Investment Officer, Financial Services SectorJob #:
req39418
Organization:
World Bank Group
Sector:
Investment
Grade:
GG
Term Duration:
Open-Ended Staff (OPEN-OP)
Recruitment Type:
International Recruitment
Location:
Washington, DC,United States
Required Language(s):
English
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date:
12/2/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
The Knowledge Bank Prosperity VPU is responsible for coordinating WBG's financial sector engagement with the aim of fostering inclusive growth, strengthening financial systems, and mobilizing private investment. Within the Prosperity VPU, FSS1 focuses on regulatory frameworks and market infrastructure, working primarily through the World Bank to support governments in strengthening the enabling environment for financial sector development - including banking regulation, capital markets oversight, and financial system stability. FSS2 is oriented toward scaling IFC's private sector business, directly supporting financial institutions through investment, advisory, and upstream engagements. FSS2 seeks to maximize development impact by scaling banking, insurance, capital market, and other financial sector solutions for key thematic areas, such as MSMEs, women, agribusinesses and sustainable infrastructure. Together, FSS1 and FSS2 form an integrated platform - one that can accompany a country's financial sector from regulatory reform through to private capital deployment, ensuring that development impact is achieved at both the systemic and transactional level.
The FSS2 department plays a central role in IFC's engagement with financial institutions across emerging markets, deploying a mix of investment and advisory services to support the development of sustainable and inclusive financial systems.
To strengthen strategic leadership and enhance the quality and coherence of IFC's financial sector portfolio, FSS2 is seeking an Investment Officer at the GG1 level to support the Front Office of the FSS2 Director. This role combines high-level strategic thinking with operational execution, supporting the Director in shaping FSS2's strategic agenda, ensuring the quality of priority transactions, strengthening collaboration across the World Bank Group, and developing innovative, scalable solutions that generate new business opportunities and development impact.
Duties and Accountabilitiesa) Strategic Advisory and Stakeholder Engagement
Support the Director in shaping and refining FSS2's strategic direction for financial sector engagement. This includes:
• Supporting FSS2's overarching strategy for financial sector operations, including identification of emerging opportunities, market gaps, and areas of competitive advantage for IFC in client markets.
• Developing and advancing strategic areas of collaboration with the World Bank to deliver integrated public-private sector solutions that combine upstream policy and regulatory reforms with downstream investment and advisory services to deepen financial markets and accelerate progress toward emerging market development priorities.
• Acting as a key liaison between the FSS2 Director and internal stakeholders across investment, advisory, upstream, economics, treasury, legal, ESG, and sector teams.
• Preparing strategy notes, briefing materials, and decision-support documents for the Director's use in senior leadership engagements.
• Supporting the Director's engagement with external stakeholders, including clients, investors, regulators, development finance institutions, industry associations, and other strategic partners, by preparing briefing materials, as well as coordinating participation in high-level forums and conferences.
b) Quality Oversight of Tier 3 (T3PC) Projects
Review T3PC investment transactions submitted to the FSS2 Director's office. Responsibilities include:
• Providing substantive, constructive feedback to project teams on the quality of key project documentation prior to Director sign-off.
• Providing a strategic assessment of T3PC projects' alignment with FSS2 priorities, coordination with related initiatives across WBG, overall business case and financial viability, and opportunities for innovation, replication, and scale. Flagging issues of strategic concern, development impact gaps, or structural weaknesses that warrant further attention before a project advances.
• Maintaining an overview of the pipeline to ensure the Director is well-informed about emerging risks, patterns, and opportunities across the portfolio.
• Coordinate across key project functions, including investment, credit, E&S, integrity, legal, and other relevant stakeholders, as needed to proactively identify and resolve issues arising during project review and approval processes.
c) Business Development and Innovation
Work with regions to identify and advance projects with the potential to create scalable impact and new business models for FSS2. This includes:
• Working with regions to develop innovative investment project concepts that address systemic market gaps in emerging market financial sectors, with a focus on scalability and replicability across client markets.
• Leading cross-functional and cross-regional teams in the design, structuring, and early implementation of such projects, ensuring strong coordination with relevant IFC industry groups, regional departments, and World Bank counterparts.
• Supporting knowledge management and lessons learning across the department by codifying insights from project experience and ensuring they inform future work.
Selection Criteria
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in emerging markets finance, focusing on the banking and capital markets sectors. Preference will be given to candidates with 10 or more years of relevant experience.
• Master's degree in international development, economics, finance or related fields.
• Familiarity with IFC and World Bank operations, products, and processes is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience working at the intersection of public sector policy reform and private sector investment, including the ability to bridge upstream and downstream interventions, is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated knowledge of financial institutions, capital markets, impact investments, and understanding of emerging market challenges.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment, responding rapidly to evolving priorities and time-sensitive requests from senior management, the Board, and other key stakeholders, while maintaining high-quality outputs and sound judgment.
• Experience working across multiple geographies and coordinating diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with banking clients, asset managers, private credit funds and multilateral partners to develop specific investment opportunities in the financial sector globally.
• Ability to interact directly and independently with C-level management of potential clients, of financial and technical partners, as well as other stakeholders.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills and ability to present ideas clearly and confidently.
• Strong interpersonal skills, ability to interact effectively with clients, colleagues and other stakeholders from various cultural backgrounds
• Fluency in English is required, other languages a plus.
Note: This internal requisition is open to WBG and IMF staff only (including short-term and extended term consultants/ temporaries). External candidates are requested not to apply. In case an external candidate applies, their application will not be considered.
As the World Bank Group continues to evolve, we value candidates who:
- Demonstrate the ability to collaborate effectively across teams, disciplines, cultures, and institutional boundaries.
- Responsibly leverage digital and AI-enabled tools to enhance productivity, learning, and decision-making.
- Bring experience working in fragile, conflict-affected, and violent (FCV) contexts and are encouraged to highlight relevant experience in their application materials, where applicable.
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.
