Manager, AI Innovation & Ecosystem Programs (Greater China)

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

Manager, AI Innovation & Ecosystem Programs (Greater China)

As a Program Manager within the AI Center of Excellence based in Singapore, you will lead the end-to-end orchestration of Mastercard's AI initiatives across China, driving client co-innovation, ecosystem partnerships, and the development of AI-powered payment and commerce use cases. Working at the intersection of AI, product innovation, and solution deployment, you will help translate global AI capabilities into locally relevant, scalable solutions while coordinating cross-industry efforts to advance trusted, responsible, and high-impact AI adoption across the China market.

Role

You will own the overall programme strategy and execution for AI initiatives in China spanning internal innovation, client engagements, and public-private collaborations. This includes aligning global AI capabilities with China market priorities, managing complex multi-stakeholder programmes, and ensuring delivery outcomes are measurable, scalable, and commercially and strategically impactful.

You will act as a key interface between global teams, regional leadership, and external partners (clients, technology partners, and ecosystem stakeholders), ensuring that collaboration translates into tangible deployment and value creation.


Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of AI programmes in China, from strategy and roadmap through execution, deployment, and scaling.
• Orchestrate cross-functional initiatives across engineering, data science, product, governance, privacy, security, and risk teams.
• Drive collaboration with clients and strategic partners to co-develop and deploy AI use cases tailored to China market needs.
• Align global AI capabilities, toolkits, and frameworks with local business priorities, regulatory considerations, and ecosystem dynamics.
• Manage programme roadmaps, dependencies, and risks across multiple concurrent initiatives, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery.
• Track outcomes and impact (e.g., adoption, performance, business value), and continuously refine programme direction.
• Represent Mastercard in selected industry forums, client engagements, and ecosystem partnerships related to AI innovation and trust.
• Ensure strong governance, documentation, and auditability across programmes, including clear decision logs and delivery artefacts.
• Communicate programme progress, risks, and outcomes to senior leadership, including regional and global stakeholders.
• Lead creation of working prototypes and demos, including UI/UX visualisation (agent interfaces, conversational flows).
• Conduct end-to-end payment flow simulations using tools such as AI sandboxes, Digital Labs, LLM integrations, and agent orchestration tools.
• Build client-facing demos to support issuer and partner engagement.


All About You

Must Have

• Proven experience leading complex, enterprise-scale programmes in AI, data, technology transformation, product innovation, or solution deployment from concept through adoption.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to drive alignment across global, regional, and external partners without direct authority.
• Experience working in cross-border or multi-market environments, ideally with exposure to China market dynamics.
• Strong programme leadership, with the ability to manage ambiguity, prioritise effectively, and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Experience developing, prototyping, or implementing AI-powered products, solutions, or customer experiences.
• Given the focus of this role on China, you will need excellent executive communication skills in both English and Mandarin, with the ability to translate technical concepts into clear business value narratives.

Preferred

• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts, use cases, and lifecycle management.
• Experience working with clients, partners, or ecosystem stakeholders on co-innovation or joint delivery programmes.
• Exposure to AI governance, Responsible AI, or trust frameworks.
• Experience engaging with public sector, industry bodies, or regulatory stakeholders in China.


Success Measures

• Strong client and partner engagement, resulting in co-developed solutions and sustained collaborations.
• Effective alignment between global AI capabilities and China market needs.
• Tangible contribution to Mastercard's positioning as a trusted AI partner in the China ecosystem.

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.