Great flexibility and the chance to shape the future of authentication
Pros
Mastercard offers a high degree of flexibility, which is especially valuable for parents. There is genuine understanding around school drop‑offs, unexpected medical situations, and day‑to‑day life realities, which makes a real difference. The work itself is very rewarding. While the role can be highly specialised and focused on a narrow domain—in my case, authentication—I find that motivating rather than limiting. I’m happy to contribute to improving authentication methods and to helping shape the future of payment security, including areas such as FIDO passkeys.
Cons
As with most large organizations, bureaucracy can sometimes be a challenge, and decision‑making or change may move more slowly than desired. Processes can feel heavy at times, particularly when working across multiple teams and governance layers. That said, there are also positive surprises—for example, how quickly Mastercard has been able to move in certain areas such as AI, where progress has been faster than you might expect from a company of this size.
