Urban Data Science Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

Build a career with impact. Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) provides a unique opportunity to help countries solve their greatest development challenges. As one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, the WBG is a unique partnership of five global institutions dedicated to ending poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, the WBG works 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.

The WBG Infrastructure Vertical provides public and private solutions to operational teams and clients across the WBG to produce scalable impact. Its mandate is to deliver knowledge for impact to support the WBG to achieve its goals in support of our mission and specifically: providing guidance on creating more and better jobs by: (i) supporting foundational infrastructure and human capital, (ii) policy environment, and (iii) enabling and mobilizing private sector capital. With 60 years of experience, the WBG is poised to support the sector becoming an engine of growth and jobs through improving policies and governance, foundational infrastructure and private sector investments. The WBG's lending in the sector is expected to grow substantially. The Infrastructure VPU's objectives in driving outcomes include replicating and scaling effective solutions, enhancing thought leadership and innovation, and delivering timely knowledge to client teams.   For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/infrastructure
The World Bank Group (WBG) Transport and Logistics Department (KIT) is dedicated to enabling sustainable, efficient, and inclusive movement of goods and people worldwide.  As a core part of the WBG's mission, the department focuses on developing, financing, and advising on transport infrastructure and services that are vital for economic growth, regional integration, and poverty reduction.
Our work encompasses all modes of transport-including road, rail, maritime, and aviation-and covers both urban and rural environments.  The department collaborates with public and private sector partners to design and implement innovative solutions that address emerging challenges such as climate change, rapid urbanization, technological advancements, and the need for improved supply chain resilience.
KIT Department is organized into three units: Policy and Regulations (KITPR), Solutions and Impact (KITSI), and Trust Funds for Safe and Sustainable Transport (KITEF).  

KITPR is a global unit focused on shaping enabling policy and regulatory frameworks that support sustainable transport and logistics development.  It delivers knowledge services, policy advice, and model regulatory solutions across infrastructure and urban sectors, drawing on global best practices and innovation.  The unit works closely with regional teams and partners to develop scalable policy tools, support regulatory reform, and build institutional capacity.  KITPR increasingly applies geospatial analytics, remote sensing, and spatial data science to inform planning, investment prioritization, and policy dialogue across transport corridors, urban mobility systems, and rural connectivity.  A key priority is strengthening analytical models and tools to support evidence-based transport and logistics investments. 

KITPR is seeking to hire a Transport Analyst to be based at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. to support its work program, including providing support for several of KIT's transport models and tools, as well as knowledge management duties.  He/she will report to the Manager of Policy and Regulations (KITPR).  On a day-to-day basis, he/she will work under the supervision of senior staff in the unit and the department. 

Duties and Accountabilities:
The Transport Analyst is expected to provide support in transport modeling and data analytics, which is the primary focus of this position. A secondary responsibility is to support knowledge management, curation, and dissemination. The selected candidate will join the core team of transport modelers and data scientists of KIT department, as well as the knowledge management team of the department. Hands-on experience in developing, applying and training others on using transport analytical models and tools is required. 

The primary objectives of the assignment will be to:
  Support the design, build, maintain, and continuously update the WBG's suite of models and analytical tools for transport sector work.  The role spans both goods and passenger transport, encompassing the full breadth of transport infrastructure and systems, including road and rail networks and corridors, ports and maritime transport, and logistics nodes. 
  Work with complex, multi-layered datasets covering trade flows, population, and socio-economic and environmental variables, ensuring that the WBG's transport analytical capabilities remain current, robust, and fit for operational and advisory purposes.
  Maintain and update WBG transport and logistics models, which includes calibrating models for specific applications and conduct advanced analyses for transport corridor diagnostics and prioritization; urban mobility and accessibility assessments; multimodal connectivity mapping; freight movement and logistics network analysis; traffic flow and catchment analysis; and network performance and connectivity evaluation. 
  Support geospatial analysis for investment prioritization and strategic planning at national, regional, and urban scales. 
  Prepare briefs, maps, dashboards, and geospatial visualizations to communicate findings to internal teams, government counterparts, and external stakeholders. 
  Support the development of reproducible code for country-level estimation of road conditions using low satellite imagery and the code validation using ground truth data and high-resolution imagery; process and integrate geospatial datasets, including road networks, rural population datasets, satellite imagery, land cover, elevation, and ancillary datasets. 
  Maintain and periodically update model user interface, ensuring functionality, usability, and overall system performance through routine maintenance.
  Develop training material and deliver training as needed, for WBG models and tools.
  Support the collection, organization, tagging, and maintenance of knowledge assets. 
  Maintain inventories of technical reports, case studies, guidance notes, toolkits, and learning materials. 
  Ensure knowledge resources are current, searchable, and aligned with institutional priorities. Assist in developing taxonomies, metadata standards, and knowledge classification systems. 
  Identify and synthesize relevant internal and external knowledge resources.
  Ensure knowledge resources are current, searchable, and aligned with institutional priorities.
  Support the design, organization and delivery of knowledge dissemination and learning events, including technical learning week.  
  Design and disseminate announcements promoting knowledge outputs, reports, events, and initiatives.  Ensure that knowledge resources are readily distributed and accessible on the web.  Make available results stories from operations for various purposes (e.g., Results Briefs, TF results stories, etc.).
  Support the knowledge management team in organization and delivering flagship knowledge activities.