Associate Analyst, Account Management, 2026 - Johannesburg, South Africa

Mastercard; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 200 000 - 300 000; Full time

Job summary

A global payments technology company in Johannesburg is offering a rotational graduate launch program for Associate Analysts. This 18-month program provides recent graduates with two nine-month rotations across diverse career tracks. Ideal candidates will focus on sales and business development, as well as product management, with a strong emphasis on analytical excellence and strategic thinking. Candidates must graduate by mid-2026. Applicants should be eager to learn and demonstrate a strong sense of ownership and teamwork.

Qualifications

• Expected graduation date between September 2025 – July 2026.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Focus on strategic sales planning and consultative selling.
• Manage project-oriented work efforts and ensure goals are met.
• Manage project-oriented work within agreed constraints.

Skills

Strong verbal and written communication skills

Analytical and problem-solving skills

Ability to multi-task

Strategic thinking

Teamwork

Integrity

Communication

Education

Undergraduate or master’s degree

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

Associate Analyst, Account Management, 2026 - Johannesburg, South Africa
Rotational Graduate Launch Program 2026 – Johannesburg, South Africa

We are looking for passionate and talented professionals, who share our vision for helping our customers in bringing one stop solutions to address their product needs in a fast and innovational way.

Mastercard Launch is an 18-month global development program providing recent graduates with opportunities and exposure.

This role is part of the APEMEA business unit, which offers a unique opportunity to experience 2 x nine-month rotations across curated career tracks, designed to enrich and diversify the Launch of your career, alongside enhancing your professional growth as part of the Global program that owns this initiative.

Available Opportunities

Career Track 1. Sales and Business Development

As part of our Sales and Business Development track, you can expect to focus on strategic sales planning and consultative and solution selling.

• Product expertise and help leverage Mastercard integrated solutions to drive sales and revenue goals
• Is responsible for setting sales strategies as it relates to products that are aligned with geographical strategy and help identify and close sales leads
• Market intelligence to product developers and managers to support design, development and implementation efforts

Career Track 2. Product Management and Solutions

As part of our Product Management and Solutions track, you can expect to focus on user experience, product performance and ongoing management, customer needs and insights and architecting solutions.

• The overall coordination, status reporting, financials, schedules and stability of project-oriented work efforts, ensuring that project goals and objectives are met within agreed time, scope and resource requirements
• Detailed project plans and manages all implementation processes within budget constraints

Skills learned across all experiences

payments knowledge – project management – data analytics – influencing and negotiation – strategic thinking – local market dynamics

We recruit for and value the following core competencies

• Passion: Actively seeks responsibility and takes pride in delivering the highest quality results and recommendations to our clients. Proven record of leadership in a work setting and/or through extracurricular activities.
• Analytic Excellence: Demonstrates a strong aptitude for structured problem solving, analytical and quantitative skills.
• Business Interest: Clear interest in the world of business, and intuition for the way that companies make decisions.
• Rapid Growth: Eagerness to learn quickly, both through Mastercard's structured training curriculum and organic development opportunities.
• Teamwork: Willingness to work within small teams to produce outstanding deliverables, with a will to win attitude.
• Integrity: Outstanding record of academic achievement. Commitment to Mastercard's values of honesty and integrity with a willingness to embrace and learn from mistakes.
• Diverse Perspective: Brings a unique skillset or approach to the table in every client engagement or internal activity.
• Communication: Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate or master’s degree with an expected graduation date between September 2025 – July 2026.

What you’ll need

• To be available for start from 1st September 2026
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong strategic and conceptual aptitude
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize multiple projects concurrently
• High-energy, can-do attitude, very strong sense of ownership and desire to succeed with commensurate analytical, technical, and strategic skills

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;
• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.