Specialists - Development Economics - Statisticians at World Bank

The Development Economics Group (DEC) increases understanding of development policies and programs by providing intellectual leadership and analytical services to the World Bank and the wider development community. DEC is the premier research and data arm of the World Bank Group.

If you are interested in this area, please click the position(s) below to submit your application. To apply, click the relevant link. You will be prompted to log in to the Member Center or create a new account. Please fill in all fields, answer the screening questions if any, attach your resume or CV, and submit your Statement of Interest (no more than 700 words).

Development Data Group (DECDG)

Good data, combined with knowledge and experience and augmented by new technologies, have the capacity to transform the development process. They document successes, bear witness to failures, and throw light on complex problems. They give governments and citizens the information needed to make decisions and control their own development. The mission of the Development Data Group is to make national and international data and statistics widely accessible to clients within and outside the Bank and to improve the capacity of member countries to produce, use, and make accessible the data they collect.

Statistician: DECDG is seeking to recruit candidates with a Master’s Degree, plus 3 years of relevant experience in one of the focal areas of DECDG’s work, such as Open Data, statistical capacity building operations, or economic statistics. The work program will include:

• Working closely with the Open Data Working Group, develop, enhance, and provide applications and tools to enable the Bank’s Open Data suite of products to remain responsive to the evolving needs of the user community.
• Analyze existing systems and platforms and give enhancement recommendations, identifying feasible alternative solutions for better products
• Provide support to client countries and country teams to identify needs and develop statistical capacity building programs.
• Participating in and occasionally leading country missions to identify, appraise, supervise, and evaluate statistical capacity-building activities.
• Coordinating country projects on statistical capacity-building and international comparisons.
• Designing best practices in data and metadata quality and applications for developing country work.
• Participating in the quality assessment of price and national accounts data, reviewing metadata submitted by the countries, and conducting statistical checks to ensure that prescribed methodologies are properly implemented.
• Contributing sections in publications on data quality assessment and processes.
• Participating in projects on innovative methods and solutions for data collection, processing, visualization, and dissemination.
• Promoting partnership with regional and national agencies.

Data Scientist: The Data Scientist will have a Master’s Degree plus 3 years of relevant experience and work on data collection, database management, and statistical publications, including the World Development Indicators, Global Development Finance, and online databases. The successful applicant will sustain and expand the ongoing Open Data Initiative, a key corporate priority of the Bank, and improve the coverage, quality and use of curated datasets. The post-holder will work closely with teams that produce statistical databases and publications, manage and curate datasets relating to sustainable development and economic management, and other groups in DECDG. The work will also require close collaboration with other key partners, such as staff in Development Economics, staff working in sustainable development, Operational Policy and Country Services, External and Corporate Relations, and the Information Management and Technology Network.