Director, Media Agency Partnerships

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

Director, Media Agency Partnerships & Marketing Solutions, EEMEADirector, Media Agency Partnerships & Marketing Solutions, EEMEA (Individual Contributor)

Location: EEMEA Dubai hub preferred (regional travel required)

Function: Partnerships – Services Business Development (Revenue Organization)

Reports to: Regional VP Partner Sales BD Unit.

About the Role
We are scaling a partner-led growth engine across EEMEA, building media agencies and marketing services partners as a strategic route‑to‑market for Mastercard Services solutions. You will develop and activate partnerships with top-tier global agency groups and leading regional agency networks, turning them into a repeatable co‑sell distribution channel—where partners originate and shape opportunities and Mastercard leads solutioning and delivery.

EEMEA is a multi-market region with diverse regulatory requirements, operating models, and levels of market maturity. Success in this role requires strong execution discipline, comfort navigating data/privacy constraints, and the ability to communicate effectively with senior stakeholders across cultures and markets

(English is required; Arabic is a strong differentiator).

This is an Individual Contributor role with significant influence-without-authority responsibility, driving outcomes through partner stakeholders and internal cross-functional teams rather than direct people management.

Key Responsibilities (Co‑sell + EEMEA execution)

1) Build Agencies as a Scalable Co‑sell Channel Across EEMEA
Own senior relationships and joint operating models with tier‑1 agency groups and priority regional agency networks across EEMEA.
Develop joint business plans by cluster/market: target segments, account mapping, co‑sell plays, and country activation sequencing.
Establish a disciplined operating cadence: partner QBRs, deal rooms, stage gates, and win-room rituals that convert relationships into consistent opportunity creation.

2) Drive Partner‑Sourced Opportunity Creation
Generate partner-sourced opportunities via workshops, joint pitches, merchant introductions, and marketing planning sessions with agency teams.
Qualify and shape opportunities with Sales: define buying group, use case, value hypothesis, data prerequisites, timeline, and measurable outcomes.
Ensure clear handoffs to Sales/solutioning and delivery teams once opportunities are qualified and shaped.

3) Own Partner Enablement & "First‑Deal" Activation
Build practical enablement that makes partners productive: talk tracks, discovery scripts, pitch narratives, objection handling, and first‑deal kits.
Enable partner champions across priority markets, accounting for local nuances (language, market maturity, procurement paths, and buyer personas).
Partner with regional/global partner marketing on enablement moments that support funnel creation (partner sessions, merchant workshops, industry moments).

4) EEMEA Market Readiness & Friction Removal
Standardize stage gates, templates, and internal pathways to reduce time from sourced → qualified → proposal.
Navigate EEMEA constraints: data residency/privacy requirements, solution availability, contracting norms, and local competitive dynamics.
Orchestrate cross-functional inputs (Product, Legal, Privacy, InfoSec, Finance, Delivery) early to de-risk opportunities and accelerate time-to-value.

5) Institutionalize Measurement Discipline (Differentiator)
Implement pragmatic measurement governance partners can execute: hypothesis templates, test/control thinking, guardrails, and lift readouts—supported by internal specialists as needed.
Ensure consistent, defensible measurement narratives that resonate across diverse EEMEA markets and buying centers.

6) Compliance by Design
Embed privacy-by-design, responsible AI standards, and data-use controls into partner workflows and measurement programs in partnership with Legal/Privacy/InfoSec.

What You Bring
Must-have

10+ years in media agency partnerships / marketing alliances / martech-adtech BD, with proven experience building agencies as a co‑sell route‑to‑market (distribution motion), not only relationship management.
Track record creating partner‑sourced opportunities and running co-sell motions with Sales (account mapping, joint pitches, stage progression, velocity management).

Strong operator mindset: builds repeatable playbooks, enablement, cadence, and governance; comfortable with ambiguity and multi‑stakeholder alignment.
Experience driving outcomes across matrixed organizations (country teams, product specialists, legal/privacy/infoSec) without direct authority.
Strong storytelling: can translate data-driven marketing and measurement into executive value narratives suited to diverse EEMEA markets.
Salesforce proficiency; comfort with pipeline hygiene, attribution, stage aging, and operating rhythms.

Nice-to-have
Experience operating across multiple EEMEA geographies (e.g., GCC + Africa and/or Eastern Europe/Türkiye/CIS), including working through local market dynamics.
Familiarity with incrementality/measurement frameworks and performance analytics.
Comfort navigating regulated environments (privacy regimes, data residency, cross-border constraints).

Compliance-safe partnership scope line
You will manage partnerships with top global media agency groups and leading regional agency networks across EEMEA.

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.

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