Lead Product Manager - Technical

Mastercard•O'fallon, MO

About The Position

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. Who is Mastercard? 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. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all. Overview The Cryptographic Security Engineering team is looking for a Lead Product Manager – Technical to drive our customer experience strategy forward by consistently innovating and problem-solving. This team designs, builds, and supports scalable service platforms that deliver cryptographic, key management, and certificate management capabilities used by application teams across Mastercard globally. The ideal candidate will quickly develop a deep technical understanding of the applications and systems they support, demonstrating a willingness to dive in, challenge assumptions, and ask thoughtful, probing questions to ensure plans are executed effectively and efficiently. They will bring a strong interest in cryptographic security, along with proven technical leadership, and the ability to think creatively applying innovative, out-of-the-box approaches to solve complex problems

Requirements

Proven product experience: Several years of product management or new product development experience delivering high-quality products, with the ability to clearly articulate business context and customer use cases
Technical product expertise: Experience managing highly technical platforms or API-driven services, with strong software architecture and systems design knowledge
Lean & Agile delivery: Hands-on experience with Lean product management and agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban), along with CI/CD and modern DevOps practices
End-to-end ownership: Demonstrated success delivering features from design through development, deployment, and customer integration
Backlog management: Expertise in grooming epics, features, and user stories; defining clear acceptance and exit criteria; and effectively prioritizing platform backlogs
Data-driven decision making: Ability to define and leverage SMART metrics (leading and lagging) to guide product strategy and measure success
Collaboration & stakeholder management: Proven ability to work across global, cross-functional teams, align diverse perspectives, and manage dependencies and co-development opportunities
Thrives in ambiguity: Comfortable navigating uncertainty; proactively identifies solutions, engages the right stakeholders, and drives clarity
Continuous improvement & communication: Committed to optimizing team processes for speed, quality, and innovation, with excellent written and verbal communication skills

Nice To Haves

Cryptography knowledge (preferred): Familiarity with key management and cryptographic concepts is a plus

Responsibilities

Customer obsession: Champion a deep understanding of customer needs, the broader ecosystem, and key market dynamics, and embed these insights into product decisions
Systems analysis & design: Develop an in-depth understanding of the product platform and its surrounding ecosystem; produce high-quality functional artifacts for Engineering, including data flows, sequence diagrams, APIs, and interface specifications
Backlog management: Define and maintain a clear roadmap aligned to business objectives; translate system designs into well-structured features and user stories that are ready for Engineering execution
Story elaboration: Lead refinement sessions and create detailed, comprehensive acceptance criteria to ensure clarity and delivery readiness
Technical analysis: Provide rigorous analysis of application software to validate that business and functional requirements can be effectively delivered
Strategic alignment: Partner with stakeholders to ensure backlogs are prioritized and refined based on business value, impact, and measurable outcomes
Agile mindset: Advocate for and model agile best practices across the product lifecycle—from defining epics to writing actionable user stories and acceptance criteria
Continuous improvement: Measure outcomes, evaluate existing practices and metrics, and drive ongoing optimization across processes, roles, and delivery execution

Benefits

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

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