About Us

At Mastercard, we're powering economies and empowering people, building ​ a sustainable economy where everyone prospers.

Size: 10000+ employees
Industry: Consulting, Financial Services, Technology, Fintech

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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

Associate Consultant, Launch Program 2026 - United States

Services within Mastercard is responsible for acquiring, engaging, and retaining customers by managing fraud and risk, enhancing cybersecurity, and improving the digital payments experience. We provide value-added services and leverage expertise, data-driven insights, and execution.

Make an Impact as an Associate Consultant:

As an Associate Consultant, you will collaborate within small teams to help some of the world's biggest brands answer and often implement solutions for their most challenging strategic questions. You will immediately create meaningful contributions through taking ownership of deliverables and building external relationships with clients. Focusing on technology and data, you will gain broad exposure to a range of industries, including financial services, retail, restaurants, hospitality and more.

We are looking for passionate and talented professionals, who share our vision for helping our customers with their most urgent business needs, and we are recruiting for 2 career tracks that make up our team:

Strategy & Transformation:

Guide clients through strategic, tactical, operational, and transformational challenges to enhance performance and operations. Our engagements cover diverse areas, including product development, marketing, customer loyalty, and innovation. Working with clients from various industries, many S&T engagements directly interface with numerous Fortune 500 companies. This role aligns with the practices of traditional management consulting firms.

Sampling of questions we help our customers answer:
How can a global financial services institution be successful at entering a hyper competitive new market?
How can a customer improve its operating model to better achieve operational, financial and strategic goals?

Team members typically support 1-3 projects concurrently, with each project lasting for approximately 8-16 weeks.

1. Business Experimentation

Leverage Mastercard's industry-leading predictive analytics platform, Test & Learn®, and SQL to run data-backed business experiments for our clients. Consultants focus on data science-based solutions to provide insights on various business initiatives, including product launches, marketing campaigns, customer loyalty, and pricing across various industries that touch many Fortune 500 companies. Partner directly with clients to share findings and help determine which ideas are effective, as well as where, when, and how to implement them.

Sampling of questions we help our customers answer:
Where should a retailer open new stores to maximize profitability and minimize the cannibalization of nearby omnichannel sales?
What bonus should be provided to someone opening a credit card account to entice them to use the card regularly?

Team members will typically support 2-4 clients concurrently, and develop a deep understanding of client business challenges through longer term engagements (typically lasting 1-2 years).

Bring your Passion and Expertise:

We recruit for and value the following core competencies:

Passion: Actively seeks responsibility and takes pride in delivering the highest quality results and recommendations to our clients. Proven record of leadership in a work setting and/or through extracurricular activities.

Analytic Excellence: Demonstrates a strong aptitude for structured problem solving, analytical and quantitative skills. Experience using data analysis or querying tools (e.g., SQL, SAS, Excel or Tableau) is an asset (particularly for Performance Analytics or Business Experimentation tracks).

Business Interest: Clear interest in the world of business, and intuition for the way that companies make decisions.

Rapid Growth: Eagerness to learn quickly, both through Mastercard's structured training curriculum and organic development opportunities.

Teamwork: Willingness to work within small teams to produce outstanding deliverables, with a will to win attitude.

Integrity: Outstanding record of academic achievement. Commitment to Mastercard's values of honesty and integrity with a willingness to embrace and learn from mistakes.

Diverse Perspective: Brings a unique skillset or approach to the table in every client engagement or internal activity.

Communication: Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

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Qualifications:Undergraduate degree with an expected graduation date of Spring 2026You are highly encouraged to submit a cover letter, resume and transcript (unofficial/official).In your cover letter, please indicate your first track preference. This information will be leveraged to best match applicants with their desired track.

Track placement will indicate the types of projects where you will spend most of your time; however, we encourage and enable working across tracks to allow team members to acquire diverse skills and experiences.

Salary: $90,000/year Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

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.

In line with Mastercard's total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Mastercard benefits for full time (and certain part time) employees generally include: insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance); flexible spending account and health savings account; paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave); 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire; 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays; 401k with a best-in-class company match; deferred compensation for eligible roles; fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities; eligibility for tuition reimbursement; and many more.

Client-provided location(s): Arlington, VA

Job ID: Mastercard-22331_R-257321

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2025-08-30T19:17:08
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Perks and Benefits

Health and Wellness

• Health Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Short-Term Disability
• Long-Term Disability
• FSA
• FSA With Employer Contribution
• HSA
• HSA With Employer Contribution
• Fitness Subsidies
• On-Site Gym
• Pet Insurance
• Mental Health Benefits
• Virtual Fitness Classes
• Health Reimbursement Account

Parental Benefits

• Birth Parent or Maternity Leave
• Non-Birth Parent or Paternity Leave
• Fertility Benefits
• Adoption Assistance Program
• Family Support Resources
• On-site/Nearby Childcare
• Adoption Leave

Work Flexibility

• Flexible Work Hours
• Remote Work Opportunities
• Hybrid Work Opportunities

Office Life and Perks

• Commuter Benefits Program
• Casual Dress
• Happy Hours
• Snacks
• Company Outings
• On-Site Cafeteria
• Holiday Events
• Some Meals Provided

Vacation and Time Off

• Paid Vacation
• Paid Holidays
• Personal/Sick Days
• Leave of Absence
• Volunteer Time Off

Financial and Retirement

• 401(K) With Company Matching
• Performance Bonus
• Relocation Assistance
• Financial Counseling
• Stock Purchase Program
• 401(K)
• Company Equity

Professional Development

• Tuition Reimbursement
• Promote From Within
• Mentor Program
• Access to Online Courses
• Lunch and Learns
• Internship Program
• Work Visa Sponsorship
• Leadership Training Program
• Associate or Rotational Training Program
• Shadowing Opportunities

Diversity and Inclusion

Employee Resource Groups (ERG)

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