Manager, Strategy and Solutions, Financial Institutions

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

Manager, Strategy and Solutions, Financial Institutions

Overview
The Strategy and Solutions Manager is the main partner to Frontline sales team during solutioning to maximize the impact of Mastercard’s business solutions for the client. The Business Solution Architect is a curator of solutions and aggregator across products for Financial Institutions during solution bundling and helps Account Managers ‘tell the story’ to clients. They play a critical role in ensuring relevancy and driving differentiation across all segments resulting in better relationships, market share and revenue.

The Business Solution Architect reports to the Customer Solutions Center Lead.

Key Responsibilities

Mastercard capabilities expert for assigned segment:
• Understands value chain of assigned segments to identify trends, needs and opportunities for Mastercard
• Has a good understanding of Mastercard Products, Services and corporate strategy
• Collaborates with Frontline sales teams to identify customer needs and opportunities through account planning; recommends needs-based solutions in coordination with Products, Services and Marketing
• Bridges gap between the Frontline sales team and product/solution expertise

Lead Customer Solution Center complex value propositions development and sale:
• Pulled into deals by Customer Solutions Center Lead when solution is complex or requires customization (e.g., requires combination of multiple products, service, or platforms)
• Works with the Customer Solutions Center Lead to identify the right “squad” from a solutioning perspective to ensure the appropriate expertise is assigned to a client opportunity/RFP
• Main partner to Account Managers and Business Development Managers (Frontline) in developing and quantifying value proposition for integrated, customized solutions across products / services
• Iterates with Frontline teams at different stages (e.g., value proposition creation, proposal development) to ensure solution meets client-specific needs
• Develops business requirements document in collaboration with product specialists and technical architect.
• Engages relevant expertise (from Sales Specialist and Solution Specialist) within the Customer Solution Center, and across other Customer Solution Centers (engage other Solution Architects assigned to other segments) as needed

Market/segment innovation
• Creates solutions & proactively builds solutions for known market needs. Solutions across the Mastercard toolbox, knitting together assets in bundles that can be readily deployed to address key customer “pain points.”
• Identifies enabling partners i.e. external parties such as fintechs, for solutioning when capabilities are not present internally within Mastercard
• “Rinses and repeats” successful solutions and sales approaches
Knowledge, insights and best practice sharing:
• Shares best practices with Solution Architect community
• Provides input to the product/solution groups and segment leads to enhance

All About You:

Key capabilities: customer and business focused, tech savvy, team player, barrier challenger, problem solver, sleeves rolled-up
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Business or Engineering
• Deep understanding, experience and discipline of product development, product management, and problem solving
• Extensive experience of working as a partner to account managers/ sales staff
• Experience in managing issuing and acquiring products, including digital payments and value added services such as loyalty and benefits
• Good understanding of Mastercard products and services is a plus
• Strong ability to comprehend the business, market context and customer needs to drive and architect integrated and innovative solutions
• Highly collaborative with strong ability to drive cross functional teams
• Strong skills in verbal and written storytelling and packaging of pitch material
• Ability to assemble backing from internal stakeholders in order to build organizational support for the proposed solution
• Understanding of technical basics, e.g. APIs, process flows
• Demonstrated ability to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data, and derive meaningful implications and recommendations from this data

This role is better known internally as 'Solution Architect'

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.