. Product Design Program Manager

Location: Dublin, Ireland

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

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

We are building the next generation of small business experiences at Mastercard.

Our Global SME (Small Medium Enterprise) team is focused on helping entrepreneurs and business owners start, manage, grow, and succeed through innovative products, intelligent insights, and seamless digital experiences. We're united by a shared passion for solving meaningful customer problems and unlocking the next generation of business intelligence and financial technology solutions.

As part of our pioneering Customer Experience & Design (CX&D) squad, you'll help shape the future of Mastercard's small business ecosystem. You'll work at the intersection of design, product, data, and technology to uncover customer needs, explore new opportunities, and deliver experiences that create real value for businesses around the world. You'll serve as an operational leader and force multiplier for the CX&D organization, improving collaboration, streamlining how we work, and enabling designers, researchers, and content strategists to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.

This is a highly collaborative, fast-paced environment where experimentation, innovation, and customer-centric thinking are at the core of everything we do. Together, we're accelerating the adoption of Mastercard's global SME solutions and empowering millions of businesses with the tools, insights, and experiences they need to grow with confidence.

We're not just designing products. We're helping build the future of small business.

About the Role

We are seeking a Product Design Program Manager to help scale the impact of our Global SME Customer Experience Design (CX&D) organization. In this role, you will lead the operational rhythm of the design team, creating the processes, planning frameworks, and cross-functional alignment needed to deliver high-quality experiences at scale. You will help establish and evolve the operating model for the CX&D organization, driving planning, execution, team effectiveness, and design operations at scale.

You will partner closely with Product Design, Content Design, User Research, Product Management, Engineering, and business stakeholders to ensure initiatives are executed effectively and strategic priorities remain on track.

This role serves as the connective tissue across the CX&D organization, helping teams operate effectively, scale consistently, and deliver meaningful customer impact.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of design, operations, and product development and enjoys bringing clarity, structure, and momentum to complex initiatives.

What You'll Be Doing

• Drive planning, execution, and operational excellence across the CX&D organization.
• Partner with Design, Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders to align priorities and deliver strategic initiatives.
• Build scalable processes, tools, and governance models that enable efficient, high-quality design delivery.
• Manage timelines, dependencies, risks, and communications across complex programs.
• Support design system adoption, accessibility initiatives, and design operations best practices.
• Identify opportunities to improve team effectiveness through better workflows, tooling, and AI-powered ways of working.
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing culture through effective team rituals, communication, knowledge sharing, and cross-functional partnerships that amplify the impact of the design organization.
• Establish reporting, metrics, and operational insights that provide visibility into team health, delivery progress, and organizational effectiveness.
• Support capacity planning, prioritization, and resource management across the design organization.

Must Have

• 6+ years of experience in Design Program Management, Design Operations, Product Operations, Program Management, or a related field.
• Experience supporting Product Design, UX, User Research, Content Design, or Design Systems teams within a product organization.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives involving Design, Product Management, Engineering, and business stakeholders.
• Demonstrated success building scalable operating models, processes, and frameworks that improve team effectiveness and delivery.
• Exceptional stakeholder management, facilitation, and communication skills, with the ability to influence outcomes without direct authority.
• Strong program management expertise, including planning, prioritization, risk management, dependency tracking, and execution within Agile product development environments.
• Proficiency with collaboration and planning tools such as Jira, Figma, Confluence, Miro, Airtable, Smartsheet, Asana, or similar platforms.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information and communicate effectively with leadership teams.
• Demonstrated ability to act as a force multiplier for design organizations by improving operational excellence, enabling collaboration, and helping teams focus on high-impact customer work.

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting enterprise-scale Product Design or UX organizations.
• Experience leading Design Operations initiatives, including planning, team effectiveness, resource management, or portfolio governance.
• Knowledge of design systems governance, adoption strategies, and cross-functional implementation.
• Experience coordinating accessibility programs, quality standards, or experience governance initiatives.
• Familiarity with UX design, customer-centered design, and user research methodologies.
• Experience introducing AI-powered workflows, automation, or new tools that increase organizational effectiveness.
• Experience fostering inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing team cultures.
• PMP, Agile, Scrum, SAFe, or related program management certifications.
• Experience in fintech, payments, SaaS, platform products, or enterprise software environments.

Why Join Us

At Mastercard, you'll have the opportunity to influence products that help millions of small businesses grow and succeed. You'll work alongside talented designers, product leaders, and engineers who are passionate about innovation, customer experience, and business impact.

We move quickly, challenge assumptions, embrace experimentation, and believe great design can transform how businesses operate and make decisions.

If you're excited about solving meaningful problems, shaping innovative products, and defining the future of small business experiences, we'd love to hear from you.

Corporate Security Responsibility

• 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.