Director, Foundational Product Management Capability Development

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

Director, Foundational Product Management Capability Development

At Mastercard, we are investing in world-class foundational Product Management capability to help teams build more commercially impactful products. This role will shape how core Product Management skills are built at scale across a global organisation at a time when AI is fundamentally changing how Product work gets done.

Reporting to the Head of Product & Customer Experience Academy, this is a high-visibility leadership role with the opportunity to shape a critical capability agenda across Mastercard’s global Product organisation. The successful candidate will combine strategic thinking, operational discipline, commercial judgement, and strong influence to create a scalable, high-impact academy that strengthens Product performance and readiness for an AI-enabled future.

Why This Role Matters
This is a rare opportunity to build a capability platform that will shape Product performance across Mastercard globally. The person in role will help Product Managers make better decisions, move faster from idea to value, and adapt to a future in which AI is transforming both the products we build and the way Product work is done.

Role Responsibilities
Foundational Capability Strategy & Academy Development
• Shape Mastercard’s global foundational Product Management academy, ensuring it reflects the core skills, behaviours, and ways of working needed for strong Product performance.
• Translate priority capability needs into a clear, practical roadmap aligned to product quality, velocity, and commercial outcomes.
• Ensure learning is scalable, relevant, and increasingly delivered in the flow of work, using AI-enabled approaches to strengthen application and learning transfer.
• Continuously innovate the academy model so it remains effective in a fast-changing Product environment.

Stakeholder Engagement & Cross-Functional Partnership
• Build trusted relationships with Product leaders, People & Capability partners, and other key stakeholders to shape priorities and maintain alignment.
• Influence across a global, matrixed environment, bringing stakeholders together to drive decisions, delivery, and adoption.
• Act as a connector across teams, ensuring the academy remains coherent, high quality, and responsive to business need.

Programme Management & Delivery Excellence
• Lead end-to-end programme management across a complex portfolio, from planning and governance through to delivery, risk management, and continuous improvement.
• Bring exceptional organisation and execution discipline, managing milestones, dependencies, budgets, and stakeholder commitments with rigour.
• Scale solutions efficiently, balancing quality, speed, and value for money to deliver strong business impact.

Supplier & Partner Management
• Manage external suppliers and partners to ensure strong quality, performance, and learner experience.
• Bring commercial rigour to partner management, budget oversight, and delivery planning, securing scale, efficiency, and value for money.
• Maintain clear oversight of timelines, deliverables, and contractual expectations.

Marketing, Communications & Adoption
• Create compelling positioning, communications, and activation plans that make the academy visible, valued, and adopted at scale.
• Articulate the case for change, including why foundational capability and AI-enabled ways of working matter now.
• Use insight, data, and feedback to continuously improve engagement, learning transfer, and impact.

All About You
• A highly organised, strategic programme leader who can translate ambitious capability goals into practical, high-impact solutions.
• Strong experience in programme management, capability building, learning, talent, or related fields, ideally in a global, matrixed organisation.
• Commercially minded, with confidence managing budgets, suppliers, and trade-offs to achieve scale and value for money.
• A credible influencer who builds trusted relationships quickly and works effectively with senior stakeholders and cross-functional partners.
• Strong communication, marketing, and change activation skills, with the ability to create momentum and adoption.
• Knowledge of Product Management, Product organisations, or capability building in technical or commercial environments is highly desirable.
• Curious, adaptable, and energised by innovation, with an interest in how AI can improve Product work and learning effectiveness.

Core Skills
• Programme Leadership
• Stakeholder Influence
• Supplier & Budget Management
• Marketing, Communications & Adoption
• Commercial & Capability Orientation
• Innovative Learning Delivery
• AI-Aware Product Capability

What Success Looks Like
• A credible, scalable foundational Product Management academy is in place across Mastercard globally.
• Stakeholders are aligned and confident in the quality, relevance, and business value of the capability strategy.
• Learning solutions are delivered efficiently, with strong budget discipline, value for money, and visible adoption at scale.
• Product Managers are better equipped to perform, adapt to AI-enabled ways of working, and contribute to stronger product outcomes.

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.