Senior Education Finance Specialist
Job #:
req38957
Organization:
World Bank Group
Sector:
Education
Grade:
GG
Term Duration:
Open-Ended Staff (OPEN-OP)
Recruitment Type:
International Recruitment
Location:
Washington, DC,United States
Required Language(s):
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date:
11/17/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Duties and Accountabilities
The selected candidate will work across policy, knowledge, data and operational tasks. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following.
• Leadership of the education finance work program
• Lead the WBG Education Finance Platform, including its work program, budget and trust fund resources.
• Serve as Global Lead for education finance for the Department, providing intellectual and technical leadership and acting as the senior technical voice on education finance with internal and external partners.
• Convene the education finance Community of Practice and support the network of regional focal points.
• Build and maintain working relationships across the Bank Group, including with Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment on macro-fiscal analysis, domestic resource mobilization and the Public Finance Review framework; with Governance on public financial management and fiscal decentralization; with the Chief Economist for People in DEC on private provision and financing; and with Social Policy and IFC on higher education and skills.
• Position the World Bank Group in the global dialogue on education finance, and represent the Department in internal and external forums.
• Analytical guidance and tools
• Lead the revision of the Education Public Expenditure Review Guidelines for the Public Finance Review context, delivered as a published report and maintained thereafter as a living document.
• Develop the accompanying operational toolkit of analytical modules, data templates, benchmarking approaches, reform options and country examples, designed to integrate education into existing Public Finance Review and governance diagnostics rather than to replace them.
• Ensure the guidance addresses fiscal sustainability, financing adequacy, spending efficiency and equity, public financial management, fiscal decentralization, and non-state and complementary financing, and that it is modular enough to support anything from a short education section within a broader Public Finance Review to a comprehensive education-focused review.
• Extend the guidance beyond basic education to early childhood development financing, which runs through health and social protection as well as education budgets, and to the financing of higher education, TVET and industry-based training.
• Develop guidance and tools on how public financing can be structured to leverage private capital in education and skills, including public-private partnerships, guarantees and risk-sharing, results- and outcome-based financing, student finance and employer co-financing. The guidance should be differentiated by sub-sector, grounded in a realistic assessment of where private financing is viable, and attentive to equity, and should be developed with IFC, MIGA and the WBG Guarantee Platform as relevant.
• Lead and contribute to global, regional and country analytical work on education finance, including the completion and publication of outstanding analytical papers.
• Country application, policy dialogue and operational support
• Work with the regions to select countries from the existing Public Finance Review pipeline, and lead or co-lead the education component of Public Finance Reviews in selected countries.
• Ensure analysis translates into action, linking diagnostic findings to recommendations in Public Finance Reviews, prior actions in Development Policy Operations, the design of Investment Project Financing and Program-for-Results operations, and inputs to Country Partnership Frameworks, Country Economic Updates and Country Growth and Jobs Reports.
• Participate in Bank missions and engage in policy dialogue with Ministries of Finance, Ministries of Education, development partners and other stakeholders.
• Provide technical support to regional and country teams on education finance within analytical and operational work, as determined in periodic work planning.
• Data and analytics
• Lead the consolidation of the dataset into a global dashboard hosted on Data360, improving the access, reliability and comparability of available data, and develop standardized country education financing profiles.
• Lead the development of AI-enabled analytical tools that help teams assemble financing profiles, benchmark countries and prepare analytical inputs.
• Agree definitions and data sources with partners inside and outside the Bank so that effort is not duplicated.
• Capacity building and knowledge
• Design and deliver a core curriculum on education finance in the Public Finance Review context, covering the fiscal framing, the language and calendar of Ministries of Finance, and how to position education within a whole-of-budget conversation.
• Deliver training to task teams, including regional clinics run alongside live Public Finance Reviews, and produce short, accessible reference materials for operational use.
• Lead regular reporting on the state of education finance, building on the Education Finance Watch series.
• Ensure education finance knowledge products are curated and accessible through the Bank's knowledge platforms, and mentor staff across the Department and the regions in deepening their expertise.
Indicative deliverables
• Revised basic Education Public Expenditure Review Guidelines for the Public Finance Review context, published and maintained as a living document, with an accompanying operational toolkit.
• Guidance extended to early childhood development and to higher education, TVET and industry-based training, and tested in country work.
• A common data template in use from the first country application, consolidated over time into a global education finance dataset and dashboard on Data360, with standardized country financing profiles.
• A training curriculum, a first cohort of task teams trained in the first year and the program running at scale across regions thereafter, supported by quick reference materials and regional focal points.
• Regular reporting on the state of education finance, and the publication of outstanding analytical papers.
Selection Criteria
In addition to the standard World Bank Group competencies on knowledge, leadership, innovation and results, the selection criteria for this position are as follows.
Essential
• Advanced degree (PhD preferred) in economics, with a focus on public economics, macroeconomics or public finance, or a closely related field.
• A minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience, including experience gained in a Ministry of Finance, a line ministry, the private sector, or an international organization. Experience in a research institute or academia is acceptable where combined with exposure to public finance reform.
• Demonstrated expertise in public expenditure and public finance analysis, including public expenditure or public finance reviews, fiscal sustainability analysis, medium-term expenditure frameworks, budget execution analysis or expenditure tracking, and a working command of the instruments used in this work.
• Demonstrated ability to engage credibly with Ministries of Finance and macro-fiscal counterparts, including an understanding of fiscal frameworks and the budget cycle, and the ability to position a sector argument within a whole-of-budget conversation.
• A track record of producing operational guidance that other teams use, such as methodologies, toolkits, guidance notes or diagnostic frameworks, as distinct from research outputs alone.
• Background and expertise on the role of the private sector and mechanisms for catalyzing non-state capital.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, with a track record of high-quality written outputs, including published analytical work.
• Demonstrated experience in capacity building and training, including the design and delivery of curricula or learning programs for professional audiences.
• Demonstrated combination of analytical rigor with practical, solution-oriented approaches, and an understanding of the political economy of reform in developing countries.
• Track record of leading teams and delivering complex, multi-country tasks to deadline.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English, including the ability to present ideas persuasively and concisely to senior audiences.
Desirable
• Experience in the education sector, or a track record of work on the economics of education or education finance. Candidates without a sector background will be expected to demonstrate a strong interest in education and the capacity to acquire secto
