Director, Service Strategy

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 Real-Time Payments (RTP) International team at Mastercard is at the forefront of transforming global payments infrastructure. As real-time payment systems become increasingly vital to economies and financial ecosystems, Mastercard is delivering scalable, resilient, and secure solutions for domestic and cross-border transactions.

Director, Service Management Strategy will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategy to enable service resilience, technology transformation, and client-focused service operations across the live-markets portfolio of RTP International. This position demands exceptional stakeholder management and organizational skills as the individual will govern and manage service improvement initiatives that require seamless collaboration across business units and regions. The role involves shaping, executing and evolving the service roadmap to achieve a stable and resilient Real-Time Payments service.

• Service Strategy & Innovation
  • Define and measure Service level agreements externally and manage internal teams with tightly defined Operational level agreements.
  • Govern the Real time Payments service with regular service reviews with internal technology teams and third-party vendors.
  • Collaborate with product, engineering, and infrastructure teams to align operational readiness with product roadmaps and launches.
  • Define strategic initiatives to modernize service platforms, introducing automation, AIOps, observability, and intelligent alerting.
  • Drive growth and profitability by socializing issues and potential solutions that improve service resilience and stability.
• Technology Leadership
  • Leverage experience to create scalable service models that align with diverse client needs across geographies.
  • Guide strategic engagements with clients, participant banks and regulators to ensure service expectations and technical capabilities are fully aligned.
  • Act as an advisor internally and externally, translating complex technical and operational concepts into clear, actionable strategies.
• Team Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Lead the service operations teams in identifying, structuring, and prioritizing the service metrics and measure the OLAs.
  • Drive progress on team goals and internal strategic projects focused on operational improvements, customer satisfaction, and communications.
  • Monitor market trends and organizational performance, as well as utilizing customer data, to identify risks and implement action plans that protect and enhance customer trust.
  • Identify and lead efficiency initiatives that directly improve customer-facing operations and organizational performance.

About You

• Experience in technology or service management roles, ideally within Financial services or Real-time payments ecosystems.
• Deep understanding of real-time payment systems, regulatory requirements, and high-availability architectures.
• Exceptional leadership, stakeholder engagement, and communication skills; comfortable influencing C-level stakeholders and regulators.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills with a bias for execution and measurable results.
• Proven track record of leading high-stakes strategic projects with significant impact, demonstrating an ability to navigate and influence at the highest levels of the organization.
• A problem-solver with an analytical mindset, capable of cutting through noise and complexity to deliver clear, actionable insights.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and motivate cross-functional and cross-regional teams without direct reporting lines, showcasing strong leadership and collaboration skills.
• Proven ability to influence various senior stakeholders and drive substantial change, requiring excellent communication and negotiation skills.
• A self-starter who can set challenging and meaningful goals for the team and deliver tangible results in a fast-paced environment.
• Highly developed presentation, facilitation, and communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Providing leadership, direction and development to junior team members.

Qualifications

• Certifications in ITIL preferred.
• Good understanding of payments services in a financial institution.

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.