Principal, Program Manager

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

Principal, Program Manager

Overview
Mastercard Foundry is a global innovation group focused on the evolution of technology and consumer trends and the implication of these forces on the payments and commerce industry. Foundry is a collective of interdisciplinary teams powering Mastercard's ability to create and deliver differentiated products, services, and experiences. 

Within Foundry, the global Research and Development (R&D) team does applied research on emerging and advanced technologies and brings it to deliver new products at scale for Mastercard. 

Foundry R&D is made up of talented developers, engineers, scientists, designers, researchers, data specialists, and program managers. We build knowledge in emerging technologies like quantum computing, extended reality, privacy enhancing technologies, generative AI and machine learning to conceptualize and create new products, services and experiences for Mastercard. We also bring the knowledge of cutting and bleeding edge technology to create concepts of future which not only inspire our customers but also fosters the culture of Innovation within Mastercard.

We are looking for an experienced program manager to lead and oversee complex projects in a dynamic, fast-paced environment. The program manager will be responsible for driving internal or cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless project execution, and delivering results under changing circumstances. This is an opportunity to work on a diverse range of projects and make a significant impact on the organization’s success.

Role
This role will play a critical role in planning and executing the delivery of technical vision and roadmap, unlocking synergies across our platforms, data assets and business units. 
-  Will act as a central point of coordination for infrastructure and cloud capabilities for various R&D teams distributed across the globe to drive standardization, alignment across initiatives, and ensure global program governance best practices.

- Continuously work on finding ways to optimize manual processes with a lens of automation and help improve program execution in the new AI native world.
-  Act as the program liaison, provide specific direction for product development initiatives, supporting teams to ensure that all program engagements meet timelines and scope expectations. 
-  Drive Jira hygiene by maintaining high-quality backlogs, clear status tracking, and disciplined usage  

- Develop automated reporting solutions using AI tools and coding wherever applicable. Track burndown, utilization and delivery health metrics.

- Provide operational support for local initiatives, events like code drive, ongoing programs , code drive, local events and operational alignment   
-  Identify and remove barriers, finding the path forward in challenging situations to ensure timely and effective project completion
-  Recognize complexity and create predictable delivery paths for large and/or complex efforts, while measurably improving, streamlining, and eliminating excess processes. 


All About You

Proven knowledge and demonstrated expertise in the areas of strategy, planning and project management required processes and techniques.

Experience building and automating various operational dashboards using AI and other automation tools.

•  Strong leadership, interpersonal, relationship-building and communication skills required with a solid track record for developing internal and external relationships.
•  Ability to communicate complex issues & decisions in a clear and concise summary to executives, peers, and staff 
•  Demonstrate a high level of creative problem-solving, a strong personal presence, manage change, thrive when dealing with uncertainty, and demonstrate a focus on execution, and organization.  
•  Demonstrate strong planning, multi-tasking, prioritization and re-prioritization abilities 
•  Have Excellent Problem-Solving skills - pursues alternative ways to solve problems, address difficult situations, and produce actionable recommendations  
•  Experience with global operations and program management and working knowledge and exposure to AI best practices for program execution in an AI native development environment.

Knowledge and experience of working with Mastercard’s shared services teams and experience deploying global applications on cloud platforms is a definite plus.

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.