Program Manager, Global Program Coordination Unit

Job #:
req37221

Organization:
World Bank

Sector:
Health/Nutrition/Population

Grade:
GH

Term Duration:
4 years 0 months

Recruitment Type:
International Recruitment

Location:
Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s):
English

Preferred Language(s):
French, Spanish

Closing Date:
7/2/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Context and Organizational Unit

The World Bank Group (WBG) is a unique global partnership of five institutions driven by a bold vision to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. As one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, the WBG helps solve the world's greatest development challenges. In 2026, the WBG launched the Knowledge Bank - a WBG-wide institutional transformation that fundamentally reshapes how the institution generates, shares, and applies knowledge across its public and private sector work. The Knowledge Bank is organized around five cross-institutional Verticals - People, Planet, Prosperity, Infrastructure, and Digital and AI - each bringing together IBRD/IDA and IFC teams under a unified structure to develop enabling policies and scale proven solutions. The People Vice Presidency promotes investment in people and delivers knowledge for impact across health, education and skills, and gender to build human capital and drive economic growth and job creation, using the Jobs Framework approaches that improve infrastructure, policies, regulations, and private capital.

Global Health Directorate

The Global Health Directorate leads the WBG's health agenda, partnering with governments and the private sector to strengthen health systems, improve health outcomes, and accelerate progress to expand access to quality, affordable health care. It provides intellectual leadership, technical expertise, and operational support to country teams working across the full spectrum of health system challenges, supporting regional teams to deliver on the Bank's corporate health commitments - reaching 1.5 billion people with quality, affordable health services and building resilience in 66 countries - while supporting the creation of more and better jobs.
The Directorate is led by a Global Director supported by two Practice Managers that oversee the Policy & Regulations (P&R) and Solutions and Impact (S&I) Units, as well as a Front Office responsible for strategy, partnerships, risk management, external and internal engagement, and talent and budget management.

The Health Policy and Regulation team within the Global Health Directorate is responsible for the normative, policy, and regulatory frameworks that underpin the WBG's global health agenda. It houses four dedicated programs: Mission 1.5 Billion Health Beneficiaries (health service delivery, health financing, and healthy longevity); Policy and Regulation of Mixed Health Systems (PPPs, health sector value chains, and the Health for Jobs agenda); Mission 66 Resilient Health Systems (health emergency preparedness, response and resilience, climate change, and public health and disease prevention); and Nutrition. Together, these programs generate the evidence, norms, and policy tools that guide both WBG country operations and broader global health policy dialogue.

A Global Program Implementation Unit (PIU) is being established as the operational bridge between the two global units and with regions, managing portfolio and pipeline, Health Compacts, CPF upstream engagement, and regional outreach. Two cross-cutting layers - Methods, Impact Measurement and Innovation and Digital and AI - provide foundational technical support to all programs within the Directorate.

Global Program Implementation Unit (PIU)

The PIU will operationalize the Knowledge Bank transformation of the Global Health Directorate, ensuring that the Knowledge Bank's technical expertise is systematically integrated into country strategies, IBRD/IDA lending operations, and partnerships across IBRD/IDA, IFC, and MIGA - at scale, with quality, and in a single coordinated institutional voice. To that end, the PIU will be accountable for the following results:
• Health is integrated meaningfully into WBG Country Partnership Frameworks, with the PIU supporting regional health teams and engaging Knowledge Advisory Teams during CPF preparation.
• Health Compacts are well-designed, quality-assured, and actively monitored for implementation - with country-level commitments that are well-structured, adequately resourced, and progressing against agreed milestones.
• Every IBRD health-related operation receives timely, consolidated, and high-quality institutional feedback reflecting a single Directorate-wide position, grounded in the best global evidence and incorporating scalable, replicable solutions.
• Private sector engagement and investment opportunities within health operations are identified and connected to IFC and MIGA instruments in close coordination with the IFC Investment Center of Excellence under the health Solutions & Impact team, advancing a one-WBG approach to health.
• The Global Health Directorate's portfolio performance against corporate targets is tracked, with regular reporting that enables senior management to identify risks and take corrective action in a timely manner.

Role Overview

The Program Manager for the PIU serves as the operational lead of the PIU, responsible for ensuring that the Global Health Directorate functions as a coherent, coordinated, and high-performing institutional unit. The Program Manager provides the operational anchor between the Directorate's global thematic programs and regional health teams- translating global technical expertise into actionable country support and ensuring that the WBG's health portfolio progresses with quality, coherence, and accountability against corporate targets. The role works in close and continuous coordination with both global units as well as with the Front Office on risk management, donor engagement, and strategic planning. The Program Manager will also interface regularly with IFC and MIGA counterparts, in collaboration with the IFC Investment Center of Excellence, to advance One WBG approaches to health.

Reporting

The position reports administratively to the Manager for Policy and Regulations with dotted-line reporting to the Manager for Solutions and Impact within the Global Health Directorate. The role is based in Washington, DC.

