Senior Specialist, Experience Strategy

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 Senior Specialist, Experience Strategy

Overview At Mastercard, we believe that the future of our business depends on our ability to define and deliver great experiences. The Mastercard Foundry - an interdisciplinary group, including CXD (customer experience & design) teams, data scientists, technologists and more - is the new product development group of Mastercard, focused on de-risking and delivering new and differentiated customer-centric solutions.

About The Team Our Experience Strategy & Research team, within CXD, leads early-stage product innovation by uncovering customer needs, identifying opportunities, and translating insights into strategic direction for product and business teams. We operate across discovery, problem definition, and concept development, ensuring that new products and experiences are grounded in customer needs, market dynamics, and organizational objectives.

We focus on de-risking key customer, product, and business assumptions throughout the product innovation lifecycle, while fostering a continuous learning culture that drives more informed decisions and accelerates innovation.

• Are you a talented Experience Strategist with a passion for contributing to great end-to-end experiences across different customer segments?
• Are you curious about understanding evolving consumer and business user behaviors, technology innovation, and strategic foresights?
• Do you have a strong track record in practicing design thinking and user centered design?
• Are you familiar with using storytelling to frame narratives to articulate a vision?
• Do you possess a high energy, can-do attitude, desire to succeed and are comfortable with ambiguity?
• Are you familiar with experience modelling, crafting value propositions and journey mapping to define future state experiences?
• Do you want to be a part of a collaborative environment working across multiple geographies?
• Are you a great team player and willing to collaborate with a cross functional team?

Role

The Senior Specialist, Experience Strategy will play a vital role across multiple workstreams to support product innovation and opportunity discovery. You will support the translation of insights into opportunity areas, value propositions, and roadmap implications that inform new product innovation.

In this role you will collaborate with a cross-functional team including other experience strategists, researchers, designers, product managers and technologists to provide strategic clarity by framing problems, defining opportunity spaces, and guiding prioritization decisions to support product development. This role is suited to individuals who feel comfortable with ambiguity, navigating multiple research sources, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to inform pragmatic implications for both the business and the future-state experience.

We are looking for candidates that can demonstrate a background in the following or related fields; Experience/Product Strategy, Service Design, Design Thinking, Innovation, User Research, UX Design, Innovation and Business Strategy, Strategic Foresights/Futurists, Trend Analysis. Other complementary fields of interest may include: Brand Strategy, Behavioral Economics, Cultural/Social Studies, Anthropology, Data Analytics.

Key Responsibilities

• E2E: Participate from early discovery of the problem space through MVP definition, identifying customer needs, uncovering the right problems to solve, defining future opportunities, and crafting clear value proposition and visions for Mastercard’s New Product development portfolios
• Actionability: Translate insights into actionable recommendations that inform product roadmaps, MVP definitions, and prioritization frameworks before the development phase.
• Trends curation: Support the exploration of behavioral, experience, and technology trends to inform strategic thinking and outcomes.
• Foresights: Help to identify, track, and analyze societal, behavioral, consumer and landscape trends to develop strategic foresights
• Framing: Contribute to the definition and framing of problem statements and strategic opportunities to guide product and experience development.
• Innovation Stewardship: Support in guiding teams through the design thinking process by continuously refining, adapting, and anticipating our approach to de-risk early-stage product development and drive informed decision-making.
• Facilitation: Assist in designing and facilitating collaborative cross-disciplinary workshops to drive alignment, ideation, and/or prioritization.
• Narratives: Contribute to the development of compelling narratives and be comfortable presenting to a wide range of stakeholders
• Structured: Able to manage your priorities and timelines across multiple locations/time zones
• Growth: Embrace new challenges and have a desire to develop as a strategist and learn new skills.
• Capability: Contribute to the Customer Experience & Design community and support efforts to broaden and mature the understanding of Experience Strategy as a discipline
• Occasional travel may be required

All About You

• Bachelor’s in design, Business, Economics, Psychology, Marketing, Digital Media, Multimedia, Computer Science, Mathematics, Geography, or a related field or working experience equivalence
• Experienced in strategy, product strategy, innovation consulting, services design, or related Design Thinking field
• Demonstrates the ability to synthesize complex qualitative and quantitative data into insights, implications, and strategic recommendations, that impact product experience and business decisions
• Great facilitation and communication skills with experience in shaping and facilitating design thinking workshops to achieve focused objectives.
• Understanding of product development, including MVP scoping, roadmap prioritization, and strategic planning processes.
• Familiar with different experience strategy frameworks and able to identify the appropriate methodologies and framework to apply on projects.
• Familiarity with user research methodologies and the ability to collaborate effectively with research teams.
• Has the ability to work effectively in fast-paced, rapidly evolving, and ambiguous environments with multiple stakeholders.
• Curious about cultural and technological trends, innovation, CX & Design, and experience-based thinking.
• Is a collaborative and inclusive team player able to work with cross functional teams across multiple disciplines
• Curious about the global evolution of customer and consumer experiences in the world of payments, digital identity, consumer loyalty, and beyond.
• : An effective communicator and are able to articulate complex concepts clearly and persuasively to audiences.
• Experience working with a B2B2C business ecosystem.
• Excited about improving the world through “doing well by doing good.”

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 New York City, New York: $125,000 - $212,000 USD