Director, Government Affairs

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.

The post holder will be responsible for overseeing the work of Mastercard’s UK Government Affairs department in managing the relationships between Mastercard and politicians, civil servants and other government officials, central banks and other key third party stakeholders. Based in London but with regular travel across the UK and occasional travel to other countries, the post holder is accountable to the Vice President, Government Affairs, UK; and in turn part of the global Government Affairs and Policy division. The post holder will also contribute to the logistical running of the department, managing the day to day relationship with consultancy support and other suppliers; supporting the production of thought leadership and strategies for engaging stakeholders across the UK. The post holder will also be responsible for owning and developing a number of thematic ‘specialisms’ within the UK Government Affairs team (e.g. Open Banking/Open Finance, AI, Fraud, Cyber etc). The post holder will be responsible for maintaining open communication channels with wider Mastercard Government Affairs colleagues to ensure consistent messaging and approach to stakeholder management. The post will be a permanent role.

The postholder will:

• Engage in direct advocacy with UK policymakers to advance policy priorities and mitigate legislative risk.
• Anticipate significant policy and political trends and develop strategies to navigate the environment.
• Coordinate strategy, identify deliverables, track results, and report progress to management across a wide range of policy issues.
• Communicate regularly with internal business line owners to ensure awareness of potential risks and benefits of various legislative initiatives.
• Provide senior management with guidance and analysis on key policy issues to enable informed business decisions.
• Working with the Vice President for Industry Relations, UK, engage relevant trade associations, industry organisations and 3rd parties to advance Mastercard’s policy priorities.
• Build meaningful relationships with Parliamentarians, civil servants, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Manage the production and dissemination of materials to support Mastercard’s engagement of external stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities and develop strategies to engage key stakeholders on a range of issues using different means to do so.
• Manage the day-to-day relationship with external consultancy service providers.

Knowledge & Experience we are looking for:

• Experience of working in a public policy/public affairs/government relations role either in a consultancy/agency, in house or trade association in a related field.
• Knowledge of and experience of public policy issues in the payments market; tech or wider Fintech or banking sectors.
• Knowledge and experience of the UK political and legislative process.
• Experience of managing the development of internal positions and responses to external stimuli (e.g. Government policy).
• Strong written communication skills and capable of producing high quality written work for different audiences.
• Strong verbal communication, presentation and influencing skills.
• Comfortable engaging directly with senior internal and external stakeholders.
• Fluency in English – oral and written.
• Must be able to work effectively and lead across a matrix organisation; building successful working relationships within the business.
• Capable of handling competing demands on their time and delivering tasks to often tight deadlines.
• Excellent attention to detail.

Desirable Knowledge and Expertise:

• Experience of working for Government or a regulatory authority (payments, financial services or economic regulator).
• Detailed knowledge of one or a number of issues including Open Banking/Open Finance; crypto assets and stable coin; Artificial Intelligence.
• Experience of working with or in EU-level or other international political institutions.
• Business language skills. Additional language/s (conversational or fluent).
• Experience of working in multinational and multicultural environments.

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.

About Us

Everyone wants easier ways to pay; we invent them. Checkout lines are slow; we speed them along. Merchants want more sales; we give them data and insights. People need financial access; we connect them. Corporate purchasing is complicated; we make it simple. Commuters are busy; we speed them on their way. Small businesses are virtual; we give them access to a world of buyers.