Associate Software Engineer

Associate Software Engineer Job #: req36374 Organization: World Bank Sector: Information Technology Grade: GF Term Duration: 3 years 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Chennai, Sofia and Singapore Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 5/1/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC DescriptionDo 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 130 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.orgITS Vice Presidency Context:The Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) enables the World Bank Group to achieve its mission of ending extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet by delivering transformative information and technologies to its staff working in over 150+ locations. For more information on ITS, see this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VTFGffa1Y7wUnit Context:The WBG Corporate Solutions Department (ITSCO) is focused on the digital transformation of essential corporate services to ensure WBG operations are seamless, resilient, and future ready. Uniting digitalization roadmaps, experience design, process optimization, application delivery, systems management, and technology modernization across some 170 products and services, the department links business ambition with operational excellence—from intuitive employee experiences and precision payroll to data-driven decision making, intelligent automation, and AI enablement. The Corporate Digital Backbone unit creates an autonomous digital backbone for the orchestration of data, transactions, processes, and insights across the diverse corporate portfolio, e.g. application modernization, technology debt reduction, efficient data exchange, advanced analytics, enterprise integration, automated business processes, and agentic-AI.Role Purpose: The Associate Software Engineer - AI Solutions is responsible for researching, developing, and embedding advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities across the corporate portfolio. Acting as a catalyst for digital transformation, this role will involve leading the AI-first redesign of corporate workflows and the modernization of legacy systems to support advanced generative AI (GenAI) and Agentic frameworks across business units (including HR, Legal, Corporate Secretariat, Budget, and Travel).

• Conducts advanced research and analysis within the AI/ML landscape to architect and propose innovative solutions for complex corporate business challenges.
• Spearheads targeted GenAI use cases, specifically automating document synthesis, contract drafting, and policy-checking to drastically optimize HR, Legal, and Corporate Secretariat workflows.
• Applies deep technical expertise and broad industry knowledge to navigate and execute high-stakes, difficult AI engineering assignments from conceptualization to deployment.Key Responsibilities: 1. AI-First Redesign & Strategic Enterprise Development
• AI-First Process Redesign: Lead the paradigm shift toward "AI-first" corporate operations, fundamentally reimagining and redesigning legacy business processes, user experiences, and application architectures to put AI at the core, rather than retrofitting it onto outdated systems.
• Corporate Alignment: Collaborate with corporate business leadership across key units to identify high-impact automation opportunities and translate overarching business objectives into scalable, AI-native solutions.
• Workflow Automation & Agentic AI: Engineer and prototype autonomous AI agents capable of executing complex, multi-departmental corporate workflows (e.g., cross-functional budget reconciliations, automated legal drafting) to drive "zero-touch" operational efficiency.2. System Modernization & Seamless Integration
• Enterprise Modernization: Drive the modernization of legacy corporate IT infrastructure, proactively reducing technical debt and architecting transitions toward decoupled, cloud-native environments that seamlessly support modern LLMs and AI integrations.
• System Interoperability: Lead the integration of advanced AI models into the fabric of the modernized IT landscape, optimizing API connections with core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Human Capital Management (HCM) systems to ensure uninterrupted, real-time data flow.
• Enterprise-Grade RAG Architecture: Design and deploy secure Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) frameworks that allow disparate corporate units to safely query highly sensitive internal repositories, policy databases, and institutional historical records.3. Quality Assurance, Risk Management & Governance
• Risk Management & HITL: Design and enforce rigorous Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) validation protocols for AI-generated corporate, legal, and financial documents to guarantee institutional accuracy and mitigate hallucination risks.
• Enterprise AI Compliance: Act as a steward for AI governance by ensuring all machine learning and modernization initiatives strictly comply with corporate ethical standards, global data privacy regulations, and internal information security mandates.4. Change Management & Enterprise Adoption
• Digital Transformation Evangelism: Drive AI literacy and adoption across corporate business units, demystify AI technologies for non-technical stakeholders, and promote a culture of continuous digital improvement.
• Targeted Upskilling: Develop comprehensive training programs and accessible prompt-engineering playbooks specifically tailored for administrative, analytical, and executive corporate staff to maximize the daily utility of GenAI tools.5. Value Realization & Strategic Innovation
• Business Impact Tracking: Define, monitor, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for deployed AI solutions. Translate technical metrics into measurable corporate value, focusing on ROI, cost-per-task reduction, time-to-completion, and operational error mitigation.
• Future-Proofing the Tech Stack: Act as a strategic technical advisor by continuously evaluating emerging AI market trends to recommend proactive platform upgrades and secure the corporate department's competitive technological advantage.Plus, other duties as assigned.Selection CriteriaEducation and Experience:
• Requires a Master’s degree with 5 years of experience or a Bachelor’s Degree with a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience. Core Competencies: Full-Stack Development
• Full-Stack Proficiency: Demonstrated ability to design, develop, and deploy scalable, high-quality software and AI solutions across multiple platforms. Hands-on experience building enterprise applications that meet complex business requirements with minimal supervision.
• System Performance & Scalability: Proven track record in cloud deployment architectures, dynamically scaling AI services, monitoring production systems, troubleshooting technical issues, and optimizing application performance to ensure reliability as user demands increase.
• Data Engineering & Pipelines: Skilled in designing, building, and managing robust data processing pipelines and enterprise data orchestration workflows, with a demonstrated ability to work securely with sensitive information.AI & Machine Learning Engineering
• Agentic Workflows: Demonstrated expertise in designing and building autonomous, multi-step AI agents and utilizing advanced orchestration frameworks.
• AI & NLP Expertise: Expert-level knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs), generative AI architectures, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques.
• RAG & Vector Search: Extensive experience implementing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures using enterprise-grade managed search services and vector databases, incorporating continuous feedback loops (e.g., human-in-the-loop labeling, relevance tuning) to improve retrieval quality.Security, Quality, and Governance
• AI Safety & Enterprise Compliance: Strong understanding of secure coding practices and compliance standards throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Deep familiarity with bias detection, explainability, and the implementation of guardrails (content filters, safety classifiers, jailbreak prevention) to protect sensitive data and meet regulatory requirements.
• Code Quality & Best Practices: Experience enforcing rigorous software development best practices, including peer code reviews, automated testing, comprehensive documentation, and strict version control.Agile Development
• Agile Development & Execution: Active participation in Agile methodologies (sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives). Strong ability to collaborate effectively with product owners, designers, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into working software that delivers measurable value.
• Problem-Solving & Innovation: Strong analytical skills to deconstruct complex technical challenges, propose effective solutions, and continuously evaluate emerging technologies that modernize legacy systems and streamline processes.
• Technical Mentorship: Mentors and guides junior engineers to elevate the team’s core competencies, while simultaneously establishing foundational AI practices, such as enterprise prompt design frameworks and user personalization strategies.Recommended Certifications:
• Certification in AI Ethics; Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate; Google Machine Learning Engineer; Google Generative AI Leader; SAFe Agile Software Engineer (ASE) or equivalentWBG Culture Attributes:1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact. 3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.World Bank Group Core CompetenciesThe World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.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.