Associate Consultant, Launch Program 2027 – Saudi Arabia

Role Overview

Associate Consultant, Launch Program 2027, Mastercard, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This is an 18-month structured graduate program for talented professionals entering the organization.

Company Overview

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. The Advisors & Consulting Services (A&CS) team helps clients drive impact through data-driven insights, hands-on implementation, and a collaborative, tech-enabled culture. The organization invests in talent through global engagements, continuous learning, mentorship from industry leaders, and programs like the Global Ambassadors Program, while fostering purpose through volunteerism, pro-bono work, and innovation that benefits clients and communities.

Role Purpose

As an Associate Consultant, you will build specialized expertise through hands-on experience, structured learning, and mentorship while working on real business challenges with meaningful impact. You will collaborate with small teams to help major brands solve strategic questions, gain broad exposure across industries including financial services, retail, restaurants, and hospitality, and develop the technical, analytical, and professional capabilities needed to advance your career at Mastercard.

Key Responsibilities

Business Experimentation

• Leverage Mastercard's industry-leading predictive analytics platform Test & Learn® and SQL to run data-backed business experiments for clients.
• Focus on data science-based solutions to provide insights on various business initiatives, including product launches, marketing campaigns, customer loyalty, and pricing across industries.
• Partner directly with clients to share findings and help determine which ideas are effective, as well as where, when, and how to implement them.
• Support 2–4 clients concurrently and develop deep understanding of client business challenges through longer-term engagements lasting typically 1–2 years.

Strategy & Transformation

• Guide clients through strategic, tactical, operational, and transformational challenges to enhance performance and operations.
• Cover diverse areas including product development, marketing, customer loyalty, and innovation.
• Work with clients from various industries, many of which are Fortune 500 companies.
• Support 1–3 projects concurrently, with each project lasting approximately 8–16 weeks.

Performance Analytics

• Use quantitative and qualitative skills and enterprise applications, including Business Intelligence Platforms, SQL, Python, and related tools, to drive data-led consulting solutions for customers.
• Weave together vast amounts of Mastercard, client, and third-party data assets to investigate trends, build propensity models, and develop data visualizations.
• Synthesize millions of data points into cohesive stories and strategic narratives.
• Engage with client stakeholders through virtual and in-person meetings, leveraging insights to inform strategic recommendations.
• Support several customers concurrently in both short- and long-term projects lasting 4 weeks up to 1 year.

Marketing

• Develop strategies and lead implementation of marketing campaigns and engagements.
• Evaluate results to drive performance on behalf of Mastercard's clients.
• Provide deep direct marketing expertise across channels, leveraging customer, behavioral, and transactional data.
• Define tangible results for both the client and Mastercard.
• Support 1–3 projects from any domain and build fundamental marketing and consulting toolkit.

Deploy

• Help clients implement, launch, and scale Mastercard products, platforms, and business transformation initiatives.
• Combine program management, stakeholder engagement, and implementation expertise to guide complex initiatives from strategy into execution.
• Work closely with client and Mastercard teams to coordinate cross-functional efforts.
• Manage risks and dependencies, and drive adoption to ensure clients realize value from their investments.
• Support 1–2 projects or customers concurrently in execution and implementation, typically lasting 6–12 months.

Ownership & Collaboration

• Create meaningful contributions through ownership of deliverables and building external relationships with clients.
• Focus on technology and data to deliver high-quality results and recommendations.
• Work within small teams to produce outstanding deliverables.

Qualifications & Experience

• Undergraduate or accelerated master's degree with expected graduation date between March 2026 and July 2027.
• Proven record of leadership in a work setting or through extracurricular activities.
• Outstanding record of academic achievement.
• Demonstrated strong aptitude for structured problem solving, analytical, and quantitative skills.
• Experience using data analysis or querying tools such as SQL, SAS, Excel, or Tableau is an asset, particularly for Performance Analytics or Business Experimentation tracks.
• Clear interest in the world of business and intuition for the way companies make decisions.

Skills & Competencies

• Passion: Actively seeks responsibility and takes pride in delivering the highest quality results.
• Analytic Excellence: Demonstrates strong aptitude for structured problem solving and quantitative analysis.
• Rapid Growth: Eagerness to learn quickly through structured training curriculum and organic development opportunities.
• Teamwork: Willingness to work within small teams with a will to win attitude.
• Integrity: Commitment to Mastercard's values of honesty and integrity with willingness to embrace and learn from mistakes.
• Diverse Perspective: Brings unique skillset or approach to every client engagement or internal activity.
• Communication: Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively through excellent written and verbal communication.
• Business Interest: Clear intuition for strategic business decision-making.

Additional Information

• Track placement will indicate the types of projects where you will spend most of your time; however, team members are encouraged and enabled to work across tracks to acquire diverse skills and experiences.
• Five specialization tracks are available: Business Experimentation, Strategy & Transformation, Performance Analytics, Marketing, and Deploy.
• All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks require adherence to Mastercard's security policies and practices.
• You must ensure the confidentiality and integrity of all information accessed.
• You must report any suspected information security violation or breach immediately.
• You must complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard's guidelines.
• Eligibility to work and local office language proficiencies required for Saudi Arabia.