Media Subject Matter Expert – Senior Managing Consultant - Advisors & Consulting Services, Marketing Services

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

Media Subject Matter Expert, Senior Managing Consultant, Advisors & Consulting Services, Marketing ServicesMedia Subject Matter Expert, Senior Managing Consultant, Advisors & Consulting Services, Marketing Services

Who is Mastercard?
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
Overview
Advisors & Consulting Services combines management consulting with Mastercard’s data, technology, platforms and industry expertise to help clients address complex business challenges. Within A&CS, Marketing Services develops and executes data-driven marketing strategies and campaigns that improve customer acquisition, engagement, retention and business performance.

The Mastercard team is looking for a Senior Media Subject Matter Expert to provide deep strategic expertise across the evolving paid-media ecosystem and help clients and internal teams make more effective media investment decisions. This senior individual-contributor and player-coach role sits at the intersection of marketing strategy, media execution, data and analytics, technology, creative and business growth. The successful candidate will combine the strategic orientation of a consultant with the practical judgment of an experienced media practitioner, translating complex challenges into actionable recommendations, scalable solutions and measurable client impact.

Role

In this client-facing position, you will:
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior clients and internal stakeholders, translating business, brand and growth objectives into integrated, full-funnel media strategies across digital, offline and emerging channels.
• Lead or provide strategic oversight across the media lifecycle, from brief, audience and channel strategy through planning, activation, optimization and post-campaign learning; critically review plans, investment levels, reach and frequency, sequencing and execution quality.
• Partner with analytics teams to design media for measurability from the outset, defining KPI hierarchies and selecting appropriate approaches such as experimentation and incrementality, marketing mix modeling, attribution, brand lift and conversion lift.
• Diagnose complex or underperforming media programs and convert performance, audience and measurement insights into clear decisions on channel mix, targeting, creative, investment, pacing and optimization.
• Shape differentiated client solutions and commercial opportunities by contributing to proposals, pitches, RFPs, scopes and executive workshops; define workstreams, methods, deliverables, resources, risks and expected outcomes.
• Establish and scale media frameworks, playbooks, quality standards and governance across planning, activation, measurement, privacy, brand safety, data use and documentation; act as a quality leader on complex or high-profile engagements.
• Advance Marketing Services capability by monitoring media, adtech and martech developments; evaluating AI, automation, identity, privacy, first-party data, clean rooms, retail and commerce media; developing thought leadership and training; and mentoring practitioners across markets.

All About You
The ideal candidate for this position should:
• 15+ years of progressively senior experience in media strategy, media planning, media investment, performance marketing or related disciplines.
• Bring advanced expertise in integrated media strategy, planning, investment and effectiveness, developed in a leading agency, consultancy, sophisticated in-house marketing organization, media owner or comparable environment.
• Demonstrate deep knowledge of major digital channels including paid search, paid social, programmatic, display, online video/CTV and audio, plus strong working knowledge of television, out-of-home, retail/commerce media and other relevant channels.
• Be able to develop and challenge sophisticated media plans, audience strategies, buying models, budget allocations and optimization approaches, with sufficient platform fluency to diagnose issues without being positioned as the day-to-day campaign trader.
• Understand media economics and the modern adtech/martech ecosystem, including identity and addressability, first-party-data activation, privacy and consent, clean rooms, automation and AI-enabled planning, buying and analysis.
• Apply strong measurement judgment, understanding the strengths, limitations and appropriate use of experimentation, incrementality, marketing mix modeling, attribution, brand lift, conversion lift and business-outcome measurement.
• Have strong consulting and commercial judgment, including the ability to structure ambiguous problems, scope complex engagements, manage senior client relationships, contribute to business development and connect media investment to measurable growth.
• Communicate complex data, technology and strategic trade-offs clearly to executive audiences through compelling storytelling, facilitation and decision-ready recommendations.
• Influence cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment and collaborate effectively with creative, brand, CRM, analytics, data, product, technology, legal, privacy, compliance, procurement, agencies, platforms and media owners.
• Demonstrate a track record of raising work quality through constructive challenge, coaching, reusable methods, training and communities of practice, without requiring formal people-management responsibility.
• Bring curiosity, learning agility and an evidence-based mindset, with the ability to work across markets and cultures; experience with platforms such as Google Ads, DV360, Campaign Manager 360, Meta Ads Manager, The Trade Desk or Amazon Ads is desirable. A bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant professional experience is preferred.
Corporate Security Responsibility
Every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security. All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and therefore, it is expected that the successful candidate for this position 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.

NOTE: Candidates go through a thorough screening and interview process. There is no need to include all preferred skills in the job description.

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.