Manager, Advisors & Consulting Services, AI Strategy (Fluent in German)

Mastercard Inc.; Wien; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard Advisors & Consulting Services in Strategy & Transformation seeks an AI Strategy Lead to translate business challenges into AI-enabled solutions for regional and international clients. You will guide project teams, design AI operating models, and drive ROIs while embedding Responsible AI principles.

The role blends strategy with hands‑on AI delivery, requiring German and English, and frequent collaboration with executives across payments and commerce.

Qualifications

• Quantitative degree in CS/DS/Engineering/Mathematics/Physics.
• Five years of full‑time experience in strategy, management consulting, corporate strategy, or BI.
• Hands‑on experience building AI solutions based on LLMs, agents, and RAG architectures; experience with ML frameworks is a plus.
• Fluency in Python and data/ML ecosystems; familiarity with cloud AI platforms and MLOps concepts.
• Ability to translate between business stakeholders and technical teams and manage senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI delivery and act as the client-facing AI subject-matter expert – translating business problems into AI architectures and evaluating ROI and Responsible‑AI guardrails.
• Advise C‑level stakeholders on AI strategy, operating‑model design, data foundations, and governance.
• Contribute to AI strategy and program development for regional and international clients; apply AI and data solutions to create measurable client value.
• Independently structure projects, conduct analyses, and lead internal and client meetings.
• Champion experimentation with rapid build–test–learn cycles and embed Responsible AI into engagements.
• Embed Mastercard AI processes & policies across engagements and coach teams.

Skills

RAG architectures

Python

AI translator

Stakeholder management

Travel readiness

Education

Quantitative degree in CS/DS/Engineering/Math/Physics

Tools

LangChain/LangGraph

TensorFlow/PyTorch

Azure AI Foundry / Databricks / AWS Bedrock / GCP Vertex

SQL / Pandas

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.

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, Advisors & Consulting Services, AI Strategy (Fluent in German)

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.

Advisors & Consulting Services Within Mastercard Advisors & Consulting Services in Strategy & Transformation, we are building a dedicated AI-native consulting profile – combining the rigor of top-tier strategy consulting with deep, hands‑on expertise in Generative and Agentic AI. This profile is designed to translate frontier AI capabilities (LLMs, agents, RAG, MLOps) into measurable client outcomes across payments, banking, and commerce – bridging boardroom strategy and engineering execution.

Roles and Responsibilities

Impact You Generate

• Lead AI delivery and act as the client‑facing AI subject‑matter expert – translating business problems into AI/agentic solution architectures (e.g. LLM selection, RAG vs. fine‑tuning, agent orchestration, agentic framework selection, context engineering, loop engineering) and pressure‑testing feasibility, ROI, and Responsible‑AI guardrails
• Advise C‑level stakeholders on AI strategy, operating‑model design, data & tech foundations, talent implications, and governance

What You’ll Do

• Contribute to AI strategy and program development for regional and international clients, applying AI, data, and technology solutions to create measurable client value with your project teams
• Independently structure your projects, conduct and oversee required analyses and synthesize project findings as well as take ownership and lead internal and client meetings
• Champion an experimentation and prototyping mindset — encourage rapid build–test–learn cycles (notebooks, prompt engineering, agent demos) instead of slide‑only deliverables.
• Embed Responsible AI principles (bias, explainability, data privacy, model risk) into every engagement and coach the team on Mastercard's AI processes & policies

How We Work

• We work in interdisciplinary teams that connect business intent with technical execution on the ground, not in siloed hand-offs between strategy and engineering.
• We contribute to Mastercard's AI intellectual capital — reusable accelerators, agent blueprints, prompt libraries, and internal upskilling of the broader consulting team.
• We expect ownership and an ambitious, extra‑mile mindset, acting as a role model for the project team.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications

• Quantitative degree (Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics) combined with business acumen
• Five years of full‑time experience in a fast‑paced strategy, management consulting, corporate strategy, or business intelligence role
• Strong hands‑on experience building and deploying applications based on RAG architectures, task‑specific copilots or multi‑step reasoning systems (e.g., LangChain/LangGraph), and spec‑driven development; hands‑on experience with deep learning frameworks (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch) is a plus, not a requirement
• Working fluency in Python and the data/ML ecosystem (pandas, SQL, notebooks); familiarity with cloud AI platforms (Azure AI Foundry, Databricks, AWS Bedrock, or GCP Vertex) and MLOps concepts
• Ambitious and result‑oriented individual seeking to grow your career in an international setup
• Strong analytical skills to frame complex business problems, translate them into AI‑enabled solution opportunities, and guide project teams toward practical, data‑driven outcomes
• Proven ability to translate between business stakeholders and technical teams — i.e., “AI translator” capability combined with high empathy and senior stakeholder management.
• Eligibility to work in the country specified for this job posting
• Ability to travel to client sites, both nationally and internationally, on a semi‑regular basis; business fluency in English and German

Preferred qualifications

• Background blending top‑tier strategy consulting (e.g., MBB) with an applied AI/analytics unit — or equivalent industry experience as an AI product lead
• Track record of delivering at least one AI/ML or GenAI use case from concept to production impact, ideally in financial services, payments, or commerce
• Experience designing AI operating models, agentic workflows, or Center‑of‑Excellence setups for large enterprises
• Strong storytelling and executive‑communication skills — able to switch between a technical deep‑dive with engineers and a CEO‑level narrative
• Ambitious mindset with willingness to go the extra mile acting as a role model for your project team

Tech Stack

Python, LLM, Agent Orchestration, RAG, Vector DBs, MCP servers, Skills & Harnesses, Context Management, Loop Engineering, CI/CD, Observability, Docker, Azure/AWS/GCP

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.