Closing date: Sunday, 4 January 2015

Background / General description

Sustainable environment and natural resources management (ENRM) is at the heart of the WBG's poverty agenda. Biodiversity and natural resources constitute the social safety net of the poor, representing a food bank and often their only source of livelihood.

Sustainable ENRM promotes a green, clean, and resilient world where natural resources - from forests to fisheries, freshwater, oceans, and ecosystems - are managed to support livelihoods and strong economies. It shares prosperity by transferring wealth from downstream beneficiaries of ecosystem services to upstream communities who carry the opportunity costs of protecting nature. It reverses the growing trend of urban areas becoming unlivable because of waste disposal problems and air, landscape, and water pollution that threaten human health and labor productivity. It builds good environmental governance supported by credible institutions, coherent policies, and the capacity to implement them.

Sustainable ENRM builds a world better prepared for shocks and global challenges, helping countries limit their exposure to more-frequent natural disasters, more-volatile weather patterns, and the long-term consequences of climate change. It prevents ecological collapse and the large-scale descent into poverty and conflict that would follow.

The Environment & Natural Resources Global Practice (GENDR) has three broad and distinct functions

1. Provide clients with lending and non-lending services aimed to support

• sustainable natural resources management with focus on forests, fisheries, biodiversity, watersheds, coastal areas, and oceans;
• pollution management; and
• environment, natural resources management, and climate change policy reforms.

2. Work closely with other sectors, including by leveraging GEF grant financing, to mainstream environmental considerations into their policies, strategies, and operations, and address policy, governance, and infrastructure failures that lead to boom and bust economies.

3. Provide technical input to other sectors to implement the Bank's environmental (safeguard) policies, ensure development interventions do no environmental harm, and develop opportunities for them to do good.

Regional Context

The World Bank Group serves 30 client countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LCR). Clients in the region range from large rapidly growing sophisticated middle income clients to IDA countries to small Caribbean states to one fragile state. Despite immense resources, dynamic societies, and an average annual per capita income of about $4,000 deep inequalities persist in most LCR countries, with nearly a quarter of the Region's people living in poverty. The Bank's strategy in LCR is focused on five pillars: (a) stimulating growth and improving competitiveness; (b) reducing poverty and inequality; (c) making governments and institutions work for people; (d) providing a platform for tackling global issues (climate change, trade, disease, migration), and (e) reducing risk, whether from extreme weather events, climate change, crime and violence or other.

The ENR Global Practice (GP) works with LCR clients to internalize the socioeconomic impact of environmental degradation and supports their efforts to improve natural resource management, address climate change challenges (particularly adaptation), and promote investment in sustainable infrastructure. The ENR GP pursues these objectives by:

1. financing programs that support policy reforms and investments in environmental improvements and sustainable natural resources management;
2. providing technical assistance and advisory services (including cross support to other units and fee-for-service programs);
3. undertaking analytical work in response to client demands and needs;
4. mobilizing grant resources and innovative financing instruments to complement IBRD and IDA financing and
5. supporting teams across GPs in improving project environmental management.

The ENR GP has a team of 35+ staff working in LCR, half of them based in Country Offices. The ENR portfolio in LCR includes about 80 projects and activities, under preparation and implementation with an overall financing envelope of more than $2 billion. It is supported by a variety of financial instruments (investment and development policy lending, advisory services) and funding sources, including IBRD loans, IDA credits and grants from the Global Environment Facility, the Adaptation Fund, the Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund, and other donor trust funds. In addition to own-managed work, the LCR ENR team provides environmental management support to projects managed by other GPs, including on the application of environmental safeguard policies.

Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year term appointment.

Duties and Accountabilities

GENDR is seeking a Senior Environmental Engineer - or professional with similar background (civil engineer, chemical engineer, hydro-geologist, etc.) - who would provide support in the area of pollution and environmental management, including water quality management, air quality management, wastewater treatment, hazardous waste management, air pollution control, water quality, noise management, environmental monitoring networks, environmental remediation, groundwater remediation, hazardous materials and oil spill control, cleaner production, and environmental management systems, for a growing investment portfolio and analytical work program in LCR countries.

The Sr. Environmental Specialist will be based in the World Bank's Office in Washington, DC and will report to the Practice Manager for LCR. S/he will work as an integral part of the LCR ENR team, and coordinate closely with the Lead Technical Specialist for Pollution Management in order to provide technical expertise and leadership with regard to investment and policy lending, analytical work, and global practices.

