Senior Economist

Job #:
req38526

Organization:
World Bank

Sector:
Economics

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):
Arabic

Closing Date:
10/16/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Regional context

Countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region confront a vast array of development challenges, from an uncertain and uneven recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to the implications of decelerating global economy, deepening geopolitical divisions, protracted regional conflicts, and climate change. These overlapping crises are amplified by longstanding structural relating to economic governance that contribute to an outsized presence of the state in the economy, high unemployment rates among women and youth, and limited intraregional trade and investment.

The World Bank's engagement in West Bank and Gaza focuses on preserving macro-fiscal stability, strengthening institutions, promoting private-sector job creation, and laying the analytical foundations for post-conflict economic recovery and reconstruction. This context on the ground places exceptional demands on the economics team. The operating environment is fragile, conflict-affected, and politically sensitive, characterized by severe uncertainty, structural constraints, and extremely limited policy space. Consequently, this role requires deep macroeconomic and fiscal expertise paired with a nuanced understanding of institutional and political-economy dynamics, and superior judgment.

Reporting to the Practice Manager, the Senior Economist will play a pivotal role in designing and delivering the work program in West Bank and Gaza (as well as other countries). The successful candidate, in close collaboration with the Jerusalem-based local Senior Economist, will lead complex analytical products and financing operations, drive high-level policy dialogue with the Palestinian Authority and development partners, and provide technical quality assurance across the portfolio. This position demands intellectual leadership, excellent judgment, and the agility to coordinate multidisciplinary teams and deliver high-impact results under rapidly evolving circumstances.

Duties and Accountabilities

The Senior Economist will report to the EMAE1 Practice Manager, who is based in Rabat, Morocco. Working closely with the Jerusalem-based Senior Economist, the Senior Economist's responsibilities will include the following:
• Lead/co-lead core economic products, including Macro Poverty Outlooks, country diagnostics, core and non-core ASA production, post-conflict recovery analyses, and other macro-fiscal assessments.
• Translate rigorous macroeconomic data into practical, prioritized policy options tailored to the institutional capacity, political-economy constraints, and limited policy space of the West Bank and Gaza.
• Contribute to broader MENAAP regional initiatives, including economic updates, cross-country analyses, and crisis-response assignments as directed by the Practice Manager.
• Spearhead or support World Bank financing operations, as the program requires.
• Advise cross-sectoral teams and the Country Management Unit (CMU) on the economic rationale, feasibility, sequencing, and macroeconomic impacts of proposed institutional reforms.
• Drive high-level policy dialogue with local counterparts, development partners, private-sector representatives, and civil society on macro-fiscal management, growth, jobs, and competitiveness.
• Identify and manage operational risks by proactively briefing management on emerging economic trends and rapidly evolving crisis situations.
• Communicate complex economic issues clearly and candidly to both technical and non-technical audiences, maintaining analytical rigor and institutional standards.
• Navigate a fragile, conflict-affected (FCV) environment with high political sensitivity, judgment, and resilience to build trust and leverage resources across diverse stakeholders.
• Provide rigorous technical review and quality assurance for operational documents, policy notes, and briefing materials prepared for senior management and the Board.
• Synthesize multifaceted inputs from various Global Practices, country teams, and external stakeholders into cohesive, balanced outputs for management decision-making.
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative work environment by mentoring colleagues, providing clear direction, and offering constructive feedback to strengthen overall team capacity.

Selection Criteria
• Minimum of a Master's degree in economics; Ph.D. preferred. At least eight (8) years of relevant professional experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience, with a strong track record of delivering high-quality analytical, advisory, and operational work.
• Strong technical expertise in macroeconomics, fiscal policy, debt sustainability, growth, external sector analysis, and structural reforms, with demonstrated ability to produce policy-relevant analysis under tight deadlines.
• Proven experience as a country economist or in a comparable macro-fiscal role, including economic monitoring, forecasting, preparation of economic updates or similar products, macroeconomic due diligence, and support to country strategies and operations.
• Experience with World Bank operational instruments, especially Development Policy Financing, and familiarity with analytical products such as Public Finance Reviews, Country Economic Memoranda, Systematic Country Diagnostics, Country Partnership Frameworks, Macro Poverty Outlooks, and Economic Monitors.
• Demonstrated ability to lead or substantially contribute to policy dialogue with senior government officials, central banks, international financial institutions, development partners, and internal stakeholders in complex or sensitive country contexts.
• Strong integrative capacity, including the ability to connect macroeconomic, fiscal, poverty, jobs, climate, governance, financial sector, and private sector issues into a coherent policy and country engagement framework.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, including the ability to draft concise briefs, reports, talking points, and presentations and to explain complex analysis to non-specialist audiences. Arabic language skill would be an advantage.
• Strong client orientation, sound judgment, diplomatic skills, and ability to combine candor and courage of opinion with constructive engagement.
• Ability to work flexibly across a range of assignments, manage multiple priorities, mentor junior staff, collaborate effectively in multidisciplinary teams, and deliver high-quality outputs in a fast-moving environment.

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.