Vice President, Strategy & Operations

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

Vice President, Strategy & Operations

Role Overview
We are seeking a transformational leader to shape the strategy, governance, and execution of critical enterprise platforms that enable customer onboarding, customer performance on the network, and franchise compliance across Mastercard's ecosystem.
As a trusted partner to executive stakeholders across Technology, Franchise, Legal, and Business organizations, you will play a pivotal role in driving alignment around priorities, investments, and outcomes. Success in this role requires exceptional executive communication skills, the ability to craft compelling narratives from complex business and technology initiatives, and the influence to mobilize leaders across organizational boundaries.
You will lead the operating rhythm for a portfolio of highly visible enterprise initiatives, establishing governance frameworks, driving strategic decision-making, and ensuring execution remains aligned to business objectives. The ideal candidate combines strategic thinking with operational excellence and is comfortable navigating ambiguity, balancing competing priorities, and leading through organizational complexity.
In addition to leading a team of senior Technical Program Management (TPM) and Product Management – Technical (PMT) leaders, you will foster alignment across multiple platform organizations, helping translate enterprise strategy into measurable business outcomes while strengthening Mastercard's customer and franchise capabilities.

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What You'll Do
Lead Enterprise Platform Strategy
• Define and drive strategic direction for enterprise platforms supporting customer onboarding, merchant enablement, network performance, and compliance.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to align platform investments with business priorities and customer needs.
• Establish operating models that enable scalability, consistency, and enterprise-wide adoption.
Drive Executive Alignment & Influence
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior technology and business leaders.
• Lead executive discussions, governance reviews, and strategic planning forums.
• Develop compelling narratives that translate complex technical initiatives into business outcomes and actionable decisions.
Enable Enterprise Execution
• Guide multiple cross-functional programs and platform initiatives across Engineering, Product, Operations, Franchise, and Legal organizations.
• Ensure alignment across teams managing shared capabilities, dependencies, and strategic objectives.
• Drive accountability for outcomes, execution health, risk management, and operational excellence.
Build and Develop Leaders
• Lead and mentor a team of Principal and Lead Technical Program Management professionals.
• Foster a culture focused on strategic thinking, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Elevate organizational capabilities in program management, stakeholder engagement, and executive communication.
Champion Data & Customer-Focused Outcomes
• Drive initiatives that improve customer onboarding experiences and ecosystem participation.
• Ensure strong governance and integrity of critical data supporting franchise and compliance requirements.
• Leverage data and insights to measure performance, identify opportunities, and drive continuous optimization.
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What You Bring
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-scale technology organizations, programs, or platforms in highly matrixed environments.
• Exceptional executive communication, storytelling, presentation, and documentation skills.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive decisions across business and technology organizations.
• Experience leading leaders and managing organizations responsible for strategic delivery and platform outcomes.
• Strong knowledge of large-scale data ecosystems, cloud technologies, and distributed enterprise platforms.
• Experience supporting customer-facing products and market-facing technology solutions.
• Ability to balance enterprise strategy with operational execution and measurable business results.
• Strong partnership-oriented mindset with experience building alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.
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Success Profile
The ideal candidate will:
• Be viewed as a trusted advisor by executive leadership.
• Drive alignment across complex organizations and competing priorities.
• Deliver clear, compelling narratives that accelerate decision-making.
• Build high-performing teams and leadership pipelines.
• Create measurable improvements in customer onboarding, network performance, compliance, and data quality.
• Foster collaboration across Product, Engineering, Franchise, Legal, and Operations organizations.

Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact [email protected] and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

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.

In line with Mastercard’s total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Mastercard benefits for full time (and certain part time) employees generally include: insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance); flexible spending account and health savings account; paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave); 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire; 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays; 401k with a best-in-class company match; deferred compensation for eligible roles; fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities; eligibility for tuition reimbursement; and many more. Mastercard benefits for interns generally include: 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations.

Pay Ranges

O'Fallon, Missouri: $200,000 - $330,000 USD