Specialist, Implementation

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

As a Specialist, Implementation, you will play a critical role in leading and supporting complex customer implementations across Europe. You will serve as a trusted advisor to both customers and internal stakeholders, ensuring projects are delivered efficiently, risks are proactively managed, and customer objectives are achieved.

This role requires strong project management capabilities, payments industry knowledge, stakeholder management skills, and the ability to navigate complex cross-functional environments. The successful candidate will contribute to implementation excellence, support process improvements, and help drive consistency and quality across CIS Europe.

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Role & Responsibilities

Customer Implementation & Delivery

• Manage and support the implementation of Mastercard products, services, and strategic initiatives for customers across Europe.
• Lead customer onboarding and implementation activities from initiation through successful production readiness and launch.
• Develop and maintain project plans, implementation timelines, and governance structures to ensure successful delivery.
• Identify, manage, and mitigate implementation risks, issues, dependencies, and escalations throughout the project lifecycle.
• Ensure project milestones, customer commitments, and Mastercard delivery standards are met.

Stakeholder Management & Collaboration

• Build and maintain strong relationships with customers and key internal stakeholders, including Product, Technology, Customer Delivery, Operations, Account Management, and regional CIS teams.
• Act as a primary point of contact for implementation-related activities and customer engagements.
• Facilitate discussions across multiple teams to drive alignment, resolve challenges, and ensure timely decision-making.
• Communicate project status, risks, and outcomes effectively to both business and technical audiences.

Product & Implementation Expertise

• Develop and maintain a strong understanding of Mastercard products, services, implementation processes, and operational requirements.
• Provide implementation guidance and subject matter expertise to customers and internal teams.
• Support pilots, product launches, and strategic initiatives by helping define implementation approaches and customer onboarding requirements.
• Assess customer impacts resulting from product, platform, or operational changes and support implementation planning accordingly.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to the continuous enhancement of implementation methodologies, tools, processes, and best practices.
• Drive standardization and consistency across implementation activities within CIS Europe.
• Capture lessons learned and implementation insights to improve future delivery effectiveness.
• Support the development of operational readiness, implementation documentation, and knowledge-sharing initiatives.

Knowledge Sharing & Team Development

• Support onboarding, mentoring, and knowledge transfer activities within CIS.
• Deliver implementation-related training and guidance to internal teams and customers as required.
• Promote a collaborative, customer-focused, and continuous improvement culture within the organization.

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Qualifications & Experience

Required Experience

• Experience in project management, customer implementation, consulting, client delivery, payments, or related financial services environments.
• Experience managing customer-facing projects involving multiple stakeholders and dependencies.
• Understanding of payment processing, electronic payments, card industry operations, or financial technology solutions.
• Ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously within a fast-paced environment.
• Experience working in cross-functional and matrix organizations.

Preferred Experience

• Knowledge of Mastercard products, services, and processing environments.
• Experience supporting large-scale implementations, strategic initiatives, or new product rollouts.
• Familiarity with digital payments, mobile payments, tokenization, real-time payments, or related emerging payment technologies.
• Experience working in regional or global organizations with geographically distributed teams.

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Skills & Competencies

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to influence without direct authority across matrix organizations.
• Strong customer-focus with a consultative and solution-oriented mindset.
• Excellent negotiation, facilitation, and conflict-resolution skills.

Communication

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and business audiences.
• Strong presentation and executive communication capabilities.

Delivery & Problem Solving

• Strong project management, organizational, and planning skills.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and navigate complex business environments.
• Analytical mindset with strong problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with operational execution.

Personal Attributes

• Self-motivated and proactive.
• Adaptable and resilient in changing environments.
• Collaborative team player with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

• Continuous learner with a passion for payments innovation and customer success.

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.