Director, Forward-Deployed AI Engineer - AI Mobilization & Transformation

Director, Forward-Deployed AI Engineer - AI Mobilization & Transformation

The Director, Forward-Deployed AI Engineer serves as Mastercard's embedded AI transformation leader, partnering directly with business units to identify high-value opportunities, develop production-grade AI solutions, and mobilize teams to adopt new ways of working.

Reporting to the VP of Organizational Readiness, this role combines deep technical expertise with change leadership. Rather than building solutions in isolation, you will work alongside business teams to solve real problems, demonstrate the art of the possible, and develop internal capability through hands-on engagement.

Success is measured not only by the solutions delivered, but by the number of leaders, engineers, analysts, and teams equipped to independently leverage AI, agents, and multi-agent systems in their daily work.

Mobilizing AI Adoption Through Bespoke Engagements

• Embed within business units to identify strategic workflow, productivity, and decision-making opportunities where AI can create measurable value.
• Lead AI Transformation Engagements that combine discovery, solution design, implementation, and capability building.
• Build high-impact use cases that serve as showcase examples for broader organizational adoption.
• Translate business challenges into practical applications of AI, agents, and multi-agent orchestration.
• Create reusable playbooks, patterns, and training assets that accelerate adoption across the enterprise.
• Partner with business leaders to demonstrate measurable outcomes and establish local AI champions.
• Develop repeatable transformation approaches that can be scaled across multiple business units and functions.
• Identify and prioritize high-value opportunities that accelerate enterprise AI adoption and capability growth.

Building While Teaching

• Design and deploy production-ready AI assistants, agents, and orchestration frameworks that solve real business problems.
• Use each engagement as a live learning environment where business and technical teams learn modern AI practices through delivery.
• Coach engineers, analysts, product managers, and operational teams on AI-first ways of working.
• Establish a "train-the-trainer" model that enables local teams to continue scaling capabilities after engagements conclude.
• Facilitate hands-on workshops focused on prompt engineering, agent design, workflow automation, Copilot practices, and AI-assisted development.
• Develop internal champions capable of independently driving AI adoption and solution delivery.
• Promote knowledge sharing and adoption of best practices across teams and business units.

Advancing Agentic Transformation

• Architect and implement solutions leveraging Copilot Studio, Azure AI, agent frameworks, orchestration systems, and enterprise platforms.
• Develop multi-agent solutions that automate complex business processes and decision flows.
• Introduce modern engineering practices including AI-assisted software development, evaluation frameworks, observability, and governance.
• Establish proven reference architectures and patterns that can be replicated across business units.
• Help business teams evolve from experimentation to operationalized AI solutions.
• Partner with engineering and business leaders to drive scalable adoption of agentic solutions across the enterprise.
• Evaluate emerging AI capabilities and identify opportunities to apply them to business challenges.

Capturing and Scaling Organizational Learning

• Document emerging patterns, successful use cases, implementation approaches, and lessons learned.
• Build an enterprise library of AI-enabled workflows, agents, and transformation stories.
• Identify adoption barriers and design interventions that accelerate organizational readiness.
• Contribute to enterprise readiness metrics by measuring adoption, productivity gains, capability growth, and business impact.
• Create a feedback loop between field engagements, engineering teams, and organizational readiness programs.
• Capture and share best practices, reusable assets, and implementation patterns across engagements.
• Drive continuous improvement of AI transformation approaches based on engagement outcomes and organizational learning.

All About You

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of building and deploying production-grade systems.
• Deep experience with AI technologies including LLMs, agent frameworks, RAG architectures, orchestration patterns, and AI application development.
• Experience building and deploying enterprise AI solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes.
• Strong facilitation and coaching abilities, with experience educating technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfortable working directly with business stakeholders to identify opportunities and redesign workflows.
• Proven ability to influence organizational change through hands-on partnership and delivery.
• Experience mentoring and developing technical talent through real-world project engagements.
• Strong understanding of responsible AI, governance, risk management, and production monitoring practices.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into practical business value and adoption strategies.
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives that combine technology adoption, organizational change, and business transformation.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and stakeholders across highly matrixed organizations.
• Experience developing scalable frameworks, playbooks, or best practices that enable broader organizational adoption.
• Strong executive communication skills with the ability to align technical solutions to business priorities and outcomes.
• Experience driving adoption of new technologies through hands-on engagement, education, and change leadership.
• Experience with Copilot Studio, Azure AI, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or equivalent platforms preferred.
• Financial services, payments, or enterprise transformation experience preferred.
• Passion for developing others and creating sustainable capability within organizations.

Success in This Role

Success is not measured by the number of agents you build. Success is measured by the number of teams that can build without you.

You leave behind:

• New organizational capability.
• Repeatable AI patterns.
• Trained champions and practitioners.
• Demonstrated business value.
• Sustainable adoption of AI-first ways of working.
• Scalable transformation practices that can be replicated across business units.
• Stronger organizational readiness and confidence in applying AI to business challenges.

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 View email address on click.appcast.io 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. Mastercard benefits for interns generally include: 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations.

Pay Ranges

Purchase, New York: $195,000 - $323,000 USD

Arlington, Virginia: $196,000 - $323,00