Director, Franchise Business Partner - IC

Mastercard; Lisboa; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard seeks a Western Europe Franchise Lead to act as the trusted adviser for internal and external stakeholders across the region. You will align franchise priorities with business strategy, drive ecosystem performance, and oversee risk-based onboarding, compliance, and standards.

In this role you will partner with market leadership, product, risk, and global teams to identify opportunities, deliver actionable recommendations, and support cross-border initiatives.

Qualifications

• Strong track record in payments with experience across operations, product, risk, fraud, compliance, or customer engagement.
• Proven ability to translate strategy into execution across multiple markets and stakeholders.
• Analytical thinker with strong business acumen and sound judgment in fast-moving environments.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives across matrixed and geographically dispersed teams.
• Customer-focused mindset with ability to identify issues and drive practical solutions.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the Franchise Lead and go-to expert for internal and external stakeholders across Western Europe.
• Partner with market leadership and cross-functional teams to align Franchise priorities with business strategy.
• Provide guidance on onboarding, licensing, standards, and scheme compliance.
• Enable new business opportunities across core payments, digital, and fintech.
• Ensure onboarding initiatives are executed with a risk-based approach and global standards.
• Deliver advisory services and identify opportunities to improve ecosystem performance.
• Support regulatory changes and evolving competitive dynamics across Western Europe.
• Lead cross-functional resolution of complex Franchise matters.
• Conduct reviews, develop practical recommendations, and support performance improvement plans.
• Develop and deliver training and thought leadership for internal teams and customers.
• Maintain knowledge of regulatory landscape and Mastercard policies.
• Represent Franchise in business reviews, customer engagements, and industry forums.

Skills

Franchise leadership

Payments knowledge

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Communication skills

Travel availability

English fluency

Additional languages

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, Franchise Business Partner - IC

Director , Western Europe Franchise Lead

About Franchise

The Franchise model is the cornerstone of Mastercard’s success, fostering trust and confidence in our brand and enabling our network to scale globally. Franchise shapes the payments ecosystem by setting standards, onboarding participants, resolving disputes, and protecting the safety and integrity of the network. The team plays a critical role in supporting a healthy, sustainable ecosystem that enables innovation across traditional payments, digital flows, multi-rail opportunities, and new customer segments.

Overview

The Western Europe Franchise Lead will act as the trusted Franchise advisor for internal and external stakeholders across Western Europe Division. The role is accountable for enabling customer participation in the Mastercard ecosystem, supporting strategic growth initiatives, driving ecosystem performance, and ensuring a risk-based approach to onboarding, compliance, standards, fraud management, and customer engagement.

The role will partner closely with Western Europe market leadership, Account and Country Management, Product, Customer Delivery, Risk, AML, Services, and Global Franchise teams to align strategy, unlock commercial opportunities, and deliver consistent execution across markets.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the Franchise Lead and go-to expert for internal and external stakeholders across Western Europe.
• Partner with market leadership and cross-functional teams to align Franchise priorities with business strategy and customer needs.
• Provide guidance on new customer onboarding, licensing, standards, scheme compliance, fraud performance, approval rates, chargebacks, and ecosystem integrity.
• Enable new business opportunities across core payments, digital, multi-rail, processing, fintech, instalment, and other emerging customer segments.
• Ensure customer onboarding and partnership initiatives are executed with a risk-based approach, aligned to global standards and SLA expectations.
• Deliver Franchise-related advisory services and identify opportunities to commercialize solutions that address customer pain points and improve ecosystem performance.
• Support measures to address disintermediation, localization, regulatory change, and evolving competitive dynamics across Western Europe.
• Lead cross-functional resolution of complex Franchise matters across divisional, regional, and global teams.
• Conduct customer and partner reviews, develop practical recommendations, and support implementation of performance improvement plans.
• Develop and deliver training, thought leadership, and solution-based sessions for internal teams and customers.
• Maintain strong knowledge of the regulatory landscape and ensure alignment with Mastercard standards, policies, and governance expectations.
• Represent Franchise in relevant business reviews, customer engagements, industry forums, and regulatory discussions where appropriate.

All About You / Experience

• Strong track record in the payments industry, with experience in operations, product, risk, fraud management, compliance, customer engagement, or related areas.
• Proven ability to translate strategy into execution across multiple markets and stakeholders.
• Strong business acumen, analytical thinking, and sound judgment in complex, fast-moving environments.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives across matrixed, multicultural, and geographically dispersed teams.
• Customer-focused mindset with the ability to identify pain points, develop practical solutions, and influence outcomes.
• Strong understanding of payment systems, bank card operations, Mastercard standards, and the broader regulatory environment.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to translate technical or complex topics into clear business narratives.
• Self-motivated, collaborative, people-centric, and results-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple priorities independently.
• High attention to detail, strong risk management discipline, and commitment to ecosystem integrity.
• Ability to work effectively across country, regional, and global levels while demonstrating Mastercard Way values.
• Fluent English required; at least one more European language with French, Spanish, or Italian strongly preferred.
• Willingness to travel across Western Europe as needed.

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.