Director: Subject Matter Expert – Acquiring

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

Director, Subject Matter Expert –AcquiringDIRECTOR, SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT – ACQUIRING



ROLE DESCRIPTION



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.
 
Advisors & Consulting Services 
 
Services within Mastercard is responsible for acquiring, engaging, and retaining customers by managing fraud and risk, enhancing cybersecurity, and improving the digital payments experience. We provide value-added services and leverage expertise, data-driven insights, and execution. Our Advisors & Consulting Services team combines traditional management consulting with Mastercard’s rich data assets, proprietary platforms, and technologies to provide clients with powerful strategic insights and recommendations. Our teams work with a diverse global customer base across industries, from banking and payments to retail and restaurants. 
 
The Advisors & Consulting Services group has five specializations: Strategy & Transformation, Performance Analytics, Business Experimentation, Marketing, and Program Management. Our Strategy & Transformation consultants lead clients through impactful decision-making as they tackle strategic, tactical, operational, and transformational business challenges. They apply a broad set of problem-solving techniques to improve the client’s overall strategy, performance, and operations.

Positions for different specializations and levels are available in separate job postings. Please review our consulting specializations to learn more about all opportunities and apply for the position that is best suited to your background and experience: https://careers.mastercard.com/us/en/consulting-specializations-at-mastercard

Title And Summary 
 
Director, Subject Matter Expert – Acquiring, Advisors & Consulting Services

Within Services, our Acquiring & Acceptance practice partners closely with acquirers, banks, processors, payment facilitators, ISVs, orchestration platforms, fintechs, and merchants to design and scale the next generation of payment acceptance across Latin America and the Caribbean. We are looking for passionate and talented acquiring professionals who share our vision for data-driven consulting, to join us and take a leading role in shaping the growth of our team.

As a Senior Managing Consultant and Acquiring subject matter expert, you will be a trusted client business advisor who scopes, leads, and advises on acquiring-focused client engagements across a range of financial institutions, acquirers, payment facilitators, ISVs, fintechs, and merchants. As the subject matter expert, you will partner with the Business Development and Product teams to develop and pitch engagements that leverage Mastercard data and consulting knowledge in acquiring, and you will lead engagement teams to best-in-class insights and project deliverables that drive commercial success for our clients.

This role is deliberately weighed toward the commercial side of acquiring. You will be the go-to authority on how acquirers, banks, and payment players grow and monetize their merchant business – spanning go-to-market and distribution strategy, pricing and interchange optimization, merchant acquisition, onboarding and activation, usage and engagement, and retention and loyalty across the merchant lifecycle. You will help clients design value propositions, segment and target merchants (with particular focus on MSMEs and financial inclusion), improve portfolio profitability, and build commercial playbooks that turn acceptance into sustained revenue. Deep technical processing and chargeback/disputes expertise is available elsewhere on the team; here, your differentiator is a commercial acumen and market-facing strategy.


Roles and Responsibilities


Client Impact

• Steer and provide content leadership on complex acquiring engagements across a range of clients and problem statements, from go-to-market and merchant acquisition strategy to pricing, activation, usage, and retention
• Direct the development of commercial strategies and programs for regional and global clients by leveraging data and technology solutions to unlock client value across the merchant lifecycle
• Own senior client relationships from mid-level to C-suite to drive commercial success and grow the acquiring portfolio
• Serve as a trusted client business advisor and generate enthusiasm for the Mastercard team and our recommendations
• Act as the acquiring subject matter expert, providing specialist sales support, product refinement, and market-facing points of view on distribution, pricing, and merchant growth


Team Collaboration & Culture
• Guide the team through complex problem solving to business-focused solutions and recommendations that drive client value
• Motivate the project delivery team to produce superior quality deliverables, and create a collaborative and inclusive environment for all levels
• Own relationships with internal Mastercard stakeholders including Product and Business Development to scope projects, create relevant solutions for clients, and build the firm’s intellectual capital in acquiring
• Lead on-the-job training, coaching, and mentorship to both direct and outside team members

Qualifications
• Undergraduate degree with work experience in consulting, corporate strategy, business intelligence, business line management, or product management, with a strong commercial orientation in acquiring or payments
• Minimum 5-10 years of relevant experience in the acquiring business at one or ideally more players within the ecosystem (acquirer, processor, payment service provider, PayFac, ISO, gateway/orchestrator, ISV, or a payments role at a large merchant), with emphasis on the commercial side – go-to-market, pricing, merchant acquisition, onboarding/activation, usage, and retention
• Experience coaching and leading teams across large, strategic consulting engagements that involve structured problem solving and stakeholder management
• Experience leading senior client relationships
• Deep knowledge of business KPIs, financials, and organizational leadership; familiarity with acquiring/merchant economics and portfolio profitability
• Ability to identify new business development opportunities, and experience leading proposal development and scoping of new opportunities
• Experience generating new knowledge or creating innovative solutions for a firm
• Logical, structured thinking, and affinity for numerical analysis
• Advanced Word, Excel, and PowerPoint skills
• Ability to lead multiple projects and clients in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment
• Ability to communicate effectively in English and the local office language(s); Spanish required and Portuguese a plus for the region
• Eligibility to work in the country where you are applying, as well as apply for travel visas as required by travel needs; willingness to travel

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.