Lead Product Manager

Position:
Lead Product Manager-Technical

Company:
Mastercard

Location:
United States, O'Fallon

Employment type:
Full time

Work Arrangement:
Hybrid (3 days onsite)

Short Summary:
Mastercard’s Global Credit Card Authorization team is seeking a Lead Product Manager – Technical to drive the evolution of their authorization platform, focusing on secure, real-time transaction decisioning at a global scale.

Responsibilities:
- Own and define platform building blocks, including requirements, technical specifications, and user experience considerations.
- Define and execute product strategy and roadmap for credit card authorization capabilities.
- Apply the Working Backwards methodology to drive clarity of product vision, customer value, and measurable outcomes.
- Decompose complex business and technical requirements into well-defined user stories with clear acceptance criteria.
- Prioritize and maintain a well-groomed product backlog that balances near-term delivery with long-term platform strategy.
- Lead elaboration and refinement sessions, ensuring alignment for accurate estimation and delivery planning.
- Partner closely with engineering teams to deliver scalable, low-latency, and highly resilient systems.
- Continuously innovate on behalf of internal and external customers, improving authorization performance, reliability, and approval rates.
- Define how new capabilities integrate into the broader Mastercard platform ecosystem.
- Leverage data and performance metrics to inform decisions and optimize customer experience.
- Identify potential commercialization opportunities and collaborate with product development teams to bring them to market.
- Serve as a domain expert for authorization platforms, driving long-term evolution beyond individual initiatives.
- Communicate product vision, priorities, and outcomes to senior leadership and global stakeholders.

Requirement:
- Previous experience as a Technical Product Manager or Product Manager in payments, fintech, or other high-scale, real-time systems.
- Proven track record of leading large-scale technical programs from concept through delivery, with measurable business impact.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and align cross-functional stakeholders across multiple teams and organizations.
- Deep expertise in Agile/SAFe methodologies, with experience leading multiple teams across complex programs.
- Technical proficiency within the payments domain (Authorization, Clearing, Settlement).
- Systems-level technical understanding, able to partner with engineering on architecture, APIs, and platform design decisions.
- Comfortable leveraging modern tools and platforms such as MS Copilot, MS Project, Monday.com, Jira, Confluence, Aha!, Figma, Power BI, Easy BI, or similar.
- Analytical and data-driven mindset, defining KPIs, dashboards, and metrics to measure program success and optimize outcomes.
- Strong business acumen: understands ROI, cost optimization, and revenue impact of programs.
- Skilled in cross-org strategic planning, shaping roadmaps, prioritizing initiatives, and making trade-offs across speed, cost, and quality.
- Proactive problem-solver, able to navigate ambiguity, evolving requirements, and complex technical challenges.
- Experienced in organizational change and adoption, driving consistent process improvements and operational excellence.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into clear business context.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field. Equivalent practical experience may also be considered.

Compensation:
$130,000 - $221,000 USD

Benefits:
- Insurance (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.
- 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.
- Many more.