Director, AI Product Definition & Execution

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, AI Product Definition & Execution

Who We Are

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible.

Core Services powers Mastercard’s foundational payment platforms, including Consumer Credit, Debit, Prepaid, Commercial, Integrated Processing Solutions, Enterprise Gateway Solutions (EGS), Account Level Management (ALM), MPGS, and Security Services.

Within Core Services, Product Management Technical (PMT) plays a critical role in translating product strategy and business intent into execution-ready work that engineering teams can reliably deliver. This role sits at the intersection of product, engineering, and architecture, and is central to evolving how we scale quality, clarity, and predictability across highly complex, regulated platforms.

Role Overview

We are seeking a director to redefine and modernize the Product Management Technical (PMT) operating model by applying an AI‑first lens to how product intent is shaped, refined, and delivered to engineering.

This is not a traditional product ownership or delivery leadership role. The leader will enter an existing operating model, observe and assess how PMT functions today, and identify systemic sources of ambiguity, rework, and execution of friction leveraging AI and PMT skills to resolve the same.

This leader will redesign how product ideas become buildable software by owning the operating model, the PMT practices, decision frameworks, and AI‑enabled workflows that drive clarity, speed, and predictability across our engineering organization.

Success will be measured not by artifact production, but by improved delivery outcomes—higher backlog readiness, reduced iteration churn, fewer clarification cycles, stronger engineering trust, and more predictable execution across platforms.

The Mission

Transform PMT from a documentation layer into a high-leverage, AI-enabled product definition engine that produces clear, testable, execution ready Features and Stories, reduces ambiguity, improves delivery outcomes, and scales quality through operating mechanisms and AI- Driven Workflows not individual heroics.

Primary Accountabilities

• Product Definition Operating Model
• Assess the current PMT operating model and identify gaps in clarity, ownership, and decision-making.
• Define and standardize decomposition patterns (Epics → Features → Stories) that align with how engineering builds and increments value.
• Establish and enforce a consistent Definition of Ready aligned with engineering.
• Standardize acceptance criteria, constraints, and non‑functional requirements across platforms.
• AI-Enabled Product Definition System
• Design how AI is embedded directly into PMT workflows—not as an add‑on, but as a core product management capability.
• Use AI to support requirement synthesis, feature and story generation, acceptance criteria creation, and validation.
• Leverage Jira, Confluence, historical delivery data, platform documentation, and architectural signals as structured AI inputs.
• Define prompt frameworks, guardrails, and AI‑based quality scoring to ensure outputs meet PMT and engineering standards.
• Quality System & Feedback Loops
• Define quality metrics owned by PMT, including story quality, readiness scores, and ambiguity indicators leading to PMT Maturity Matrix.
• Track downstream delivery signals such as defects, rework, iteration churn, and delivery delays.
• Build closed‑loop feedback mechanisms that continuously connect delivery outcomes back to product definition quality and AI models.
• PMT Functional Transformation
• Evolve PMT from requirement writers to problem framers, system designers, and decision enablers.
• Upskill PMTs in product thinking, systems thinking, and practical, responsible AI usage.
• Establish shared standards, language, and expectations that scale PMT effectiveness across teams.
• Own the AI enabled PMT functional maturity.
• Cross-Functional Alignment
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Architecture leaders to align intent, feasibility, constraints, and sequencing.
• Reduce ambiguity and friction at handoffs by improving the clarity and consistency of PMT outputs with AI-enabled decisioning.
• Build trust through transparency, quality signals, and predictable operating mechanisms rather than individual interactions.
  
  
  

Future-State Workflow

• Business intent is collaboratively framed by Product and PMT with explicit outcomes, constraints, and success measures.
• AI‑assisted workflows generate Features, Stories, and acceptance criteria aligned to defined standards.
• AI‑based quality scoring ensures that Definition of Ready is met prior to engineering intake.
• PMT validates outputs for accuracy, completeness, and delivery of readiness (Strict PMT acceptance)
• Engineering executes with fewer clarification cycles.
• Delivery outcomes continuously feed back into standards, workflows, and AI models.
  
  
  

Success Metrics

• Feature & Story Quality ≥80%
• Backlog readiness ≥85% across teams
• Reduced rework and defects
• Improved delivery predictability
• Increased PMT leverage
• Higher engineering satisfaction
  
  
  

Required Experience

• 10 years in product, engineering, or technical leadership
• Strong engineering/architecture fluency
• Experience designing operating models
• Hands-on AI usage in workflows
• Systems thinking and ability to scale quality
  
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with large-scale platforms and APIs
• Payments or regulated industry experience
• Operating model transformation experience
• Exposure and use of AI-driven tooling
  
  
  

What You Bring

• Engineering-grade rigor in product definition
• AI-first mindset
• Systems thinking
• Leadership in ambiguity
• Executive communication skills
  
  
  

Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

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.
  
  
  

In line with Mastercard’s total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Mastercard benefits for full time (and certain part time) employees generally include: insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance); flexible spending account and health savings account; paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave); 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire; 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays; 401k with a best-in-class company match; deferred compensation for eligible roles; fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities; eligibility for tuition reimbursement; and many more. Mastercard benefits for interns generally include: 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations.

Pay Ranges

O'Fallon, Missouri: $156,000 - $265,000 USD

Purchase, New York: $179,000 - $305,000 USD