Manager, Account Management, Merchant & Acceptance (Travel)

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
Manager, Account Management, Merchant & Acceptance (Travel)
ABOUT MASTERCARD
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
OVERVIEW
You'll join the Merchants & Acceptance team within Market Development Europe, responsible for managing and growing strategic merchant partnerships. This role focuses on maximizing the value of Mastercard's solutions, ensuring client satisfaction, and expanding relationships through cross-sell opportunities.
ROLE
As Account Manager, you will support one of Mastercard's most strategic global merchant partnerships-one of the largest OTA accounts-working closely with internal stakeholders across global, regional, and local teams as well as ensuring alignment with Mastercard's growth strategy, and driving measurable business outcomes. You will report into the Vice President, Global Account Management, Booking.com
Key Responsibilities include:
Strategic Relationship Management• Serve as one of the point of contacts for the client, ensuring ongoing strategic alignment and satisfaction.• Build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships across the client's organization, including senior stakeholders.• Act as a connector between the client and Mastercard's internal teams to ensure needs are understood and met.
Business Development & Growth• Identify and execute on strategic opportunities to expand the partnership and drive adoption of Mastercard products and services.• Lead the development of client proposals, including RFP responses, business cases, commercial structuring, and contract negotiations.• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (finance, legal, product etc) to deliver tailored solutions.
Performance & Partnership Optimization• Monitor key performance indicators (e.g., revenue, volume) and develop strategies to drive growth.• Ensure robust processes are in place to assess the health of the relationship, using both internal tools and direct client feedback.• Develop and implement action plans to address feedback and continuously improve the partnership.• Manage and communicate day-to-day operations (incl. QBRs), priorities, and progress across teams to ensure alignment and timely delivery
Internal Collaboration & Enablement• Provide strategic direction and guidance to internal stakeholders to maximize partnership value.
ALL ABOUT YOU
Experience & Expertise• Strong experience in managing strategic client partnerships, ideally with a focus on travel marketplaces
• Deep knowledge of issuing (with a focus on commercial/virtual cards), acquiring, and acceptance.• Proven experience managing complex, multi-layered organizations and navigating matrixed environments.• Strong understanding of Mastercard's capabilities and growth strategies.
*Understanding and Experience of the Payments space is strongly preferred
Skills & Competencies• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills; able to communicate clearly and credibly with diverse stakeholders.• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and priorities.• Self-motivated, proactive, and able to drive initiatives independently.• Strong analytical skills and financial acumen; experienced in contract negotiation and management.• Proficient in Microsoft Office, especially PowerPoint & Excel.• Be a fluent English speaker (native not essential)
Mindset & Approach• Customer-Centric: Passionate about understanding customer industries and needs, and committed to delivering value.• Smart & Curious: Eager to learn and continuously develop knowledge across industries, clients, and solutions.• Problem Solver: Resourceful and solution-oriented, able to navigate internal structures to resolve issues efficiently.
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.