Director, Technical Program Management

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, Technical Program Management

Overview
The Applied AI, Data & UX organization is seeking a Director of Technical Program Management to lead and orchestrate a portfolio of high-priority, cross-functional programs spanning artificial intelligence, data platforms, and user experience engineering. As Mastercard accelerates its investment in AI-powered products and data-driven capabilities, this role will provide the technical leadership, delivery rigor, and cross-organizational alignment needed to bring complex, multi-team initiatives from concept to production at scale.
The ideal candidate brings a rare combination of deep technical fluency and enterprise program management discipline. They are equally comfortable reviewing a machine learning pipeline architecture, facilitating a trade-off discussion with product and engineering leadership, or authoring an executive-ready program status update. They thrive in environments where problems are not fully defined, stakeholders span multiple organizations, and delivering outcomes requires both structured thinking and adaptive execution.
Role
In this position, you will serve as the connective tissue across Applied AI, Data Engineering, and UX product teams — ensuring that high-impact programs are structured for success, resourced appropriately, and delivered with transparency and velocity.
- Lead end-to-end program management for a portfolio of strategic initiatives across Applied AI, data platforms, and UX engineering, from initial scoping and planning through delivery, operationalization, and steady-state handoff.
- Partner with engineering, data science, product, design, and architecture teams to develop integrated program plans that reflect technical dependencies, platform constraints, and delivery milestones.
- Drive cross-functional alignment across AI/ML, data, UX, infrastructure, security, privacy, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure programs are technically sound, compliant, and scalable.
- Establish and maintain program governance structures — including steering forums, decision frameworks, escalation pathways, and RAID (Risks, Actions, Issues, Dependencies) tracking — that enable timely decisions and sustained momentum.
- Translate complex technical workstreams into clear, executive-ready communications, including program roadmaps, milestone dashboards, decision briefs, and risk summaries for senior leadership and key stakeholders.
- Identify and proactively surface technical risks, cross-team dependencies, resource constraints, and delivery gaps — facilitating resolution before they impact program outcomes.
- Collaborate with product and engineering leaders to define program success metrics and ensure delivery teams have clear, measurable objectives aligned to business and technology strategy.
- Champion and continuously improve the technical program management operating model for the Applied AI, Data & UX organization, including tooling, templates, agile/hybrid delivery practices, and capacity planning processes.
- Support hiring, onboarding, and development of program management talent within the organization, fostering a culture of accountability, clarity, and continuous improvement.
All About You
The ideal candidate for this position should:
- Bring deep technical credibility — a background in software engineering, data engineering, machine learning, or a related discipline — with the ability to engage substantively with engineers, data scientists, and architects on technical design and delivery decisions.
- Demonstrate mastery of program management for complex, enterprise-scale technology initiatives, including experience delivering AI/ML products, data platform modernization, or large-scale UX transformation programs.
- Excel at operating in ambiguity — defining structure, clarifying ownership, and establishing accountability in environments where program scope and stakeholder alignment are still evolving.
- Bring advanced cross-functional leadership skills, with a proven ability to align and influence senior technical and business stakeholders across distributed organizations without relying on formal authority.
- Communicate with precision and impact — able to distill technically complex topics into concise, actionable narratives for executive audiences, and translate strategic direction into executable plans for delivery teams.
- Show strong analytical and strategic judgment, including the ability to assess technical trade-offs, weigh delivery risk against business urgency, and guide leaders to well-reasoned decisions.
- Be proficient with modern program and portfolio management tools and methodologies (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Aha!, scaled agile frameworks, OKR-based planning) and able to adapt delivery approaches to the needs of each program.
- Demonstrate curiosity and a learning orientation toward emerging AI/ML capabilities, data ecosystem trends, and human-centered design practices, with the ability to quickly develop working knowledge in new technical domains.
- Model Mastercard values: bringing a collaborative, inclusive, and enterprise-minded approach that builds durable team relationships and long-term organizational capability.

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.