Manager, Specialist Sales SEE

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

Overview

Mastercard’s SME Segment helps banks, fintechs and ecosystems digitize B2B payments and deliver value added services for small and medium enterprises.

As Manager, Specialist Sales - SME (South-Eastern Europe) you will lead as subject matter expert commercial execution across Financial Institutions (FI) and FinTechs, and accelerate Alternative Distribution channels (e.g., Payfacs, ISVs, embedded finance platforms) to capture new payment flows and service revenues across these markets.

You will partner closely with regional product teams, the divisional Customer Solutions Center (CSC), local account management and business development teams, and with strategic customers and prospects to translate Mastercard’s global SME vision into measurable market outcomes in South-Eastern Europe.

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Key Responsibilities

1) Localize the SME / CNPF vision for South-Eastern Europe

• Drive, together with financial institutions, FinTechs, acquirers and ISVs, the evolution of SME products available to SME customers across South-Eastern Europe
• Develop go to market approaches with the CSC, Account Managers and Business Development teams in alignment with the overall European strategy and drive sales execution in the cluster
• Own and drive market performance for South-Eastern Europe via KPIs, dashboards, pipeline discipline and win rates
• Enable field teams with clear narratives on the value created by solutions, expressed in robust business cases and tangible customer outcomes

2) Orchestrate best in class launches

• Prioritize sales actions based on market relevance of new or enhanced SME services (Mastercard and partner solutions) for South-Eastern Europe
• Refine positioning and roadmap for priority customers and services, reflecting local regulatory, competitive and customer landscapes
• Accelerate time to market through ecosystem levers (partnerships, certifications, co marketing, implementation readiness and customer success)
• Share best practices on sales motions and implementation; support Account Managers during RFPs with competitive intelligence and tailored value propositions

3) Drive business development across FI, FinTech and Alternative Distribution

• Own the SME segment for South-Eastern Europe; maintain a robust, accurately staged Salesforce pipeline for direct and partner sourced opportunities
• Lead senior management and executive engagement with issuers, acquirers, Payfacs/ISVs and platform partners to capture new payment flows from supplier payments, expense management, receivables and cross border use cases
• Deliver tangible outcomes aligned to Mastercard objectives (GDV, Net Revenue, signed optimizations, wins) and expand the footprint into Commercial and New Payment Flows

4) Lead cross functional execution

• Connect the dots across Product, Pricing & Interchange, Franchise, Legal, Customer Delivery and Marketing to unblock complex deals and launches
• Champion post launch success by monitoring adoption and operational health; run post mortems and embed learnings into future enhancements
• Educate and inspire internal teams and the market on the SME solutions suite through pitches, narratives and thought leadership

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All About You

• Experience in payments, banking, fintech or adjacent B2B services, with proven sales ownership (new wins, optimizations, portfolio growth)
• Strong account management and consultative selling capabilities
• Strategy or consulting exposure and project leadership with technology enabled solutions; analytical and operator mindset
• Solid understanding of issuing and acquiring, virtual cards, acceptance, receivables/payables, and SME SaaS / embedded finance models
• Fluent English required; relevant South-Eastern European languages strongly preferred. Additional European languages a plus
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s / MBA preferred

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Competencies

• Commercial acumen with the ability to build quantifiable business cases and articulate ROI to senior stakeholders
• Builder’s mindset: proactive, resilient, comfortable with ambiguity, and effective in a matrix environment
• Data driven execution with strong pipeline hygiene, forecast accuracy and performance analytics
• Crisp storytelling and executive level communication (PowerPoint)
• Executive presence, negotiation skills and trusted advisor credibility with FI, FinTech and platform leaders

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Performance Measures

• Volume growth and Gross / Net Revenue contribution across South-Eastern Europe
• Signed opportunities (new issuance, optimizations, alternative distribution deals) and RFP win rate
• Pipeline quality (coverage, velocity, stage fidelity) and delivery against quarterly operating cadence

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Travel

~30% travel across South-Eastern Europe with additional European travel as required.

Definition South-Eastern Europe:

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Israel

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.