Managing Consultant, Innovation Consulting

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

Managing Consultant, Innovation Consulting

Team Purpose – Digital Labs
• Mastercard Labs as a Service is a leading edge global innovation practice, delivering a range of innovation programs which incorporate the best in design thinking and agile development processes
• Labs as a Service supports our customers and partners with Innovation and R&D consultation - delivering customized innovation programs, products and support - tailored to meet client-specific business challenges.

Facilitator / Product Innovation Manager
• This role within Labs as A Service act as a lead sprint master for facilitating all product / process engagements on behalf of customers and internal stakeholders alike.
• This role is a key customer focused role for Labs as a Service which requires a confident, experienced facilitator with a deep understanding and experience in three core disciplines – ideation methodologies, rapid prototyping and design sprints and agile product management.
• This person will be a lead advocate for innovation within the Mastercard customer base, serving as one of the faces of Mastercard Labs externally in Asia Pacific & globally.

Questions to consider:
• Are you passionate about product innovation and want to work with some of the world’s biggest brands to create innovative product prototypes & run programs to improve their innovation culture and methodologies?
• Are you a world class facilitator with a passion for technology innovation, agile prototype development and new product design?
• Does playing a key playmaker role in supporting teams who are innovating and developing leading edge technology solutions excite you?
• Have you the capability to think on your feet, be hugely creative, cajole, encourage and negotiate all at the same time?
• Your strong points:
o High level of empathy (park your ego at the door and step in your customer’s shoes)
o Structured approach to problem solving
o You listen (actively!) more than you talk. Summarize, structure the conversation and show a way forward
o Ability to inspire and energize a group of diverse people
o Demonstrate confidence also when the situation gets increasingly ambiguous
o Interest and flair for business development with demonstrated results

Role
• Own the execution and successful delivery of multiple customer engagements for the LaaS team which will include innovation consulting, execution of innovation culture programs and delivery of Mastercard innovation products.
• Lead groups through activities such as envisioning / ideation, product planning, issue resolution, action planning, assumptions testing & product prototyping as well as requirements gathering.
• Create new innovation tools and templates & collation of existing best in class methods to create standardized methodologies & practices for rapid innovation.
• Facilitate client events, using best practice processes and techniques in the area of design thinking, ideation methodologies, agile development (design sprints and rapid prototyping) and in agile product management.
• Lead small teams and large groups of professionals with multi-faceted skills sets and different motivations/ agendas to create new product innovations.
• Contribute to the development of new LaaS innovation programs and products and the enhancement of existing LaaS innovation methodologies that can be delivered to customers.
• Keep informed on emerging technologies and innovations in the payments and commerce space and identify potential opportunities for the LaaS team to develop product prototypes that would be relevant to the customer base.
• Explore and support development of Mastercard Labs’ relationships with external parties such as other innovation entities, Labs organizations, and colleges/universities.

All About You
Knowledge / Experience Preferred
• Demonstrated experience in product innovation and consulting.
• Be experienced in the product development process especially agile & design thinking methodologies.
• Be a highly skilled group facilitator—with a wealth of experience leading multi-disciplinary groups through such activities as strategic planning, journey mapping, issue resolution, brainstorming and requirements gathering/definition.
• High energy, can-do attitude, very strong sense of ownership and desire to succeed with commensurate analytical and strategic skills.
• Executive-level presentation skills—must have persuasive “presence” and ability to effectively communicate technology to business people and business to technology people
• Understanding / experience of innovation frameworks and practical technology application experience.
• Startup experience is preferred with demonstrated skills in agile product development
• Payments technology knowledge or experience in the industry would be a huge advantage

Skills / Abilities (Desired)
• Organized, with an ability to provide expert facilitation skills in environments where the team agenda is not clear and the obvious solutions are not always the most appropriate.
• Leadership skills—must be able to influence others and navigate complex relationship scenarios & must be able to influence others without direct reporting relationships.
• Will value and promote having strong processes as a way of achieving consistent, high quality, repeatable results.
• Experience in management consultancy, product owner or scrum-master roles would be very relevant
• Experience in any prototyping/design tools (Photoshop, inVision, Marvel etc) or user testing methodologies would be highly desirable
• Ability to act effectively as a brand ambassador
• Excellent verbal and written skills.
• Willingness to travel
• Work Location – Sydney, Australia

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.