The Sr. Environmental Engineer will be responsible for building long-term business relationships with national and local stakeholders through policy dialogue; developing lending projects and task management; leading strategic communications and outreach activities on environment and pollution management in order to ensure that best practices and lessons learned are reflected in the Bank operations. Specifically, her/his responsibilities will include

(i) Policy dialogue and strategy development

• Leading policy dialogue with key Government counterparts on environment and pollution management and participating in policy dialogue carried out by other GPs in order to ensure consistency and coherence.
• Developing state of the art analytical and advisory activities in the environmental management and pollution control area;
• Promoting innovations in sector policies and strategies in the environmental management and pollution control area; and
• Keeping management and staff in the ENR GP regularly updated on the state-of-the-art in pollution and environmental management in LCR.

(ii) Business development

• Developing the Bank's environment and pollution management work program in LCR and monitoring its implementation with government agencies and stakeholders.

(ii) Task management and quality control

• Task managing environmental management and pollution control loans.
• Undertaking task management of cutting edge analytical work and lending operations
• Support the relevant Lead Technical Specialist to ensure the quality of the portfolio.
• Peer-reviewing pollution control and environmental management operations Bank-wide

(iii) Knowledge Management

• Managing knowledge products and training activities to improve best practices in the environment sector both within and outside the Bank;
• Engaging with civil society organizations, academia and private sector partners

  Fluency in Spanish is essential for this position; candidates with less than advanced level of proficiency would need to commit to undertake intensive language training.

Selection Criteria

The selected candidate should have the following qualifications

• Advanced degree (Ph.D. or Masters) in Civil and Environmental Engineering or other relevant discipline with specialization in pollution management, including academic and research experience;
• At least 8 years of full-time relevant operational experience including the design and implementation of projects and analytical work in environment related areas; support to clients in initiating and implementing programs/projects with development impact; design and procurement of civil works, analytical work and other consultancy services and relevant activities;
• Understanding of the institutional and political context and exposure to the environmental policy challenges specific to the LCR countries;
• Ability to effectively communicate and provide guidance to clients and non-environmental specialists;
• Proven capacity to engage in high level dialogue on complex environmental issues, and to engage both at the high policy level and at the community level;
• Direct experience as Task Team Leader in identifying, preparing, appraising, and supervising operations, particularly investment lending operations, and analytic and advisory activities;
• Demonstrated familiarity with Bank procedures, procurement of large civil works, business practices; as well as strong business development skills;
• Demonstrated experience in delivering results in multi-tasking and multi-sector environments;
• Demonstrated skills and commitment to: Client Orientation; Drive for Results; Teamwork (collaboration) and Inclusion; Knowledge, Learning and Communication; and Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making.
• Strong track record of delivering high quality products in a timely manner and within budget;
• Excellent writing and communication skills in English, Spanish and/or Portuguese;
• Previous experiences in field assignments are desired.

Competencies (Level GG, Environmental Engineer)

• Knowledge and Experience in Environmental Management and Pollution Control - Translates technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies; interacts with clients at the policy level.
• Policy Dialogue Skills - Anticipates needs and requests in the field and conducts independent policy discussions with representatives of the government and non-government partners.
• Integrative Skills - Understands relevant cross-sectoral areas how they are interrelated; able to undertake cross-sectoral work in lending and non-lending operations.
• Project Design for Impact and Sustainability - Leads to the design of effective investment projects in pollution control and environmental management.
• Operational Project Management - Demonstrates in depth knowledge and understanding of infrastructure project management tools & methodologies, as well as of Bank instruments and processes related to project preparation & implementation, resource management, and stakeholder communications.
• Operational Policies Application to the Project Cycle (fiduciary, disbursement, procurement, and GAC policies) - Possesses a strong understanding of procurement and disbursement policies; knows what issues might arise and who to involve in problem resolution, especially in investment lending.
• Team Leadership - Leads teams to achieve challenging outcomes, providing a role model and enhancing the team-leadership skills of team members.
• Client Orientation - Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.
• Drive for Results - Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Leads in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.
• Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Gathers inputs, assesses risk, considers impact and articulates benefits of decisions for internal and external stakeholders over the long term.

Application Information: http://web.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=8454041&piPK=8454059&theSitePK=8453353&JobNo=141499&contentMDK=23158967&order=descending&sortBy=job-req-num&location=ALL&menuPK=8453611