Senior Specialist, Experience Researcher

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
Senior Specialist, Experience Researcher
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
At Mastercard, we believe that the future of our business depends on our ability to help our partners define and deliver great experiences. In support of that, we are driving a comprehensive Customer Experience & Design (CX&D) program within Foundry to drive the creation of new innovative products developed using customer centric strategic and design approaches.
The delivery of excellent customer experience requires a strong performing cross functional team, harnessing the skills of the UX disciplines: Research, Product Experience Design, Content Design, Experience Strategy, and more. The Experience Researcher is a key member of the team who is responsible for helping to define, shape and test strategies and great experiences for our customers and consumers.
• Are you observant, curious and passionate about helping build the best possible experience for customers?• Do you thrive on unearthing actionable insights that drive strategic product and design decisions?• Do you have a passion for understanding evolving behavioral shifts, exploring new verticals and innovating with new business models and technologies?• Do you possess a high energy, can-do attitude?• Do you want to be a part of a collaborative environment working across multiple geographies?
The ideal candidate is self-confident and eager to learn how to better execute against research plans, gather insights through active listening and observation to validate hypotheses and concepts.
The ideal candidate will be eager to build their capabilities through executing methods such as usability lab studies, ethnographic field studies, remote testing, competitive evaluations, participatory design sessions, surveys, heuristic evaluations, and other approaches based on need.
Role
As a Senior Experience Researcher, you will:• Participate in all phases of the research, strategy, and design process-from framing the problem and defining the design target to envisioning the future state experience and validating concepts.• Develop and execute research approaches using a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, critically evaluating processes and applying statistical analysis where appropriate.• Conduct generative and evaluative research, including drafting screeners, discussion guides, and surveys; moderate in-person and remote sessions; and collaborate with third-party vendors when needed.• Apply critical thinking to synthesize findings, identify patterns and themes, and translate them into compelling insights and implications for product teams.• Deliver insights at various stages of the product lifecycle to inform strategy and design decisions that lead to best-in-class experiences.• Present key takeaways to stakeholders and confidently field questions during readouts.• Guide research planning across teams, helping shape roadmaps and priorities based on user and business impact.• Collaborate on experimentation frameworks (e.g., A/B testing, usability testing, cohort analysis) and integrate UX research with data analytics to inform product and business decisions.• Ensure ethical research practices and data privacy standards are upheld across all initiatives.• Contribute to the development of research best practices and mentor less experienced researchers.
All About You
You should bring:• Years of experience in UX research, data analytics, or a related field, preferably in a product-led or digital environment.• Strong expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods (e.g., usability testing, interviews, surveys, ethnography) and experience conducting or supporting A/B tests and experimental design.• Proficiency in analytics tools such as DOMO, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Tableau, Excel, or similar BI platforms.• Demonstrated ability to translate complex data and research findings into clear, compelling narratives using strong oral and written communication skills.• Familiarity with Design Thinking methodologies and experience applying them in cross-functional product teams.• A strategic mindset with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels and align research with business and customer needs.• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and presenting to senior leadership.• A collaborative, inclusive approach to teamwork and a passion for mentoring others.• Comfort balancing short-term delivery with long-term research planning.• Curiosity and enthusiasm for evolving global consumer experiences in areas like payments, small business, digital identity, and loyalty.• Strategic mindset with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization.• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and presenting to senior leadership.• Comfortable balancing short-term delivery with long-term research planning.• Passion for understanding user behavior and turning insight into measurable outcomes.
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.