-year research cycles spanning project design, data governance, econometric modeling, and policy dissemination. Physical presence at World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC is integral to the program's operations, given the need for collaboration with cross-departmental teams, participation in internal peer reviews, and access to secure institutional IT infrastructure and data systems. More information on the DaTax Lab can be found at https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/datax-lab.

The hiring unit for this position is the Development Research Group, DECPY, one of the core institutional teams comprising the DaTax platform, under which the selected candidate will be contracted while collaborating across the broader DaTax Lab community.

Duties and accountabilities:
The E T Consultant will work alongside the team's principal investigators. This position is envisioned as a lead research analyst, meaning the chosen candidate will both undertake tasks as a research assistant for academic papers, policy reports, and other products, as well as assume a leadership role in upholding standards for high-quality, reproducible research. Key tasks will include:
• Causal effects of tax policies.
• Support data access and governance processes, including liaison with counterpart institutions on data-sharing protocols, compliance requirements, and the management of sensitive administrative data environments in accordance with institutional IT security standards.
• Work with the team to develop and maintain high-quality standards of data analytics, including mentoring junior research assistants on coding best practices, implementing new standards of research reproducibility, and supervising the quality of academic and policy outputs.
• Contribute to the dissemination of research findings through data visualization, policy reports, blog posts, and presentations to World Bank teams and external partners (donors, government partners).
• Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the research, government, and Bank project teams, with particular attention to the multi-year project cycles and client-facing research commitments characteristic of the DaTax portfolio during the July 2026-June 2027 implementation phase.
• Develop and maintain relationships with relevant partners, including tax administration officials, and understand their operational questions and capacity needs to implement research and data analytics projects effectively.
• Assist in drafting and writing presentations, analytical reports, research and policy briefs, and funding proposals.
• Assist in the supervision of Research Assistants supporting the portfolio, and mentor them closely on interaction with the government, data collection, monitoring of implementation, and preparation of detailed work plans.
• Participate in official missions and deliver capacity-building and training activities for clients, particularly in the context of strengthening the analytical capabilities of tax administration partners.
• Identify new research opportunities within the DaTax portfolio and contribute to funding proposals.
• Organize workshops with development partners to build capacity and disseminate results.

Selection Criteria

The successful candidate will have the following:
• Master's degree in economics, public policy, statistics, or a related field and at least 2 years of relevant experience in quantitative research or analytical work (including previous experience as a research assistant during studies).
• Advanced knowledge of programming in R or Stata, particularly with packages focused on fast computation in large datasets (data.table, collapse), is essential. Intermediate knowledge of Stata is also required, as it is the tool most frequently used by government partners.
• Experience programming in a collaborative environment, particularly using Git/GitHub; working in other languages such as Python and SQL; working on remote servers (Unix Shell); and/or use of RMarkdown on research projects are an advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to work across projects and different team compositions is key.
• Work experience as a Research Assistant or in a similar role is highly desirable.
• Technical expertise in impact evaluation (design and implementation) is desirable.
• Experience analyzing administrative data, particularly tax micro-data, in developing countries is desirable.
• Experience with public finance and/or taxation projects - including familiarity with data-sharing frameworks between research institutions and tax authorities - is highly desirable.
• Physical presence in Washington, DC is required for collaboration with cross-departmental teams, participation in internal peer reviews, and access to secure institutional IT infrastructure and data systems.

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.