Operations Officer

Operations Officer Organization:IFC Sector:Advisory Services Grade:GF Term Duration: 3 years 0 months Recruitment Type:Local Recruitment Location:Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam Required Language(s):English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date:3/9/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC Description Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. For more information, visit www.ifc.org IFC’s Financial Institutions Group (FIG) works through financial institutions to provide much-needed access to finance for millions of individuals and micro, small, and medium enterprises that we would never be able to reach directly. This is an important part of the World Bank Group strategy to end extreme poverty and build shared prosperity. FIG Asia Pacific provides the strategic investment and advice needed by financial institutions to build a strong, engaged private sector and tackle the region’s most pressing development challenges. We account for about 32 percent of FIG’s Global investment portfolio, and our projects support micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), climate-smart projects, housing, insurance, supply chains, and digital finance. We demonstrate the business case for greater financial inclusion, particularly for women and other under-served segments of the community. Our tailored advice helps clients build capacity, strengthen risk management, and diversify and scale their product offerings. Stretching from the Pacific to South Asia, our projects are delivering on the IFC 3.0 agenda and enabling the region to fulfill its potential. FIG Advisory in Asia Pacific leverages on IFC’s global presence, to drive thought leadership and deliver expert advice to our clients towards achieving greater access to finance in our priority markets in the region. Thematic areas of specialization include SME Banking, Microfinance, Agrifinance, Supply Chain Finance, Risk Management, Digital Financial Services, Climate Finance, Gender Finance and Housing. FIG Advisory in Asia Pacific aims to deliver innovative solutions that support clients in sustainably growing their presence in underserved markets and that are aligned with IFC’s country strategies and development objectives. Founded on comprehensive diagnostics, IFC designs and implements capacity building projects to strengthen clients’ strategy, business model, products and services, risk management framework, market outreach and impact in the thematic areas aligned to regional and countries’ development challenges. The jobholder will report directly to the FIG Advisory Services Country Anchor in Vietnam. The jobholder will have a co-supervisory reporting line to the relevant Practice Lead in Asia which would be DFS. He/she will work with the Practice Lead to drive the practice and support delivery of engagements in Asia as per FIG Asia’s expert-based model. He/she will be an integral member of the country team and will work closely with key stakeholders in supporting the delivery of the WBG/IFC country strategy. Role & Responsibilities The jobholder will be responsible for generating and implementing advisory engagements in Vietnam, under the guidance of Country and Thematic leads, with the key focus on Digital Financial Services (DFS). The main responsibility of the jobholder is to identify business opportunities and contribute to the design and delivery of advisory service projects that operationalize country and thematic mandates, and contribute to knowledge building, sharing and capacity building. The jobholder should manage the advisory projects throughout the project lifecycle, including: pre-implementation phase to identify the right partner and design the project, implementation phase to deliver the service, and post-implementation phase to monitor the performance and close the project. The jobholder should also design the project budget and monitor the expense, hire the consultants and manage the project team. Moreover, the job-holder would also actively contribute and participate in the DFS Practice in the Asia and Pacific region and also regionally contribute to DFS linked engagements. Main Duties and Responsibilities • Participate and support business development efforts in close coordination with the country teams and the regional FIG Advisory Services (AS) team. • Lead the design and pitch of digital finance propositions for clients, and participate in presenting and explaining the proposal to clients. • Be involved in executing and implementing the advisory project and ensuring that all inputs and deliverables adhere to internal and client processes, ensuring impactful development results, with a focus on consistently high-quality delivery. • Should be able to monitor and report effectively to the leadership on progress of strategic initiatives. • Develop and manage budget for projects and be accountable for delivering against established business goals/objectives. • Review the quality of the work completed with the project team on a regular basis to ensure that it meets project standards. • Evaluate the outcomes of the program as established during the planning phase. • Demonstrate deep technical capability and professional knowledge of digital finance across a broad range of technical areas. Ability to articulate this in front of senior executives and BOD members. • Manage client expectations in terms of benefits and stay abreast of current business and industry trends relevant to digital finance. • Generate new business opportunities for IFC DFS work. Understand IFC and its core product areas and actively assess/present solutions that deliver value to clients working in close coordination with investment and client relationship managers. • Develop project management internal documents, including the concept note, implementation plan, project supervision report, project completion report, in good quality and a timely manner. • Actively engage within both the FIG Advisory and Investment teams in Asia (and external partners, as needed) to maintain, develop and share expertise and identify opportunities for collaboration. and • Actively contribute, both externally and internally, to knowledge management of IFC’s Advisory activities, including capture, development and dissemination of information and knowledge, best practices, solutions and project delivery tools in areas of expertise. This includes contribution to both the DFS and other Practice Groups. Client and Stakeholder Management: • Communicate with middle-senior management of the bank and support the articulation of institution-level as well as segment-level solutions especially in DFS area. • Support the delivery of knowledge transfer sessions, diagnostics with the client, and also be a technical resource for advisory project executions in Vietnam as well in the Asia region. • Scope technical and commercial market potential for DFS in Vietnam as well in the Asia region and identify opportunities relevant to FI clients, such as identifying gaps and needs for developing DFS programs, and formulation of motivation/drivers for end-users