Manager, Program Manager – Cardholder Services

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, Program Manager – Cardholder Services

The Cardholder Services team is looking for a Program Manager who can act as a business owner and maintain relationships with UK&I stakeholders and key customers, consistently innovating and problem-solving to drive the Cardholder Services strategy forward. The ideal candidate should possess a passion for demonstrating the value of our cardholder solutions and enhancing customer experience, be highly motivated, have an analytical and intellectually curious mindset, and possess an entrepreneurial spirit.

This role requires a balance of strategic thinking and hands-on execution. While you will be expected to develop growth opportunities, influence stakeholders, and help shape market strategy, you will also be accountable for the day-to-day management and successful delivery of Cardholder Services programs, ensuring operational excellence and a consistently high customer experience.

In this client-facing position, you will:

· Drive business growth for Cardholder Services in UK&I in partnership with internal and external stakeholders.

· Work with financial institutions and Fintechs to showcase the added value of our cardholder solutions, identify growth opportunities and resolve operational issues.

· Be responsible for delivering customer programs with excellence, ensuring quick and accurate responses to key stakeholders, and managing escalations and client expectations, both one-to-one and market-wide initiatives.

· Take responsibility for driving Cardholder revenue through existing and new business opportunities.

· Combine market trends, customer insights, and product expertise to develop strategic recommendations and growth opportunities for customers and internal stakeholders.

· Operate with a high degree of autonomy, taking ownership of priorities, driving growth initiatives, and proactively resolving client and operational challenges.

· Support the development of Cardholder Services sales strategy and objectives and provide training, shape sales narratives and support sales colleagues with product knowledge.

· Collaborate with third-party vendors to deliver valuable products and services to existing customers on time.

All About You

· Significant experience managing client relationships and senior within the payments, financial services, fintech, loyalty, or adjacent industries.

· Strong understanding of product management, product commercialization, and solution configuration, with the ability to align product capabilities to customer needs and business objectives.

· Proven ability to build trusted relationships with clients and internal stakeholders to identify customer needs and design appropriately configured solutions that drive growth.

· Proven track record of growing revenue, developing business cases, and identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

·Strong communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.

·Experience presenting business cases, strategic recommendations, and performance updates to senior executives and decision makers.

· Able to handle multiple priorities, work independently, think laterally and manage multiple issues under the pressure of conflicting constraints and limited resources.

· Attentive to details with an ability to understand and manage both operational and client management processes

· Proven ability to operate effectively at both strategic and operational levels, balancing executive stakeholder engagement, commercial opportunity development, and hands-on program delivery.


All About Your Education & Skills

· Experience in relevant industries and roles

· Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification

· Comfortable with significant senior client interaction and relationship building

· Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills required

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.