Director, Merchants and Acceptance

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, Merchants and Acceptance

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
The Director, Operations and Excellence will lead the operations function within the Market Development (MDE), Merchant and Acceptance team, enabling business development and customer success through data-driven insights, process optimization, and strategic execution. This role supports both sales and post-sales activities by driving outbound growth, managing performance dashboards, and implementing partner programs. It also serves as a key liaison across internal teams and external partners, ensuring Mastercard’s and customers’ voices are reflected in decision-making and industry engagement. This role will report into the Solutioning Team lead within Merchant and Acceptance EUR.
Role
Data-Driven Sales & Customer Success Enablement
• Leverage data and analytics to deliver actionable insights that support lead identification, qualification, prospecting, cross-selling, and churn prevention.
• Partner with BD leads to develop lead generation plans to drive cross sell behaviour
• Become the team’s data champion—owning standard and ad hoc data requests, preparing performance insights, and presenting findings in customer business reviews.
Performance Monitoring & Reporting
• Lead the development of performance dashboards and reporting frameworks to track KPIs, pipeline health, and strategic goals.
• Measure and communicate outcomes to stakeholders and leadership, ensuring transparency and accountability.
Strategic Planning & Execution
• Support annual planning cycles, quarterly business reviews (QBRs), and executive reporting with data-backed insights.
• Translate strategic goals into measurable objectives and operational plans.
• Drive execution of cross-functional initiatives including pricing, optimization, and customer engagement strategies.
Industry Engagement & Thought Leadership
• Represent Mastercard’s strategy in external industry groups and associations, acting as a payments expert and operations liaison.
• Feed market and industry expertise into the organization to inform product development and BD strategy.
• Champion the voice of the customer across BD and product teams.
Acceptance Growth & Product Enablement
• Drive acceptance growth, quality, and revenue through operational support and analytics.
• Monitor implementation of the POI roadmap, track KPIs, and identify gaps or blockers.
• Ensure BD teams are equipped with tools, insights, and enablement materials to deliver Mastercard’s product promise.
Partnership Optimization & Internal Collaboration
• Develop platforms and processes to streamline communications with customers, including bulletins and announcements.
• Build and manage an operational community across central and regional teams to share best practices and propositions.
• Foster strong working relationships across Mastercard teams and with external partners to accelerate deal flow and solution development.
All About You
• Proven experience in business operations, analytics, or strategy roles, ideally within a BD or commercial function.
• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in data visualization, performance tracking tools and BD outreach tools
• Familiar with Business Development processes like lead generation, qualification, retention
• Extensive knowledge of Mastercard’s payment business and Mastercard data
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities
• Experience in agile methodologies and cross-functional project leadership
• Strong team leader with people management experience
• Enjoys working in a fast-paced innovative team

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.