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
Manager, Data Scientist
Role Overview
The Data Science Manager plays a critical leadership role in driving stakeholder-led analytics initiatives that directly influence business strategy, operational resilience, and revenue growth. This role goes beyond traditional analytics delivery, acting as a trusted advisor and challenger to stakeholders, shaping problem statements and ensuring data is used to question assumptions, not just validate them.
You will lead a team focused on building impactful, scalable data solutions while navigating ambiguity, aligning diverse stakeholders, and driving change in environments where consensus, clarity, and resilience are essential.
We are looking for a leader who:
- Champions data as a strategic asset, not just a reporting tool
- Actively challenges legacy thinking and entrenched processes
- Thrives in complex, stakeholder-heavy environments
- Demonstrates resilience under pressure, maintaining delivery momentum despite competing priorities and ambiguity
Key Responsibilities
Stakeholder Leadership & Influence
- Act as the primary analytics partner to senior stakeholders across product, commercial, finance, and technology teams
- Shape and refine ambiguous business problems into clear, data-driven hypotheses and solution paths
- Challenge assumptions, highlight trade-offs, and influence decision-making with evidence-backed insights
- Build strong relationships by understanding stakeholder priorities, success metrics, and constraints, ensuring alignment and buy-in
Driving Strategic Impact
- Lead high-impact analytics initiatives focused on business performance, portfolio optimization, and new product opportunities
- Identify and unlock value by connecting disparate data sources and uncovering non-obvious insights
- Drive adoption of analytics outputs, ensuring insights translate into measurable business outcomes and decisions
- Actively identify gaps in current approaches and propose innovative, scalable alternatives
Resilience & Change Leadership
- Operate effectively in high-pressure, fast-changing environments, balancing short-term delivery with long-term transformation goals
- Proactively navigate conflicting stakeholder demands, ensuring progress through structured prioritization and clear communication
- Challenge the status quo by reengineering inefficient processes, driving automation, and promoting scalable solutions
- Lead through ambiguity, creating clarity where requirements, data, or ownership may be fragmented
Data Science & Delivery Excellence
- Oversee the design and delivery of robust data models, analytics solutions, and reporting frameworks
- Ensure high standards of data quality, validation, and governance across all deliverables
- Drive the development of reusable frameworks, scalable pipelines, and standardized reporting assets
- Guide the use of advanced analytical techniques to generate actionable insights
Team Leadership & Capability Building
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of data scientists and analysts, fostering a culture of ownership, curiosity, and continuous improvement
- Encourage the team to challenge assumptions, think critically, and engage confidently with stakeholders
- Build capabilities in both technical excellence and business storytelling
- Drive accountability for delivery, quality, and stakeholder impact
All About You
Experience & Mindset
- Strong experience in data science, analytics, and data product delivery in complex business environments
- Proven ability to lead stakeholder-driven engagements, balancing competing priorities and influencing senior audiences
- Demonstrated track record of challenging the status quo and driving measurable change
- High resilience and adaptability when operating under ambiguity, pressure, or evolving requirements
Technical & Analytical Expertise
- Advanced SQL and experience working with large-scale, complex datasets
- Strong background in data modeling, analytics, and visualization (Tableau, Power BI, or similar)
- Experience with Python/R and modern data ecosystems (e.g., cloud or big data platforms)
- Ability to translate business problems into scalable, well-architected data solutions
Leadership & Communication
- Exceptional ability to communicate insights clearly and influence decisions at all levels
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge and push back constructively
- Proven experience building and leading high-performing teams
- Ability to operate independently while fostering strong cross-functional collaboration
Ways of Working
- Highly proactive, solution-oriented mindset
- Strong prioritization and decision-making capability in complex environments
- Focus on impact, not just output
- Commitment to quality, scalability, and continuous improvement
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.
