Principal, Technical Program Manager

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

Principal, Technical Program Manager

Overview:
The Artificial Intelligence & Decision Product Enablement (AI & DPE) is seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager, to drive product outcomes for Authorization and Authentication Decisioning teams within AI&DPE. The ideal candidate is passionate about technology, highly motivated and intellectually curious, and has the vision and organizational skills to orchestrate complex, cross-functional programs in a fast-paced environment.
The Artificial Intelligence & Decision Product Enablement (AI & DPE) enables intelligent decision-based products through real time and near real time streaming analytics with the ability to govern these decisions and manage their outcomes with business agility at global scale to support Cyber Intelligence and prevent Fraud.
This is a hybrid position based in O’Fallon, MO, requiring three days per week onsite.

Role:
• Lead end-to-end delivery of large-scale, multi-year product and platform initiatives, spanning multiple teams, systems, and business domains.
• Drive alignment across engineering, product management, rules, architecture, and customer success to ensure shared priorities, outcomes, and measurable success metrics.
• Own and continuously evolve integrated execution plans, including milestones, critical paths, dependencies, and cross-team commitments.
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks, remove systemic blockers, and adapt plans to maintain delivery momentum and predictability.
• Serve as the single point of accountability for execution health, delivery status, and executive-level reporting.
• Establish and lead operating rhythms (program reviews, checkpoints, retrospectives) to ensure transparency, accountability, and consistent delivery.
• Drive continuous improvement through data-driven insights, process optimization, and simplification of delivery workflows.
• Partner closely with TPMs and product leaders to translate customer needs into actionable requirements, measurable outcomes, and cohesive roadmaps.
• Enable cross-product planning and dependency management to support platform-wide and enterprise priorities.
• Coach and mentor TPMs, elevating standards for execution rigor, stakeholder management, and decision-making quality.
• Leverage AI, automation, and intelligent tooling to scale delivery, improve reporting accuracy, and increase operational efficiency.
• Anticipate second-order impacts and trade-offs, surfacing insights early to support informed, strategic decision-making.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, connecting execution detail to strategic objectives and business outcomes.

All About You:
• Proven track record of leading large-scale technical programs from concept through delivery, with measurable business impact.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and align cross-functional stakeholders across multiple teams and organizations.
• Deep expertise in Agile/SAFe methodologies, with experience leading multiple teams across complex programs.
• Technical proficiency within the payments domain (Authorization, Authentication, Clearing), with experience delivering AI/ML-driven fraud solutions.
• Systems-level technical understanding, able to partner with engineering on architecture, APIs, and platform design decisions.
• Comfortable leveraging modern tools and platforms such as MS Copilot, MS Project, Monday.com, Jira, Confluence, Aha!, Figma, Power BI, Easy BI, or similar.
• Analytical and data-driven mindset, defining KPIs, dashboards, and metrics to measure program success and optimize outcomes.
• Strong business acumen: understands ROI, cost optimization, and revenue impact of programs.
• Skilled in cross-org strategic planning, shaping roadmaps, prioritizing initiatives, and making trade-offs across speed, cost, and quality.
• Proactive problem-solver, able to navigate ambiguity, evolving requirements, and complex technical challenges.
• Experienced in organizational change and adoption, driving consistent process improvements and operational excellence.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into clear business context.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field. Equivalent practical experience may also be considered.

Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

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.

In line with Mastercard’s total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Mastercard benefits for full time (and certain part time) employees generally include: insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance); flexible spending account and health savings account; paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave); 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire; 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays; 401k with a best-in-class company match; deferred compensation for eligible roles; fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities; eligibility for tuition reimbursement; and many more. Mastercard benefits for interns generally include: 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations.

Pay Ranges

O'Fallon, Missouri: $152,000 - $258,000 USD