Head of Advisors and Consulting Services - Africa

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

Head of Advisors and Consulting Services - Africa

The Services organization drives Mastercard's growth by providing innovative services to customers. Services focus on customer needs by integrating our data, technology, insights, and expertise and boosts business growth. Representing over a third of Mastercard revenues, services are crucial to our success.

We are looking for someone to lead the growing Advisors and Consulting team in the Africa Division. The ideal candidate will be an inspirational, experienced leader with a strong record in leading high-performing, cross-functional teams. Consulting experience is required, and familiarity with payments or financial institutions is preferred.

Responsibilities:

1. Lead engagement teams to get best-in-class insights and project deliverables.
2. Provide subject matter or industry expertise, identify creative and efficient solutions, and guide the team to business-focused solutions and recommendations that drive client value.
3. Own mid- to senior-level client relationships and proactively engage in the client agenda, internal culture, and relationship risks.
4. Manage a sizable and growing team across Africa, mentoring and coaching junior teammates and contributing to Mastercard’s knowledge management and best practices.
5. Transform clients and shape the organization’s future as a thought partner.
6. Support nurturing Mastercard Advisors and Consulting Services brand internally and externally.

All About You

We recruit for and value the following core competencies:

1. Passion: Actively seeks responsibility and takes pride in guiding project teams towards delivering the highest quality results and recommendations to our clients.
2. Problem Solving: Leads teams to identify the most critical aspects of a problem and guides them to business-focused solutions that drive client value.
3. Analytic Excellence: Demonstrates a strong aptitude for structured problem solving and quantitative skills.
4. Project Management: Clear interest in project delivery with business clients.
5. Client Management: Inspire client confidence through timely and reliable execution.
6. Communication and Presence: Communicate effectively in a wide range of complex scenarios.
7. Teamwork: Motivates teams to produce superior quality deliverables while creating an open collaboration environment.
8. Commercial Orientation: Ability to identify strong opportunities to leverage internal capabilities.
9. Leadership: Instill a sense of urgency and ownership in leaders at all levels.
10. Integrity: Models Mastercard's values of honesty and integrity.
11. Diverse Perspective: Brings a unique skillset or approach to every client engagement.

Qualifications:

1. Undergraduate or master’s degree and tenured work experience after completing degree.
2. Experience in a consulting organization as a senior-level manager.
3. Advanced experience directly managing multiple people across multiple projects.
4. Exceptional analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills.
5. Exposure specifically in payments and/or retail banking or merchants is preferred.
6. Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively in English and the local office language(s).
7. Demonstrated ability to own and develop relationships with mid- and executive-level client contacts.
8. Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
9. Advanced Word, Excel, and PowerPoint skills required; data expertise preferred.

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks come with an inherent risk to the organization. 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.
• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.