to implement DFS using FI’s financing. • Lead project management and oversight of projects in Vietnam, under the guidance of Country Anchors and/or Practice Leads, to reinforce quality and consistency of approach. • Work collaboratively with Investment team members in the designated countries (mainly Vietnam) to support Country Anchor and/or Practice Lead in helping close pipeline investment projects and providing solutions to key portfolio clients. • Provide expert advice to investment and advisory services teams and external financial sector clients on the potential and scope for DFS, to help identify opportunities on the market for FIs and to help formulate both investment and advisory strategies to reach out to those opportunities. • Support Country Anchor in engaging with the relevant teams at the World Bank and IFC to support the work on reforms needed to unlock new markets and work collaboratively with Upstream teams. • Support country priority initiatives such as Supply Chain Finance, Agrifinance, Climate and other Inclusion linked initiatives. • Be an integral part of the Asia DFS practice and contribute through ideas as well as new product innovation linked to DFS. • Support the development of DFS and digital Agrifinance solutions for the Asia Pacific Region. Design and Operationalize Solutions: • Work with senior thematic specialists in reviewing project proposals to ensure IFC mandate is adequately addressed and thematic solutions are well-designed to meet local customer needs. • Provide technical support in designing pitch materials for business development and thematic proposals for inclusion in straightforward projects that will include drafting other relevant project documents. • Gather information from clients and project teams to monitor implementation of thematic area recommendations. Create and Share Knowledge: • Gather information from external sources on best practices, evolving trends and challenges, and emerging players that can be used to create new knowledge products. • Provide organizational and coordination support in the convening of knowledge sharing forums and conferences and contribute to the development of content materials. Build Capacity: Coordinate and deliver straightforward training programs and workshops for IFC staff to raise their awareness of thematic area, especially digital finance, and its importance. Selection Criteria • At least a master’s degree in digital finance fields, preferably Financial Technology, with a strong background in any of the areas of digital finance (such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Statistics). Additional certifications in fintech and/or digital platforms or related fields would be an advantage. • At least 12 years’ experience working with the financial sector. Having led a business unit role in a financial institution is a plus. • At least 5 years of senior level experience in a digital vertical/business – preferably in development and roll out of asset and liability products. • Should have a successful track record in executing one or more components of digitizing end-to-end customer journeys in a financial services organization i.e. payments, savings, insurance, account opening, credit and e-commerce; experience working in leading consulting firms is a plus. • A very good understanding of digital finance services (hardware, software, products, systems, platforms, players and other relevant aspects of digital finance). • Experience in product development, especially in the space of digital banking and agrifinance products. • Experience in leading firm-wide corporate initiatives and fintech initiatives; showcase introducing, defining and practicing agile methodologies in the organization, while ensuring that change control is executed through approved governance model of the organization. • Practical experience of introducing and implementing digitization and automation in a financial services organization to inject efficiency in processes, to save costs and to improve customer experience. • Knowledge of policies, laws and regulations governing digital financial services specially in Vietnam, and generally in other countries would be an advantage. • A sound knowledge of SME Banking and Microfinance and the operations of financial intermediaries would be desirable. • Industry/Sector Knowledge - Understanding of sector drivers, business and market development cycles, and how business performance and long-term competitiveness and viability are measured within a sector and how sector dynamics may evolve within a country or region. • Market Creation - Capacity to identify barriers for market creation opportunities in a targeted country by tapping into relevant internal expertise and synthesizing information on local regulatory and economic contexts, industry and sector structure and landscape, and constraints clients are facing to grow their business. • Client/Stakeholder Engagement • Demonstrates active listening skills by paying full attention and asking questions to clarify client and stakeholder needs and gather required information. • Ability to interact effectively with clients and stakeholders by acting professionally, responding to their requests and inquiries, delivering what is promised, and meeting deadlines. • Capacity to build productive and mutually beneficial relationships and networks internally and externally to identify business opportunities and resolve issues is a plus. • Writing and Presentation Skills • Excellent written, verbal communication and presentation skills to effectively influence the perception and support of clients and stakeholders. • Ability to draft documents and reports that are concise, well-organized, and appropriately focused on the most critical points that are relevant to the target audience. • Utilize charts, graphs, and other presentation techniques to communicate complex data and concepts simply. • Articulate Value Proposition • Able to share valid opinions and new observations relevant to project outcomes with project leaders in a manner that is concise, cohesive and focused. • Ability to tailor explanations of IFC’s value proposition to specific clients and share relevant information on industry practices. • Excellent knowledge of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and aptitude to learn new systems is a must. Ability to use project management systems is a plus. • Client-oriented and be able to work under pressure to deliver tasks on time. • Excellent written, verbal communication and presentation skills plus fluency in English is must. Ability to speak a second language is a plus. Application Instructions: • Only online applications are accepted: do not email your application to the hiring manager or the HR contact (even if you have applied online), as it will be neither acknowledged nor accepted. • The hiring manager will contact only short-listed candidates for interviews. • Do not call/email to find out the status. Should you have difficulties submitting your application online, please contact the World Bank HR Help Desk at hrweb@worldbank.org

Tags: International Finance Corporation (IFC)