Lead Technical Program Manager (AI Foundations and Agents)

Mastercard; Ireland; On-site; EUR 95,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard is seeking a Technical Program Manager to lead delivery for the AI Foundations & Agents team in Ireland. You will drive execution across engineering, product, architecture, security, and platform teams to roll out shared AI capabilities.

The role focuses on release management, planning, and continuous improvement of engineering processes within an agile environment. You will own operating rhythms, coordinate multi-team releases, and enable product teams to deploy agentic solutions

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of software development lifecycle practices.
• Proven ability to drive delivery across multiple stakeholders and dependent teams.
• Experience managing releases, dependencies, risks, and execution planning.
• Understanding of DevOps, CI/CD, and software release management practices.
• Experience working with cloud-native applications and distributed systems.
• Significant experience managing software engineering programs in Agile environments.
• Experience measuring and improving engineering productivity and delivery effectiveness.
• Experience supporting platform engineering, developer enablement, or shared services teams.
• Familiarity with modern AI, machine learning, or generative AI technologies.
• Experience facilitating Agile ceremonies and improving team delivery processes.
• Ability to identify operational inefficiencies and implement improvements.
• Experience using program management and delivery tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or equivalent platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the delivery of AI foundations and agent capabilities across BMI.
• Coordinate releases across multiple teams and stakeholders to ensure aligned roadmaps.
• Lead sprint planning, backlog refinement, and PI planning activities.
• Identify risks, blockers, and dependencies; drive resolution and mitigations.
• Establish repeatable release management practices and delivery cadences.
• Monitor team health, capacity, throughput, and performance metrics.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security and Platform teams to align objectives.
• Improve planning accuracy and delivery predictability through process optimization.
• Support operational readiness activities and adoption planning for AI platforms.
• Communicate program status, risks, decisions, and milestones to leadership.

Skills

Software delivery

Stakeholder management

Release planning

DevOps/CI/CD

Cloud-native apps

Agile leadership

Engineering productivity

Platform enablement

AI/ML familiarity

Agile ceremonies

Operational improvements

PM tools (Jira/Azure DevOps)

Tools

Jira

Azure DevOps

Job description

• The AI Foundations & Agents team is responsible for accelerating the development and adoption of generative AI and agentic capabilities across Business & Market Insights (B&MI). Our mission is to enable product teams to bring intelligent, customer-facing experiences to market faster by providing shared platforms, reusable services, engineering enablement, and best practices
• Rather than having each product team independently solve the same foundational challenges, we develop common capabilities that reduce duplication, streamline implementation, and simplify the path from experimentation to production. We partner closely with product, engineering, architecture, and data teams across B&MI to create scalable foundations that allow teams to focus on delivering business value
• Technical Program Managers at Mastercard collaborate to define the how and when of strategic delivery. Within AI Foundations & Agents, this role serves as a key execution leader, helping the engineering team operate efficiently, deliver predictably, and continuously improve how work gets done
• We are seeking a Technical Program Manager who is passionate about operational excellence, engineering effectiveness, and cross-functional coordination. This individual will work closely with a development team to establish strong execution practices, drive delivery outcomes, and support the continued growth of AI capabilities across B&MI
• Partner closely with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, Architects, and Engineers to drive the successful delivery of platform and enablement initiatives
• Own and continuously improve team operating rhythms, delivery processes, release management, planning, and execution practices
• Help ensure the team can efficiently deliver foundational capabilities that enable B&MI product organizations to rapidly develop and deploy agentic solutions
• Drive planning, execution, and tracking of engineering initiatives from concept through production deployment
• Coordinate releases across multiple stakeholders and dependent teams
• Facilitate sprint planning, backlog refinement, execution reviews, retrospective activities, and program increment planning activities as appropriate
• Identify delivery risks, dependencies, and blockers, and proactively drive resolution
• Establish mechanisms that improve delivery predictability, transparency, and accountability
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to align roadmap objectives with execution plans
• Monitor team health, capacity, throughput, and delivery metrics
• Support operational readiness activities, including release coordination and adoption planning
• Create clear communication channels for leadership updates, program reporting, and stakeholder engagement
• Continuously improve team efficiency through process optimization, automation opportunities, and better ways of working
• Manage day-to-day delivery activities for the AI Foundations & Agents engineering team
• Create and maintain delivery plans, release schedules, milestones, and dependency tracking
• Coordinate work across engineering, product, architecture, security, and platform teams
• Drive execution against commitments and strategic objectives
• Lead release planning and readiness activities
• Coordinate production deployments and cross-team release dependencies
• Track operational risks and ensure appropriate mitigation plans are in place
• Help establish repeatable and scalable release management practices
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies and team operating cadences
• Improve planning accuracy and delivery predictability
• Establish metrics and reporting mechanisms that provide visibility into team performance and execution health
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on engineering efficiency and team effectiveness
• Serve as a central point of coordination across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security, and platform teams
• Communicate program status, risks, decisions, and milestones to stakeholders
• Ensure alignment across teams contributing to shared AI platforms and services
• After 12 months, the successful candidate will have:
• Established highly effective delivery and planning processes for the AI Foundations & Agents team
• Improved delivery predictability, transparency, and execution quality
• Reduced friction in releasing and adopting shared AI capabilities
• Increasing engineering team efficiency through better operating practices and process improvements
• Built strong partnerships with B&MI product teams consuming platform services
• Helped scale the team’s ability to enable agentic solutions across the B&MI product portfolio
• Enabled engineers to spend more time building and less time managing coordination, planning, and operational overhead

The ideal candidate is highly organized, execution-focused, and passionate about helping engineering teams operate at their bestStrong understanding of software development lifecycle practices and modern engineering organizationsProven ability to drive delivery across multiple stakeholders and dependent teamsExperience managing releases, dependencies, risks, and execution planningUnderstanding of DevOps, CI/CD, and software release management practicesExperience working with cloud-native applications and distributed systemsSignificant experience managing software engineering programs in Agile environmentsExperience measuring and improving engineering productivity and delivery effectivenessExperience supporting platform engineering, developer enablement, or shared services teamsFamiliarity with modern AI, machine learning, or generative AI technologiesExperience facilitating Agile ceremonies and improving team delivery processesAbility to identify operational inefficiencies and implement improvementsExperience using program management and delivery tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or equivalent platforms.Preferred ExperienceStrong communication and stakeholder management skills