Lead Technical Program Manager

Mastercard; Bray (OK); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard is seeking a Lead Technical Program Manager to drive complex, cross-functional programs spanning multiple teams, products, and organizational boundaries. This role requires exceptional coordination, structured program management, proactive dependency tracking, and strong executive communication.

The ideal candidate aligns diverse teams around outcomes and ensures programs are delivered with speed, quality, and clarity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Significant experience leading large, complex, cross-functional technical programs in fast-paced organizations.
• Strong program management skills, including planning, execution tracking, dependency management, risk management, and executive reporting.
• Proven ability to coordinate and align multiple teams working toward shared business and technical outcomes.
• Demonstrated experience engaging with senior leaders and managing a broad stakeholder landscape across functions and levels.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging for technical teams and executive audiences.
• Experience working with AI-driven systems, including agentic applications, AI agents, large language models, and workflow orchestration.
• Hands‑on understanding of testing approaches for agentic systems, including functional validation, workflow validation, model behavior assessment, integration testing, and quality assurance practices.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to manage ambiguity and drive structured execution.
• Experience with Agile, Scrum, or similar delivery methodologies in complex product or platform environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end planning and execution of complex technical programs across multiple teams and functions.
• Drive strong coordination across engineering, product, design, data, operations, and other partner teams to ensure alignment on goals, scope, milestones, and deliverables.
• Identify, track, and actively manage cross-team dependencies, risks, issues, and decision points to maintain program momentum.
• Establish clear governance, operating rhythms, status reporting, and escalation mechanisms for large-scale programs.
• Partner with executive leadership to provide concise updates on progress, risks, trade-offs, and critical decisions.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders across the organization and align multiple parallel efforts into a cohesive execution plan.
• Create and maintain program roadmaps, integrated delivery plans, milestones, and success metrics.
• Facilitate cross-functional reviews, planning sessions, leadership updates, and retrospective discussions to improve delivery effectiveness.
• Work closely with engineering and quality teams to support validation and testing strategies for agentic applications, AI agents, LLM-powered features, and workflow automation solutions.
• Ensure program delivery incorporates scalability, reliability, quality, compliance, and operational readiness considerations.
• Drive clarity in ambiguous environments by structuring plans, defining ownership, and aligning teams on priorities.
• Promote execution excellence through disciplined follow-through, transparent communication, and data-driven decision-making.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Program management

Agile/Scrum

Stakeholder communication

AI agentic systems

Executive reporting

Dependency management

Risk management

Planning & roadmaps

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science 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

Lead Technical Program Manager

Role Overview

The Lead, Technical Program Manager is responsible for driving complex, cross-functional programs that span multiple teams, products, and organizational boundaries. This role requires exceptional coordination, structured program management, proactive dependency tracking, and strong executive and stakeholder communication. The ideal candidate can align diverse teams around shared outcomes, remove execution barriers, and ensure programs are delivered with speed, quality, and clarity. This role also requires experience working with and testing agentic applications, AI agents, LLM-powered systems, and workflow-based solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end planning and execution of complex technical programs across multiple teams and functions.
• Drive strong coordination across engineering, product, design, data, operations, and other partner teams to ensure alignment on goals, scope, milestones, and deliverables.
• Identify, track, and actively manage cross-team dependencies, risks, issues, and decision points to maintain program momentum.
• Establish clear governance, operating rhythms, status reporting, and escalation mechanisms for large-scale programs.
• Partner with executive leadership to provide concise updates on progress, risks, trade-offs, and critical decisions.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders across the organization and align multiple parallel efforts into a cohesive execution plan.
• Create and maintain program roadmaps, integrated delivery plans, milestones, and success metrics.
• Facilitate cross-functional reviews, planning sessions, leadership updates, and retrospective discussions to improve delivery effectiveness.
• Work closely with engineering and quality teams to support validation and testing strategies for agentic applications, AI agents, LLM-powered features, and workflow automation solutions.
• Ensure program delivery incorporates scalability, reliability, quality, compliance, and operational readiness considerations.
• Drive clarity in ambiguous environments by structuring plans, defining ownership, and aligning teams on priorities.
• Promote execution excellence through disciplined follow-through, transparent communication, and data-driven decision-making.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Significant experience leading large, complex, cross-functional technical programs in fast-paced organizations.
• Strong program management skills, including planning, execution tracking, dependency management, risk management, and executive reporting.
• Proven ability to coordinate and align multiple teams working toward shared business and technical outcomes.
• Demonstrated experience engaging with senior leaders and managing a broad stakeholder landscape across functions and levels.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging for technical teams and executive audiences.
• Experience working with AI-driven systems, including agentic applications, AI agents, large language models, and workflow orchestration.
• Hands‑on understanding of testing approaches for agentic systems, including functional validation, workflow validation, model behavior assessment, integration testing, and quality assurance practices.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to manage ambiguity and drive structured execution.
• Experience with Agile, Scrum, or similar delivery methodologies in complex product or platform environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading programs involving generative AI products from concept through production deployment.
• Familiarity with evaluation frameworks, guardrails, and quality measurement for LLM and agentic systems.
• Experience managing enterprise‑scale programs with multiple interdependent workstreams.
• Strong operational mindset with the ability to define processes that improve execution consistency across teams.
• Experience influencing without direct authority in matrixed organizations.
• PMP, PgMP, Scrum certification, or equivalent program management credentials are a plus.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means consistently delivering complex programs with strong cross-functional alignment, clear accountability, and predictable execution. The Lead, Technical Program Manager brings structure to ambiguity, keeps teams aligned across dependencies, communicates effectively with executive leadership, and ensures that agentic AI and LLM-based initiatives are delivered with quality, rigor, and operational readiness.

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.