Associate Senior Solutions Architect

Job #: req38665

Organization: World Bank

Sector: Information Technology

Grade: GG

Term Duration: Open-Ended Staff (OPEN-OP)

Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment

Location: Chennai, India

Required Language(s): English

Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date: 10/28/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

At the World Bank, a member of the World Bank Group (WBG), you’ll join a diverse, global community working across cultures, disciplines, and borders to address the world’s most pressing development challenges. With 1.2 billion young people reaching working age in the decade ahead, the challenge of job creation has never been greater. Through partnerships across 145 countries and more than 182 offices worldwide, we work with governments, private sector, development partners and other stakeholders to invest in people, strengthen markets, and deliver scalable, data-driven solutions that generate more and better jobs and improve lives. For more information, visit https://www.worldbank.org/en/who-we-are/ibrd

VPU 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 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VTFGffa1Y7w

Unit 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 70+ products, 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 unit will oversee vital corporate systems such as personnel administration, global payroll, benefits, tax, pension, budget and planning, cost and expense management, internal audit, ethics and justice processes, health services, and other essential corporate services. These operations—and their supporting platforms—demand uncompromising accuracy, confidentiality, and resilience, operating in environments where reliability is non-negotiable.

Duties and Accountabilities:

The Associate Senior Solutions Architect leads the execution of strategic business requirements by designing integrated, AI-ready technology solutions and guiding their implementation across software, data, and cloud infrastructure. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, this role synthesizes business, information, and technical perspectives to create scalable architectures aligned with enterprise principles. By evaluating functionality, constraints, and compatibility across platforms, it ensures interoperability, stability, usability, and high availability in distributed environments, enabling corporate application teams to deliver with greater velocity, quality, and efficiency.

• Translate budget policy changes and new WBP requirements into functional and technical specifications for planning models, allocation rules, workflows, and approval routing.
• Define integration patterns between the planning tools, SAP ERP/FM, HR position data, and the enterprise data platform, keeping one consistent version of budget and actuals.
• Design, configure, and support planning applications in Jedox, including cubes, rules, Integrator jobs, and web reports and forms, alongside other peripheral enterprise tools in use.
• Serve as the subject matter expert for SAP BW on HANA data models, planning functions.
• Partner with data engineering teams to integrate budget, actuals, and commitment data into the enterprise reporting tools such as Azure Databricks.
• Deliver trusted budget-versus-actual, trajectory, and performance reporting for WBP, VPU budget teams, and senior management.
• Identify and shape AI-enabled opportunities, such as anomaly detection in budget submissions, forecasting support, and natural-language access to budget data, with responsible AI and human oversight built in.

Selection Criteria

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Finance, Engineering, or a related field with a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience; OR a Bachelor's degree with a minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in enterprise planning, budgeting systems, or SAP BI; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Advanced expertise in areas – Data Analysis, Data Engineering, Reporting and Planning.
• Required Certifications: Scaled Agile certification (SAFe Architect, SAFe POPM, or SAFe Agilist); Any of the data technology such as Azure Synapse, Databricks or SAP BW/4HANA or SAP BW on HANA (or equivalent SAP BI/HANA certification); Any of the data engineering such as Databricks, Azure, GCP.
• Recommended: Jedox Certified Modeler or Jedox Certified Consultant;
• Optional: TOGAF, or a public financial management credential (e.g., CIPFA, IPSAS certificate).
• Demonstrated experience leading the modernization of corporate budget and planning systems — including end to end implementation of planning applications across large, multi-stakeholder organizations with complex financial planning structures.
• Strong ability to translate organizational budget priorities and financial planning requirements into practical Jedox implementation strategies, phased rollout roadmaps, configuration decisions, and measurable planning outcomes.
• Advanced expertise in at least two relevant disciplines, such as financial planning and analysis (FP&A), budget system architecture, Jedox model design, reporting, process redesign for planning cycles, organizational change management, or performance management frameworks.
• Proven systems-thinking skills applied to budget and planning environments, including the ability to identify cross-functional data dependencies, resolve model integrity issues, and address root causes of planning inefficiencies within Jedox or connected systems.
• Strong advisory and facilitation skills, with experience building trust among finance leads, budget owners, IT teams, and senior management to drive adoption of Jedox-based planning processes and data-driven decision-making.
• Alongside planning expertise, a strong grasp of modern data technologies, including relational, columnar in-memory (e.g., SAP HANA), MPP warehouse, file-based (Parquet/Delta on cloud storage), and distributed processing platforms (e.g., Apache Spark, Databricks). Also hands-on experience with enterprise reporting tools such as Power BI, SAP BusinessObjects, and Analysis for Office.
• Understanding of AI-enabled forecasting, predictive analytics, and emerging automation capabilities within modern planning platforms – Planning and Reporting.

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.

WBG 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.

The 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.