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, Specialist Sales SME, Lead SEE
Job Description Summary
Overview
Mastercard's SME Segment helps banks, fintechs and ecosystems digitize B2B payments and deliver value added services for small and medium enterprises. As Director, Specialist Sales - SME South & Eastern Europe (SEE) you will lead commercial execution across Financial Institutions (FI) and FinTechs, and accelerate Channel Distribution channels including but not limited to Payfacs, ISVs and embedded finance platforms to capture new payment flows and revenues.
You will partner closely with regional product, divisional Customer Solutions Center (CSC), local account management and business development teams, and with strategic customers and prospects to translate our global SME vision into measurable market outcomes in SEE.
Key Responsibilities:
1) Localize the SME/CNPF vision for SEE
- Drive together with financial institutions, FinTechs, acquirer and ISVs the evolutions of SME products available to SME customers in SEE
- Develop go to market approaches with the CSC, AMs and BD teams in alignment with the overall European strategy and drive sales in the cluster.
- Own and drive market performance for countries via KPIs, dashboards, pipeline and win rates for your markets
- Enable field teams with clear narratives on the value created by solutions expressed in clear business cases and value to the customer
2) Orchestrate best in class launches
- Prioritize sales actions based on SEE market relevance of new or enhanced SME services both Mastercard's own or partner solutions and align with product, country leads and AMs/BD
- Refine positioning & roadmap for top priority customer and services considering SEE's regulatory, competitive and customer landscape
- Accelerate time to market via ecosystem levers (partnerships, certifications, co-marketing, implementation readiness and customer success)
- Share best practices on sales motions and implementation, support AMs during RFPs with competitive intelligence and custom-designed value propositions
3) Drive business development across FI, FinTech and Alternative Distribution
- Own the SME segment for SEE: maintain a robust, accurately staged Salesforce pipeline for both direct and partner sourced opportunities
- Lead management and executive engagement with issuers, acquirers, Payfacs/ISVs and platform partners to capture new payment flows from supplier payments, expense management, receivables and cross border flows
- Deliver tangible outcomes aligned to Mastercard objectives (GDV, NR, signed optimizations, wins) and expand footprint into Commercial and New Payment Flows
4) Lead cross functional execution
- Connect the dots across Product, Pricing & Interchange, Franchise, Legal, Customer Delivery and Marketing to unblock complex deals and launches
- Champion post launch success - monitor adoption and operational health; run post mortems and embed learnings into enhancements
- Educate and inspire internal teams and the market on the SME solutions suite through pitches, narratives and thought leadership
All About You
- Experience in payments, banking, fintech or adjacent B2B services, with proven sales ownership (new wins, optimizations, portfolio growth)
- Account management / consultative selling proficiency
- Strategy/consulting exposure and project leadership with technology enabled solutions; strong analytical and operator mindset
- Depth across issuing & acquiring, virtual cards, acceptance, receivables/payables, and SME SaaS/embedded finance models
- Fluent in at least one South-Eastern European language and English (written and spoken); other languages a plus.
- Master's/MBA preferred; Bachelor's required
Competencies:
- Commercial acuity with the ability to build quantifiable business cases and articulate ROI to senior stakeholders
- Builder's mindset - proactive, resilient, comfortable with ambiguity; enterprise collaboration in a matrix environment
- Data driven - expert in pipeline hygiene, forecast accuracy, and performance analytics; crisp storytelling (PowerPoint)
- Executive presence and negotiation skills; trusted advisor to FI/FinTech and platform leaders
Performance Measures:
- Volume growth and Gross/Net Revenue contribution for SEE
- Signed opportunities (new issuance, optimizations, alt. distribution deals) and RFP win rate
- Pipeline quality (coverage, velocity, stage fidelity) and delivery against quarterly operating cadence
Travel: 30%+ across SEE
South East Europe (SEE) = Romania, Israel, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzigovina, Montenegro, Kosovo
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.
Skills Required
- Experience in payments, banking, fintech or adjacent B2B services with proven sales ownership
- Account management and consultative selling proficiency
- Strategy/consulting exposure and project leadership with technology-enabled solutions
- Depth across issuing & acquiring, virtual cards, acceptance, receivables/payables, and SME SaaS/embedded finance models
- Fluent in at least one South-Eastern European language and English (written and spoken)
- Bachelor's degree
- Master's degree or MBA
- Strong commercial acumen, pipeline hygiene, forecast accuracy and performance analytics; excellent PowerPoint storytelling
- Executive presence, negotiation skills and ability to engage senior FI/FinTech leaders
- Willingness to travel 30%+ across SEE
Mastercard Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Retirement Support — Careers materials and job postings advertise a “best‑in‑class” 10% retirement match (401k or equivalent). Public-facing benefits pages consistently position this as a standout element of the U.S. package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Recent U.S. postings list 25 vacation days, 5 personal days, 10 paid holidays, up to 20 days of bereavement, and 80 hours of sick/safe time. The combined time‑off framework is described as well above typical U.S. baselines.
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Parental & Family Support — Company materials specify a minimum of 16 weeks paid new‑parent leave and inclusive family‑building support, with financial assistance for adoption, fertility, and surrogacy where allowed. Impact/ESG reporting also notes coverage enhancements for gender‑affirming care in North America.
Mastercard Insights
What We Do
Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re building a resilient 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.
Why Work With Us
We live the Mastercard Way: creating value in the communities we touch, growing together through the opportunities we see, and moving fast to innovate and scale. Our collaborative culture and our passionate people are the key to what we do, driving meaningful change as one team and connecting everyone to priceless possibilities.
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