Mastercard Graduate Launch Program 2023
Job Title
Mastercard Graduate Launch Program 2023 – Associate Consultant, Advisors – South Africa
The Data & Services team is a key differentiator for Mastercard, providing cutting-edge services that help our customers grow. Focused on thinking big and scaling fast around the globe, this agile team is responsible for end-to-end solutions for a diverse global customer base. We combine traditional management consulting with our rich data assets and in-house technology to provide our clients with powerful strategic insights and recommendations.
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 3 career tracks that make up our team:
Strategy & Transformation
Lead customers through sound decision making as they tackle strategic, tactical, operational, and transformational challenges, spanning across diverse topics including product, marketing, loyalty, innovation, and more. Apply a broad set of problem-solving techniques to improve overall performance and operations.
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 food and beverage customer improve their loyalty strategy to encourage repeat purchase behavior?
– How much should a customer pay to buy a competitor’s portfolio of assets?
– How can a customer improve its operating model to better achieve operational, financial and strategic goals?
Team members typically support 2-4 projects concurrently, with each project lasting for approximately 3-6 months.
Performance Analytics
Translate data into insights leveraging Mastercard and customer data. Get hands-on to design, implement & scale analytical solutions for customers across industries. Apply qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques using our enterprise applications, e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, NiFi, Python, Impala, and more to synthesize analyses into clear recommendations and impactful narratives.
Sampling of questions we help our customers answer:
– How does a financial institution’s fraud/authorization metrics fare against competitors, and what are strategies that can help it be best-in-class?
– How is a technology customer’s market share changing over time, and are there any segments where the client is relatively under penetrated?
– How does a retail customer’s performance track against the broader industry, and how should broader industry trends impact the strategy of the customer?
Team members support several customers concurrently, and produce analyses at set cadences, i.e., weekly,- monthly,- quarterly reports
Business Experimentation
Advise executives on business decisions by leveraging data and applying science to the way they run their business. Using Mastercard’s industry-leading Predictive Analytics SaaS platform, Test & Learn®, you will work with customers to identify their key priorities and then design and run business experiments to establish which ideas work, where, when and how to deploy them, and what not to do. In working with customers this way, you get to understand the full range of their business, from new product launches, marketing, loyalty, and pricing, to operations and strategy.
Sampling of questions we help our customers answer:
– How discounted of a rate should be given to a new subscriber to internet service to maximize their lifetime value to the telco provider?
– What bonus should be provided to someone opening a credit card account to entice them to use the card regularly?
– Where should a new store be opened to maximize its profitability, and to minimize the cannibalization of stores nearby to the opening?
– Is the new grocery pickup channel at your local grocery store attracting new customers, or is it just being used by their same customers as always? Are they attracting enough new customers to justify increased costs?
Team members will typically support 2-4 clients concurrently, and develop a deep understanding of client business challenges through longer term engagements, typically 1-2 years between rotations
In your cover letter, please indicate your first and second track preference. This information will be leveraged to best match applicants with their desired tracks.
As an Associate Consultant, you will:
– Work on small teams to solve our clients’ most challenging strategic problems.
– Collaborate with motivated peers who are passionate about what they do.
– Build strong relationships with clients to understand their business needs, find strategic solutions and guide impactful decisions.
– Grow your career by receiving hands-on mentorship from an experienced management team.
– Have an immediate opportunity for meaningful contributions, increased responsibility, leadership roles, and professional advancement.
– Collaborate with colleagues across different areas of the organization and quickly gain exposure to business development, account management, and product management.
– Receive extensive training focusing on helping you build your core consulting skill set.
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.
– Analytic Excellence: Demonstrates a strong aptitude for structured problem solving and quantitative skills.
– 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: Commitment to Mastercard’s values of honesty and integrity with a willingness to embrace and learn from our mistakes.
– Diverse Perspective: Brings a unique skillset or approach to the table in every client engagement or internal activity.
– Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated leadership abilities.
Qualifications:
– Undergraduate or master’s degree with a target date Dec 2022
– Outstanding record of academic achievement
– Proven record of leadership in a work setting and/or through extracurricular activities
– Exceptional analytical and quantitative problem-solving 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.
– Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively – both verbally and in writing – in English and the local office languages
– Candidates must be eligible to work in the country of which they are applying for a position in, as well as eligible to apply for travel visas as required by travel needs
COVID-19 Considerations
We value the safety of each member of our community because we know we’re all in this together. In many locations, which may change over time, we’ve implemented a virtual hiring process and continue to interview candidates by video or phone. In addition, in some locations, only individuals who have been fully vaccinated will be permitted inside Mastercard offices until further notice.
In the US, Mastercard is a government contractor, which may legally require most Mastercard employees to be vaccinated unless a verified approved medical or religious exemption is granted. Further, we are currently making every effort towards having employees return to work in the office 2 days per week, if that makes sense for their team. Everyone must be vaccinated to enter Mastercard offices at this time. Therefore, we expect all candidates to be vaccinated or to be approved for a medical or religious accommodation prior to commencing work at Mastercard.
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.