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

Early Career Learning & Development Manager

At Mastercard, early-career talent is essential to building the capabilities, leadership pipeline, and workforce our business will need for the future. The Early Career Learning & Development Manager plays a critical role in shaping how new campus graduate hires—known as Launchers—transition from campus to corporate life and build the skills, confidence, networks, and business understanding needed to thrive during their first 18 months.

This role helps architect and manage a cohesive, global development journey that connects orientation, in-person bootcamps, ongoing learning experiences, check-ins, manager enablement, and opportunities for applied development. Working across Learning & Development, Talent, Campus Recruiting, business leaders, managers, and HR business partners, the L&D Manager ensures that Launcher experiences are integrated, scalable, and aligned with enterprise talent priorities.

The L&D Manager stays attuned to emerging priorities and strategic direction for the future of early-career development. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into how work is performed, this role will contribute insights that support strategy development and translate the evolving strategy into relevant Launcher experiences. The L&D Manager will connect these priorities to their day-to-day work, helping advance development experiences that enable Launchers to use new tools effectively while strengthening the judgment, adaptability, technical and AI fluency, human skills, and business capabilities needed for long-term career growth and future leadership or specialist pathways.

Key Responsibilities

Launcher Development Journey Architecture
• Help architect and continuously evolve a cohesive 18-month campus-to-corporate development journey for Launchers, grounded in their needs, key career moments, and Mastercard’s business and talent priorities
• Connect orientation, in-person bootcamps, ongoing development experiences, community-building, check-ins, manager touchpoints, and applied learning into an integrated experience rather than a series of standalone events
• Define clear development outcomes, experience principles, milestones, and progression points across the Launcher journey
• Partner with learning designers, facilitators, subject matter experts, and talent partners to translate the journey architecture into engaging, inclusive, and scalable experiences

Program Planning, Delivery & Operational Excellence
• Develop and manage integrated program plans, calendars, milestones, dependencies, resources, budgets, and governance for the full portfolio of Launcher development experiences
• Coordinate cross-functional and regional teams to deliver high-quality orientation sessions, bootcamps, cohort experiences, ongoing learning, and development check-ins
• Serve as the central connector across interdependent workstreams, ensuring clarity of roles, timely decisions, consistent execution, and a seamless participant experience
• Monitor progress, participation, quality, and delivery risks; adjust plans and implement corrective actions as needed

Strategic Foresight & Future-Ready Early Careers
• Monitor how AI, automation, emerging technologies, and changing business models are reshaping entry-level roles, skills, and career pathways
• Translate external research, workforce insights, and business needs into recommendations for how Mastercard should evolve Launcher development
• Identify capabilities and experiences that must be developed more intentionally as traditional entry-level tasks change, including judgment, critical thinking, relationship-building, business acumen, adaptability, AI fluency, and oversight of AI-enabled work
• Pilot and scale new approaches—such as applied assignments, simulations, mentoring, rotations, and cross-functional exposure—that preserve meaningful pathways for learning and progression

Talent Strategy & Leadership Pipeline Integration
• Connect the Launcher development strategy with broader enterprise talent priorities, workforce planning, skills strategies, internal mobility, and leadership pipeline development
• Partner with Campus Recruiting, Talent Management, Global Skilling, People Analytics, HR, and business leaders to align hiring, onboarding, development, performance, and career progression
• Ensure the program supports equitable access to development, builds a strong sense of belonging, and prepares diverse early-career talent for future opportunities

Stakeholder, Partner & Community Management
• Define and track measures of program effectiveness, including experience quality, participation, skill and confidence growth, manager feedback, retention, internal mobility, readiness, and progression
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data to identify trends, inequities, risks, and opportunities across cohorts, regions, and experiences
• Prepare concise updates and recommendations for senior stakeholders on program performance, outcomes, and areas for improvement
• Establish feedback loops with Launchers, managers, facilitators, and partners to continuously strengthen the journey

Measurement, Insights & Continuous Improvement
• Serve as a trusted point of contact for program-related decisions, communications, and issue resolution
• Build strong relationships with internal and external partners, including business sponsors, managers, HR and Talent teams, vendors, facilitators, and regional stakeholders
• Create clear communications, guidance, and enablement that help managers and partners understand their role in developing Launchers
• Foster a collaborative, high-accountability operating model across teams that contribute to the Launcher experience


Experience & Capabilities

• Proven experience in program management, early-career development, learning and development, talent management, or a related field, with a track record of delivering complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives
• Experience designing or managing campus-to-corporate, graduate, onboarding, rotational, leadership pipeline, or large-scale development programs is strongly preferred
• Ability to architect an end-to-end development journey and translate strategy into coordinated experiences, operating plans, and measurable outcomes
• Strong program management discipline, including planning, governance, budget and resource management, risk mitigation, vendor management, and execution across multiple concurrent workstreams
• Understanding of adult learning, experience design, cohort-based learning, and the developmental needs of employees entering the corporate workforce
• Demonstrated curiosity and strategic perspective on the future of work, including how AI and automation are changing entry-level roles, skill development, and talent pipelines
• Strong analytical capability, with the ability to synthesize data, participant feedback, workforce insights, and external trends into clear recommendations
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to influence across levels, functions, regions, and cultures
• Experience operating effectively in a complex, global, matrixed organization and mobilizing teams without direct authority
• Highly organized, proactive, inclusive, and detail-oriented, with the adaptability and resilience to thrive in a fast-paced environment

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.