Vice President, Process Excellence & Standardization

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
Vice President, Process Excellence & Standardization
Mastercard's Law Department is transforming how legal services are delivered through operational excellence, technology enablement, data-driven decision making, and scaled service delivery. We are seeking a strategic and execution-focused Vice President, Process Excellence & Standardization to lead the design, optimization, and standardization of legal processes across the global Law Department.
This role is a critical leadership position within Legal Operations and will serve as the enterprise owner of legal process excellence. The successful candidate will identify opportunities to simplify, harmonize, and modernize legal workflows while creating scalable operating models that improve efficiency, consistency, user experience, and risk management.
As a key member of the Legal Operations leadership team, this individual will work across legal, compliance, technology, and business stakeholders to establish sustainable process standards and drive adoption of best practices globally. The role will partner closely with Legal Technology & Automation, Legal Analytics & Governance, and legal teams across all practice areas and regions to accelerate the department's transformation agenda.
Key Responsibilities:
Process Excellence & Standardization Strategy• Develop and execute a comprehensive Law Department process excellence strategy aligned with the department's transformation objectives.• Establish enterprise standards, methodologies, and governance for legal process design, documentation, and continuous improvement.• Drive a culture of simplification, standardization, and operational discipline across global legal teams.• Lead the identification, prioritization, and execution of high-impact process improvement opportunities.
Process Engineering & Workflow Design• Map, assess, redesign, and standardize complex legal workflows across the department.• Create scalable, repeatable, and globally consistent operating models for key legal services and activities.• Develop process playbooks, service delivery models, decision trees, intake frameworks, and standard operating procedures.• Ensure that process designs appropriately balance efficiency, compliance, legal risk management, and business experience.• Examples may include:• Legal intake and triage• Contract review and negotiation workflows
Matter management• Knowledge management and legal self-service workflows
Technology Enablement & Automation Partnership• Partner closely with the Legal Technology & Automation team to translate optimized processes into scalable technology solutions.• Define business requirements, user stories, process rules, workflows, and governance models supporting legal technology implementations.• Ensure process designs maximize the value of platforms such as:• Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)• Matter Management• Workflow and automation solutions• Generative AI and legal technology tools• Enterprise productivity platforms• Serve as a strategic business owner and subject matter expert during technology implementation and transformation initiatives.
Data, Metrics & Continuous Improvement• Partner with the Legal Analytics & Governance team to embed measurement, reporting, and accountability into all standardized processes.• Establish KPIs and operational metrics to measure performance, adoption, quality, and business impact.• Develop mechanisms to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and process risks.• Utilize dashboards, operational data, and stakeholder feedback to drive continuous improvement initiatives.• Promote evidence-based decision making across Legal Operations.
Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement• Influence senior legal and business leaders to align on enterprise process standards and transformation priorities.• Facilitate cross-functional working groups and governance forums.• Represent Legal Operations in enterprise transformation and operational excellence initiatives.• Create a process excellence and standardization team
Qualifications• Deep experience in process excellence, business transformation, operations, consulting, or continuous improvement roles.• Experience leading large-scale process redesign and operational transformation initiatives within a corporate legal department, financial services organization, consulting firm, or highly regulated technology company.• Demonstrated success implementing scalable operating models and driving measurable business outcomes.• Experience influencing senior executives and leading cross-functional initiatives in complex global organizations.
Process Excellence Expertise• Deep expertise in process optimization methodologies, including Lean, Six Sigma, Design Thinking, Agile, or equivalent continuous improvement frameworks.• Strong understanding of process governance, service design, organizational effectiveness, and change management.• Ability to translate complex workflows into practical, scalable operating solutions.
Technology & Analytics• Experience partnering with technology and product teams to automate and digitize business processes.• Familiarity with legal operations technologies, including CLM, matter management, workflow tools, knowledge management platforms, and AI-enabled legal solutions.• Strong understanding of process analytics, performance metrics, and operational reporting.
Leadership & Collaboration• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.• Ability to influence without direct authority and drive alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.• Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and accelerate organizational change.
Education• Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Information Systems, Legal Studies, Engineering, or a related discipline.• MBA, Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean certification, or equivalent advanced credentials are preferred.
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 [email protected] 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.
THIS POSTING RELECTS ONE OR MORE CURRENT VACANCIES ON OUR TEAM, AND MASTERCARD INTENDS TO FILL THIS POSITION BY 01/14/2027. If the fill date has passed, Mastercard intends to fill this position as soon as possible.
Pay Ranges
Purchase, New York: $221,000 - $353,000 USD