Director Marketing Services

Mastercard Inc.; Dubai; On-site; AED 400,000 - 660,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard in Dubai is seeking a Director Marketing Services to lead the in-house media capability, starting with two pilot regions and scaling globally.

The Media Delivery Lead will manage regional planning resources, own the operating model, standards and commercial controls, and collaborate with planners, buyers and the trading desk to deliver measurable improvements. This role reports to senior leadership and involves building a permanent regional delivery hub.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in media planning, buying and performance media, including senior leadership.
• Experience building or scaling in-house media functions or transitioning from agency.
• Multi-market or regional remit, ideally across Europe and EEMEA.

Responsibilities

• Own the overall media capability strategy, operating model and performance.
• Set delivery standards and ways of working across planning, buying, activation and reporting.
• Drive phased roadmap for in-house capability and regional hubs.
• Lead the day-to-day relationship with the trading desk partner and governance forums.
• Own the media budget, fees structures and vendor management.

Skills

Media planning

Media buying

Performance media

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Media, Communications, Business or related field

Job description

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 Marketing Services Overview

The Media Delivery Lead will help build Mastercard’s in-house media capability, starting with two pilot regions before scaling globally.

The role will manage regional media planning resources and own the operating model, delivery standards, commercial controls and integrated ways of working across media planners, buyers and the trading desk partner.

Working across regional and global stakeholders, the role will translate pilot outcomes into a repeatable blueprint for future markets.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy & Operating Model:

• Own the overall media capability — strategy, operating model and performance across in-housed channels, including clear pilot objectives, scope and success measures.
• Set delivery standards, operating procedures and ways of working across planning, buying, activation, optimisation, measurement and reporting, creating a repeatable blueprint for future regional hubs.
• Drive the phased roadmap for in-house capability, defining market-readiness criteria, managing readiness gates and recommending the sequence and approach for future expansion.

Commercial:

• Own the media budget and commercial oversight, including transparent DSP fee structures and commission models.
• Govern trading desk commercial terms, transparent DSP and platform fees, partner staffing models and commission structures.
• Own the day-to-day strategic relationship with the trading desk partner, including partner onboarding, SLAs, performance reviews, escalation, knowledge transfer and continuous improvement.
• Track and validate in-housing savings against the business case
• Validate that trading desk delivery supports the in-housing business case, including agency fee avoidance, buying transparency and performance improvement.

Stakeholder & Governance:

• Act as senior point of contact for executive leadership, Finance, Legal, Risk and Procurement on media in-housing.
• Chair governance forums and own the RACI for media planning, buying, optimisation and measurement.
• Present performance, savings and roadmap progress to executive and regional stakeholders.
• Support leadership decisions on the target global organisation, governance model and long-term ownership approach.

People & Team Build:

• Lead the pilot in-house team, including regional media planning contractors, and help build the permanent core team and regional delivery hubs.
• Define capability expectations for media planners, buyers and performance specialists as the model scales across regions.

Key Qualifications:

Experience:

• 10+ years in media planning, buying and performance media, including senior leadership of an in-house team or agency account.
• Proven experience building or scaling an in-house media function, or leading a client-side media transition from agency.
• Multi-market or regional remit, ideally across Europe and EEMEA.
• Track record of owning significant media budgets and delivering measurable efficiency and performance gains.
• Experience managing media planners, media buyers and/or embedded trading desk teams across regional or multi-market campaign portfolios.

Skills:

• Deep expertise across paid social, search, programmatic and measurement/attribution.
• Strong commercial acumen — contract negotiation, fee models and vendor management.
• Strong partner governance skills, including management of trading desk delivery, platform access, account ownership, transparent fee models and service performance.
• Excellent executive communication and stakeholder management skills.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Media, Communications, Business or a related field.

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.

Everyone wants easier ways to pay; we invent them. Checkout lines are slow; we speed them along. Merchants want more sales; we give them data and insights. People need financial access; we connect them. Corporate purchasing is complicated; we make it simple. Commuters are busy; we speed them on their way. Governments need greater efficiencies; we help create them. Small businesses are virtual; we give them access to a world of buyers. Retailers want to fight fraud; we provide the tools.