Counsel, Digital Transformation, Optimization

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 Counsel, Digital Transformation, Optimization JOB DESCRIPTION FOR COUNSEL - OPTIMIZATION January 13, 2026 WHO IS 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 Mastercard is looking for an experienced lawyer to support the global Optimization product team. Mastercard’s legal team is a critical part of the business, helping to drive the identification, development and distribution of products and solutions that meet the needs of various market stakeholders. The candidate will be part of a highly agile team, building exciting and innovative products. The Optimization team’s mission is to empower Mastercard to optimize and help customers realize the full potential of the Mastercard solutions. The Optimization team works alongside the product and engineering teams focused on strategy, governance, data & analytics, optimization, commercialization, distribution and fintechs. Optimization isn’t a single task or function; it’s a discipline that examines how something works today and elevates how it can work tomorrow. The Optimization team drives impact across product, data, strategy, and go-to-market by applying a unified, disciplined approach to lift performance. The ideal candidate is a curious, self-motivated, technology- and payments-minded lawyer with extensive transactional experience. The candidate must demonstrate sound business and legal judgment, thrive in a fast-paced environment with a diverse workload, and have a proven track record of providing pragmatic and proactive legal advice. The candidate must be able to engage at both the tactical and strategic level to support his or her internal clients. This full-time role is based in Purchase, New York and reports to a Senior Managing Counsel in the Core Payments legal team. ROLE As Counsel, the candidate will handle product development and support matters for the business on a day-to-day basis, identifying and analyzing relevant issues and helping the business effectively navigate legal, governance and regulatory risks and implement appropriate controls, policies and processes. This role will: • Collaborate with the business to bring to market and scale new product and service offerings. • Independently structure, draft, and negotiate commercial agreements with Mastercard customers and partners within the payments ecosystem (e.g. acquirers, issuers, merchants, processors, vendors, and other stakeholders). • Provide detailed legal advice to the business on a wide range of product development, commercial and contractual matters. • Work cross-functionally with various product and legal teams, including data privacy, intellectual property, anti-trust, regulatory affairs, public policy, and franchise functions to provide holistic support to Mastercard’s global and regional products strategy. • Work with internal and external regul ... (truncated, view full listing at source)