Director, Program Management in London

The Real-Time Payments International (RTPI) team is seeking an experienced Director, Program Management to orchestrate, plan and lead end-to-end execution of RTP products and services across global live markets, aligning multiple teams and stakeholders. This role is accountable for ensuring that RTPI products and services are delivered with rigor, predictability, and quality in a highly complex, matrixed environment. Success requires strong planning and orchestration across Product Vertical, Technology, Operations, Markets, and Go-To-Market teams, aligning multiple stakeholders around shared priorities, milestones, and outcomes.

In this strategic position, you will:

• Orchestrate coordinated execution across a shared-ownership model, aligning multiple teams and stakeholders on priorities, milestones, dependencies, risk mitigation, and outcomes through strong influence.
• Translate strategy and roadmaps into integrated execution plans, ensuring clarity on sequencing, ownership, and interdependencies across programs and initiatives.
• Establish and maintain execution rigor, including planning cadence, progress tracking, milestone management, and transparent reporting.
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks and issues, anticipating cross-team, cross-market, and platform-level impacts on outcomes.
• Operate effectively in a complex, matrixed environment, driving alignment and accountability without direct authority through trusted stakeholder relationships.
• Inspect execution and outcomes rigorously, using delivery metrics and reviews to ensure commitments are met and corrective action is taken as needed.
• Act as a senior escalation and coordination point, resolving delivery challenges across teams and organizational boundaries.
• Enhance RTP program management capabilities and agile practices across Product & Engineering teams.

The ideal candidate for this position should:

• Have senior-level leadership experience coordinating large, complex initiatives in global, highly matrixed organizations with shared ownership across multiple functions.
• Proven ability to align diverse stakeholders and drive outcomes through influence rather than authority, including senior leaders across Product, Technology, Operations, Markets, and GTM.
• Strong execution and operational discipline, with experience establishing planning cadences, tracking progress, managing dependencies, and driving transparency through metrics and reporting.
• Demonstrated strength in risk and issue management, with the ability to anticipate challenges, surface them early, and navigate trade-offs to protect outcomes.
• Solid business and platform understanding, including how platforms, integrations, and organizational capabilities come together to deliver scalable services in multi-party ecosystems.
• Exceptional communication and leadership presence, effective at engaging and influencing audiences from executive leadership to delivery teams.
• Preferable to be a certified practitioner in either Prince2, Agile Program Management or similar qualification.

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks come 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.