Principal, Technical Program Manager

Mastercard Mastercard · Fintech · O Fallon, MO +1 · Engineering

This role is for a Principal Technical Program Manager at Mastercard, focused on driving product outcomes for Authorization and Authentication Decisioning teams within the AI & Decision Product Enablement (AI & DPE) group. The role involves leading large-scale, cross-functional programs, ensuring alignment across various departments, managing execution plans, mitigating risks, and reporting on delivery status. While the role operates within a group that enables AI/ML-driven products and mentions leveraging AI/automation tools, the core responsibility is program management, not direct AI/ML model development or research. The candidate needs technical proficiency in payments and experience with AI/ML-driven fraud solutions, but the primary function is program leadership.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead end-to-end delivery of large-scale, multi-year product and platform initiatives, spanning multiple teams, systems, and business domains.
  2. Drive alignment across engineering, product management, rules, architecture, and customer success to ensure shared priorities, outcomes, and measurable success metrics.
  3. Own and continuously evolve integrated execution plans, including milestones, critical paths, dependencies, and cross-team commitments.
  4. Proactively identify and mitigate risks, remove systemic blockers, and adapt plans to maintain delivery momentum and predictability.
  5. Serve as the single point of accountability for execution health, delivery status, and executive-level reporting.

Skills

Required

  • 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.
  • 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.

Nice to have

  • Comfortable leveraging modern tools and platforms such as MS Copilot, MS Project, Monday.com, Jira, Confluence, Aha!, Figma, Power BI, Easy BI, or similar.

What the JD emphasized

  • AI/ML-driven fraud solutions
  • Leverage AI, automation, and intelligent tooling to scale delivery