Senior Specialist, HR Services (Benefits) – Europe (South & Growth Countries)

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

Senior Specialist, HR Services (Benefits) – Europe (South & Growth Countries)

Overview
People Services is part of Mastercard’s Global Business Services Center (GBSC), delivering consistent, high-quality HR services across the organization. Supporting multiple regions and time zones, the team ensures operational excellence, compliance, and a strong employee experience.

The Senior Specialist, HR Services (Benefits) plays a critical role in supporting and stabilizing Benefits operations across Europe South and Growth countries. This role requires a high level of autonomy, accountability, and problem-solving capability, operating as a trusted expert in a complex, multi-country environment.

Beyond day-to-day administration, this role is responsible for owning complex processes end-to-end, resolving issues independently, strengthening controls, and ensuring audit readiness. The Senior Specialist acts as a go-to expert for benefits operations, handling escalations, driving continuous improvement, and supporting operational excellence across the region.

This is a hands-on, operational role with high ownership, requiring someone who is comfortable working independently, making decisions within governance frameworks, and proactively identifying and solving problems.

Is This You?
• Do you bring proven experience in HR operations, benefits administration, or shared services within an international environment?
• Are you comfortable working independently, taking full ownership of your activities with limited supervision?
• Do you naturally identify issues, investigate root causes, and implement solutions?
• Do you enjoy managing complex, multi-country processes and navigating ambiguity?
• Are you confident handling escalations, audits, and vendor interactions?
• Do you combine a strong service mindset with rigor, accuracy, and control?
• Do you thrive in a fast-paced environment where priorities evolve and problems need quick resolution?

Role Responsibilities
• Act as a Senior Tier 2 expert for Europe Benefits, managing complex employee inquiries and escalations with a high level of ownership and accuracy
• Manage case intake and resolution in Workday Help (Ask People Services), handling an average volume of ~25 cases per day while maintaining quality, compliance, and SLAs
• Own end-to-end benefits administration processes for assigned countries, including eligibility, lifecycle events, and vendor coordination
• Operate as a subject matter expert, providing guidance on country-specific benefits policies, processes, and compliance requirements
• Independently resolve complex operational issues, identifying root causes and driving sustainable solutions
• Partner with external vendors and brokers, ensuring service quality, issue resolution, and alignment with contractual commitments
• Perform data validation, reconciliations, and invoice checks, ensuring accuracy and financial control
• Ensure audit readiness and compliance, maintaining documentation, approvals, and evidence in line with internal policies and regulatory requirements
• Support key activities such as renewals, open enrolment, compliance reviews, and country-specific initiatives
• Monitor SLAs, operational metrics, and risk indicators, proactively identifying and addressing gaps or recurring issues
• Collaborate with HR, Payroll, HRIS, Finance, and regional stakeholders to ensure accurate and timely service delivery
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives, simplifying processes and improving efficiency and employee experience
• Maintain and update process documentation and knowledge base, ensuring accuracy and consistency
• Support onboarding and knowledge sharing within the team

All About You
• Proven experience in HR operations, benefits administration, or shared services (multi-country exposure preferred)
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and manage responsibilities with minimal supervision
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to analyse issues, identify root causes, and implement solutions
• High level of ownership, accountability, and attention to detail
• Experience handling complex cases, audits, reconciliations, and vendor interactions
• Strong understanding of controls, compliance, and governance frameworks
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-volume environment
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Customer-focused mindset with a solution-oriented approach
• Fluent in English (written and spoken)
• Strong proficiency in Excel and MS Office
• Experience with Workday is a 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.