Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

As the world’s largest multilateral source of financing for water in developing countries, the World Bank is working closely with partners to achieve “A Water-Secure World for All,” by sustaining water resources, delivering services, and building resilience.

Water is crucial for economic and social progress, essential for health, agriculture, energy production, environmental stewardship, and job creation. The availability and management of water determine whether poor girls receive education, whether cities are livable, and whether industries and rural villages can cope with the effects of floods or droughts.

Water security ranks as one of the highest global risks affecting development and is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Effective management of water resources and access to reliable water and sanitation services are essential to address the sustainable development challenges of the 21st century, including human development, livable cities, climate change, food security, and energy security. With water scarcity impacting over 40% of the global population, many countries face increasing pressures on water resources. The World Bank supports client countries in promoting sustainable water usage, building climate resilience, and enhancing integrated water management.

Even today, 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, of which 1 billion people practice open defecation. Poor sanitation, including inadequate wastewater collection and treatment, impacts health, education, the environment, and industries. The lack of access to safe water and sanitation results in significant economic losses in many countries. This is further exacerbated by climate change, water pollution, and water scarcity in a fast-changing world.

With a portfolio of water investments of US$41.4 billion (US$29.4 billion of water-sector projects and US$12 billion of multi-sector projects related to water), the World Bank is uniquely positioned to achieve the vision of a water secure world for all, developing and sharing global knowledge while amplifying the impact of lending through technical assistance on the ground. Within its broad mandate, the Water Global Practice (Water GP) is housed within the Sustainable Development Practice Group, which brings together the cross-cutting sectors of Water with Agriculture, Environment, Social Inclusion, and Urban and Disaster Risk Management.

The Water GP global unit hosts several Global Solution Groups (GSGs). The GSGs play a critical role in deepening the use of knowledge in operations. The GSGs play an important role in maintaining the globality of Water Global Practice. Each Global Solutions Group is led by a Global Lead. There are 5 GSGs: Climate Resilient Irrigation (CRI), Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS); Water Resources Management (WRM), Water and Finance; and Water Economics and Climate Change (WE&CC). The GSGs organize direct support to task teams in developing and ensuring the quality of analytical and lending activities throughout the project cycle.

The water accounting workstream is looking for a dedicated and proficient remote sensing and water accounting professional as an Extended Term Consultant (ETC) with a focus on water and agriculture applications. The successful candidate will play a crucial role in developing and implementing advanced technologies to monitor, analyze, and optimize agricultural water usage, irrigation efficiency, and crop monitoring. The expected work will also contribute to the development of data-driven strategies that promote efficient water resource management, monitor sustainable development goals, assess disaster risks and mitigation, water quality & quantity and environmental conservation.

Duties and Accountabilities 

The selected candidate will work closely with the water Accounting Workstream Lead, the CRI GSG Global Lead, regional Water GP teams, and will report to the Water Global Unit Practice Manager. The candidate is expected to have expertise in all, or multiple domains as listed below:

1.Remote Sensing Applications:
• Support the team to use satellite and other remote sensing technologies to monitor and assess various parameters related to water and agriculture such as EvapoTranspiration, Soil moisture, and Precipitation at different scales.
• Contribute to the development of algorithms and (automated) models for land cover/crop type classification, monitoring crop growth, cropping patterns crop biomass & yield and other related applications.
• Support water accounting and irrigation performance evaluations using historical & near real-time satellite data from sources like Landsat, Sentinel, etc.
• Develop scalable workflows to monitor agricultural water use and productivity across various scales— local schemes, basin level, and national levels.

2.Data Analysis and Modeling:
• Analyze large scale datasets, including meteorological, hydrological, and remote sensing data, to extract useful insights for agricultural water management.
• Support the development of predictive models and machine learning algorithms to forecast irrigation requirements, predict crop yields, and optimize farming practices.

3.Crop Monitoring and Precision Agriculture:
• Support the implementation of tools and techniques for real-time crop monitoring and management.
• Advance precision agriculture solutions that utilize remote sensing data to improve crop yields, resource efficiency, and sustainability.

4.Collaboration and Communication:
• Collaborate closely with interdisciplinary teams, including agronomists and hydrologists, to integrate remote sensing and data science into comprehensive solutions.
• Communicate effectively the results and insights through reports, presentations, and visualizations to stakeholders, both technical and non-technical.

Selection Criteria

• At least a MSc degree in water resources management, remote sensing, data science, agronomy, civil engineering, or a related field.
• Demonstrated at least 2 years  experience in applying remote sensing and data science methods to water resources, agriculture, and/or environment
• Proficiency in remote sensing and GIS software/tools (both proprietary and open-source) like QGIS, GRASS GIS, ESRI tools among others.
• Possess full professional proficiency in English, with the ability to effectively communicate, both orally and in writing, in a clear and concise manner.
• Expertise in data analysis within cloud environments like Google Earth Engine and Microsoft’s Planetary science platform.
• Advanced programming abilities in languages such as Python or R, and experience in managing data pipelines for large-scale processing and analytics.
• Experience with python geospatial libraries like xarray, rasterio, geopandas, geemap.
• Familiarity with version control using git and developing web-based dashboards with tools like PowerBI/Tableau or open-source JavaScript libraries such as React.js, d3.js, node.js.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent writing skills for synthesizing analytics and findings into comprehensive reports.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to convey complex technical information to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.