Managing Consultant, Advisors Program Management (Payments & Program Management Consultant)

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200 countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

Managing Consultant, Advisors Program Management (Payments & Program Management Consultant)

Summary

The Data & Services team is a key differentiator for Mastercard, providing end‑to‑end services that help our customers grow. We combine traditional management consulting with rich data assets and in‑house technology to deliver strategic insights and measurable outcomes. Advisors Program Management (Deploy) focuses on expert execution support—deployment and value realization—from implementation to adoption, usage, and product evolution.

Own high‑visibility payments programs —design the roadmap, execute delivery, and prove value with data. This Managing Consultant role blends strategy + execution: shaping issuer/acquirer changes and platform rollouts, shipping activation sprints and merchant initiatives, and landing regulatory/scheme updates with clean controls. You’ll partner cross‑functionally (Product, Risk, Operations, Compliance, Tech/Processor, Marketing) to lift activation, digital adoption, spend, balances, retention, and fee income, while maintaining an auditable control environment.

Why this is compelling for top performers
• Direct impact: You’ll move the metrics that matter and engage senior stakeholders on outcomes.
• Autonomy with backing: Decision space plus access to data, platforms, and subject matter experts (SMEs) to move fast and smart.
• Scale & variety: Multi‑program mandates across Saudi Arabia/EEMEA, spanning consumer and SME portfolios and omnichannel delivery.

The Role

As a Managing Consultant, Advisors Program Management (Payments & Program Management Consultant) you will have the following responsibilities:

Drive outcomes (not just activities)
• Program strategy & roadmap: Co‑create multi‑workstream plans (card issuance, card acquiring, product launches, ops readiness, analytics, marketing etc) and convert into quarterly objectives and key results with gated KPIs and risk‑controlled milestones.
• Payments delivery: Lead execution for platform enablement, digital payments adoption, issuer/acquirer change deliveries, authorization/fraud improvements, and regulatory/scheme updates—on time, on budget, in control.
• Lifecycle programs: Design and run activation, usage, balance build, retention across CRM, digital, branch/tele, and merchant channels—owning testing, targeting, controls, and in‑life optimization.
• Commercials & revenue levers: Recommend pricing constructs, fees, and merchant/GTM partnerships to grow program profitability within policy and customer‑experience guardrails.
• Analytics partnership: Build decisioning dashboards (activation, digital adoption, spend, attrition, balances) and test‑and‑learn experiments; rapidly operationalize insights.
• Change delivery & controls: Run structured delivery (RAID, gating, cutovers) for complex changes; maintain auditable documentation, sign‑offs, and evidence packs for compliance reviews.
• Stakeholder leadership: Align Product, Risk, Ops, Compliance, Marketing, Tech/Processor, and vendors; sustain weekly performance cadences and unblock decisions quickly.
• Value realization: Set success benchmarks (e.g., early‑life activation, digital adoption, usage, retention) and drive post‑launch optimization sprints to sustain gains.
• Activation & digital adoption: Uplift activation and wallet/tokenization/Click‑to‑Pay adoption.
• Spend & balances: Achieve measurable growth in monthly spend, balances, and fee income through orchestrated program.
• Retention & experience: Reduce churn via proactive playbooks and improve portfolio health metrics.
• Delivery excellence: Maintain clean audits, stable ops, and evidence‑based approvals; shorten cycle time from strategy to go‑live.

Payments execution (examples you’ll support)
• Platform changes & scheme updates with controlled cutovers and post‑launch stabilization (e.g., authentication/fraud tuning, wallet/tokenization adoption).
• Lifecycle program (activation, usage, balance build, retention) with defined cohorts, controls, and test‑and‑learn design; monitor impact and iterate.
• card + companion wallet rollouts: product setup, partner onboarding, and tokenized wallet flows.
• Portfolio migration/conversion program tied to new propositions: phased plan (pre‑conversion → implementation → post‑conversion), comms, and BAU handover.
• Tokenization & wallet enablement (Apple Pay / Google Pay / Samsung Pay): launch MDES‑backed tokens, set up push provisioning, and complete commercial + technical onboarding
• Design, launch, and scale end‑to‑end loyalty programs—from strategy & business case → platform/vendor selection & integration → earn/burn and catalog configuration → partner onboarding & GTM → migration & BAU handover → performance dashboards, governance, and continuous optimization.

Team Collaboration & Culture
• Distill complex analysis into clear decisions and presentations; influence senior stakeholders confidently.
• Plan and structure work for yourself and junior team members; lead or co‑lead project/program management forums.
• Contribute to Mastercard intellectual capital (playbooks, dashboards, case studies) and mentor colleagues—grow leaders, not just deliverables.
• Thought leadership: Publish internal best practices and present at client forums; help shape program standards across EEMEA.

All About You
• Experience: 8–12 years in payments programs, consulting, product development or project management with proven outcomes across consumer and/or SME portfolios; hands‑on delivery of platform changes and lifecycle programs.
• Lifecycle mastery: Design and execution of activation, usage, balance build, retention; fluency in digital payments adoption drivers (e.g., wallets/tokenization).
• Controls & compliance: Deliver changes within scheme/regulatory guardrails; strong ops readiness and documentation traceability.
• Analytics fluency: Data storytelling, experimentation, and decisioning; comfort with Excel/BI; experience defining dashboards and acting on insights.
• Stakeholder leadership: Track record aligning cross‑functional teams and vendors to deliver on time/on budget, with weekly performance rhythms.
• You can point to 3+ end‑to‑end payments program (design → controls → launch → optimization) with quantified outcomes.
• You’ve shipped complex platform changes and stabilized operations post‑launch.
• Stakeholders trust your judgment on P&L and customer experience and call you to solve hard problems fast.

All About Your Education & Skills
• Bachelor’s degree; advanced degree/MBA preferred.
• Fluent English; Arabic desirable for GCC stakeholders.
• Advanced PowerPoint/Excel/Word; familiarity with program/campaign tools and BI platforms; project management tools preferred.
• Certifications (nice‑to‑have): PMP/PRINCE2 or equivalent; exposure to payments platforms is a plus.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and stakeholder communication; strong organization and multitasking; analytical problem‑solving.
• Willingness to travel across EEMEA as needed.

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

• Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;

• Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;

• Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and

• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.