Director, Project Management; AI

Position: Director, Project Management (AI)
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, Project Management (AI)

The Strategy, Enablement & Transformation team is composed of strong contributors with deep project and program management expertise, leadership capability, and a consulting mindset. The Project Management as a Service organization within the Global Business Solutions Center focuses on delivering complex, cross-functional transformation initiatives across Finance, Marketing, GBSC, P&C, LF&I, and other key enterprise functions.

This Director, Project Management role will lead project management for AI initiatives across the Finance organization. The role will be responsible for bringing structure, governance, and delivery rigor to a growing portfolio of AI opportunities, helping Finance accelerate practical adoption through disciplined intake, prioritization, execution, responsible AI alignment, and measurable value realization.

The qualified candidate will be a member of a highly visible team working closely with Finance leadership, GBSC stakeholders, AI and automation partners, technology teams, risk and governance partners, and executive sponsors to identify opportunities, shape execution plans, manage dependencies, and drive outcomes. This role requires a highly collaborative, strategic, and execution-oriented leader who can operate in ambiguity, simplify complexity, influence across senior stakeholder groups, and maintain momentum across multiple work streams.

The ideal candidate will bring strong program governance, executive communication, stakeholder management, and delivery leadership skills. They must be able to establish operating rhythms, drive clarity around decision rights and escalation paths, translate complex program details into executive-ready updates, and ensure AI initiatives are progressing with clear scope, milestones, risks, benefits, and measurable outcomes.

Role:

* Lead project and program management for Finance AI initiatives, including AI literacy, idea intake and prioritization, quick-win use cases, priority pilots, and value realization tracking.

* Establish and manage program governance structures, including steering committee routines, working team cadences, decision logs, RAID management, escalation paths, and executive reporting standards.

* Partner with Finance leadership and executive sponsors to translate strategic priorities into executable roadmaps, delivery plans, milestones, and measurable outcomes.

* Coordinate across Finance, GBSC Tech, AI / Automation, AI CoE, AI Governance, Risk, Data, Controls, and other partners to ensure initiatives are appropriately shaped, governed, and executed.

* Develop, run, and distribute executive-ready status updates, dashboards, decision materials, and progress reports that clearly communicate scope, progress, risks, dependencies, decisions needed, and business value.

* Drive cross-functional alignment across complex stakeholder groups, proactively identifying blockers, managing tradeoffs, resolving issues, and keeping work streams moving toward agreed outcomes.

* Support disciplined use case intake, prioritization, pilot planning, benefits tracking, and scale / stop decisions to ensure AI opportunities are aligned to Finance priorities and responsible AI expectations.

* Provide insights to enhance processes, tooling, governance routines, and delivery practices, with a focus on scalable operating models and continuous improvement.

* Perform analysis and assessment activities to provide stakeholders with timely updates, actionable recommendations, and clear visibility into program health.

* Regularly communicate with senior and executive leadership regarding program status, risks,…