Duties and Accountabilities

Strategic Leadership and Institutional Coordination
• Formulate and drive the PIU's operational strategy in close coordination with the Global Health Practice Managers, global thematic teams, and regional Health Practice Managers ensuring full alignment with the WBG Health Implementation Plan and operational priorities.
• Represent the Global Health Directorate in internal corporate and operational planning processes related to its mandate and relevant People Vertical and WBG-wide coordination mechanisms.
• Identify and manage institutional risks and operational bottlenecks, establishing formal escalation pathways to the Directorate's senior management where needed.

Program and Operations Management
• Lead the day-to-day operations of the PIU, ensuring effective and accountable delivery across all its functions: Health Compacts, CPF Integration, Pipeline Co-Design and Review, and Portfolio Management.
• Provide program-level coordination for the Health Compacts program, supporting the design and implementation monitoring of Compacts, working in close coordination with regional and global teams and drawing on country experience and lessons from the Compact portfolio.
• Work closely with regional health teams to support the integration of health priorities into CPFs and subsequent alignment of health investment priorities across the full suite of WBG instruments.
• Lead an inclusive co-design process with WBG regional health teams to shape the health pipeline, ensuring that regional program priorities are reflected in Multi-Phase Programmatic Approaches (MPAs), IPF, P4R, DPF, and other applicable financing instruments from the earliest stages of design.
• Oversee the PIU's structured engagement with regional teams throughout the pipeline cycle - from upstream co-design through formal review - ensuring the process supports and strengthens regional program design rather than acting as a gate.
• Oversee the mandatory review process for all health-related IBRD lending operations (IPF, P4R, DPF), ensuring that reviews are high-quality, evidence-based, in line with corporate priorities and the Health Target Implementation Plan, and completed within agreed timelines.
• Monitor the WBG health pipeline, flag preparation risks proactively to senior management, and ensure the portfolio progresses in line with corporate commitments and the 1.5 billion people target.
• Establish and maintain operational protocols, workflows, and accountability systems for each PIU workstream, ensuring time-bound deliverables are met with quality.
• Produce regular, high-quality portfolio performance reports for senior management and the Practice Board, synthesizing implementation intelligence into actionable findings and recommendations.

People Management
• Lead, supervise and motivate the PIU team with a focus on client orientation, development outcomes and results, strong cross-unit and cross-practice coordination and problem solving, taking responsibility for achieving and communicating these outcomes with Global Health Management. The Program Manager will have co-supervisory responsibility over the PIU team and will closely collaborate with other global and regional teams to leverage skills and knowledge across the Health Directorate. The Program Manager will agree on respective responsibilities and work programs of PIU staff in coordination with the two Global Practice Managers.
• Create a positive, inclusive and collaborative work environment in which staff can succeed, with a strong emphasis on professional development, accountability, and continuous learning.
• Model exemplary WBG leadership values and supervisory behaviors and reinforce these qualities in PIU staff.

Resource and Budget Management
• Develop and manage the PIU's budget, ensuring strategic allocation of resources and compliance with WBG financial management rules and administrative procedures.
• Monitor budget execution and report on resource utilization to the Global Health Practice Managers and the Front Office of the Global Health Director.
• Identify resource gaps and work with senior management to mobilize additional funding through trust funds, partnerships, or corporate allocations as needed.

Selection Criteria

Education
• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Public Health, Health Economics, Development Economics, Public Policy, Business Administration, or a closely related field.

Experience
• A minimum of 12 years of progressively complex experience in global health, health systems strengthening, development finance, or related fields, with a strong operational and institutional track record.
• Demonstrated experience managing large, complex, multi-workstream programs or institutional functions within the WBG, a multilateral development bank, or a comparable international organization.
• Demonstrated experience overseeing or co-leading inclusive, participatory design processes involving multiple regional or country teams, including in the context of multi-phase or programmatic WBG financing. This includes the ability to manage stakeholder-diverse processes with competing priorities while maintaining coherence and institutional accountability.
• Demonstrated track record of building and sustaining effective working relationships across organizational boundaries - including with regional operational teams, global thematic specialists, IFC/MIGA counterparts, and external partners - and of driving coordinated institutional action in complex environments.
• Proven track record of leading and managing multidisciplinary teams in a cross-functional organizational environment.
• Experience working across at least two different world regions, with a solid understanding of diverse health system contexts and country-level operational realities.
• Strong familiarity with WBG health lending modalities and country engagement processes, including an understanding of project preparation and portfolio management, and of how IFC/MIGA instruments complement IBRD/IDA health operations.
• Experience with Health Compact design and implementation is an advantage.
• Experience engaging with external partners - including bilateral donors, multilateral agencies, and other finance and technical health partners - with an understanding of how to support co-financing mobilization, align partner resources behind shared reform agendas and Health Compact commitments, and contribute effectively to multi-stakeholder coordination forums.

Skills and Competencies
• Deep understanding of global health policy, health system governance, and the WBG's operational model and Country Engagement framework.
• Proven ability to design and manage operational systems, processes, and accountability frameworks across multiple workstreams.
• Demonstrated expertise in portfolio management, results monitoring, and data-driven performance reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to identify operational risks early and manage esc