Tanja Babic discusses a typical day working at Mastercard, from drawing on her Croatian language skills to juggling different tasks and timelines.
Tanja Babic is a product owner in the customer data management programme at Mastercard. She came to the company two years ago as a senior business analyst with the Mastercard In Control commercial payments team. Now, her work requires her to deliver applications for onboarding customers – both issuers and acquirers – on the Mastercard platform.
We chatted to Babic to learn about the types of skills she draws on in her day-to-day work, from project management and problem solving to language skills. She told us how Mastercard gives her “opportunities to learn about different new technologies, products and methodologies” as she grows in her career.
‘We need to deliver best-in-class projects but in a timely fashion – so managing expectations is hugely important’
– TANJA BABIC
If there is such a thing, can you describe a typical day in the job?
A typical day involves working closely with business and development teams, planning and coordinating so that deliveries are on the right track and on time.
I’m also involved with a number of diversity initiatives and our sports and social group, so there are always meetings to help make Mastercard a great place to work.
What types of project do you work on?
I work on different Agile projects, mainly focused on moving from legacy applications to the latest next Edge platforms.
It’s an interesting mix to ensure current services are supported while expanding the platform to support the next generation of self-service APIs that our customers expect.
What skills do you use on a daily basis?
I get to apply a broad range of project management and business analyst skills on a daily basis. These include planning, problem solving and collaboration. On occasion, I’m also able to use my language skills for working with Croatian teams.
What is the hardest part of your working day?
The hardest part is juggling software delivery and business relationships. We need to deliver best-in-class projects but in a timely fashion – so managing expectations is hugely important.
Do you have any productivity tips that help you through the working day?
Lots of coffee!
When you first started this job, what were you most surprised to learn was important in the role?
To be a translator between the business and technical teams. They both have the same drive to deliver the best experience to our customers.
What do you enjoy most about working at Mastercard?
Mastercard is a great employer that encourages and supports you to pursue your career goals. It allows me to work in an area which mixes the business and technical sides of Mastercard.
Also, it offers me opportunities to learn about different new technologies, products and methodologies as I grow in both my professional and personal capacities.
