Vipin Thakre

• Led cross-functional teams to successfully implement enterprise-level payment solutions in the finance domain, managing complex dependencies, risk mitigation, and seamless execution.
• Drove collaboration between engineering, product, and business teams to define project scope, objectives, and deliverables, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
• Orchestrated stakeholder engagement & expectation management, facilitating clear communication between technical and non-technical teams, ensuring timely decision-making.
• Championed Agile methodologies (Scrum, SAFe), documenting and tracking project progress through Jira, Confluence, and real-time reporting dashboards, ensuring transparency and accountability.
• Led executive reporting & risk management, delivering data-driven project insights to senior leadership, identifying bottlenecks, and driving proactive mitigation strategies.
• Optimized program execution by implementing CI/CD best practices, DevOps pipelines, and cloud-based infrastructure, reducing deployment timelines and improving system scalability.
• Managed high-impact initiatives in the payments ecosystem, ensuring compliance with industry standards (PCI DSS, ISO 8583, EMV, UPI, Tokenization, Real-Time Payments).
• Drove continuous process improvements, identifying inefficiencies in workflows and implementing solutions that increased delivery speed and reduced operational risks.

• Delivered 120+ projects in 4.5 years with zero escalations, maintaining a 100% success rate and fostering strong client relationships.
• Spearheaded stakeholder engagement & communication, aligning technical teams, business leaders, and banking partners to streamline implementation processes.
• Developed and executed end-to-end project plans, defining scope, deliverables, timelines, and resource allocation to drive seamless execution.
• Owned business & system requirements documentation, ensuring clarity, traceability, and alignment with Mastercard's transaction processing standards.
• Acted as the SME for Commercial (Smart Data, In Control), Authorization, Chip, and Clearing, guiding customers through system development and transaction processing workflows.
• Led functional testing (Authorization, Clearing, File Transfer), leveraging simulators to validate customer host capabilities and Mastercard internal setups.
• Implemented Mastercard products including MDES, MPGS, Smart Data, In Control, and managed Issuing/Acquiring host and data migration for seamless onboarding.
• Provided expert consultancy for banks and financial institutions on new product integrations, API testing (Postman, Insomnia), and system enhancements.
• Conducted product training sessions for banking partners, empowering teams to maximize the use of Mastercard solutions.
• Drove continuous improvement initiatives, participating in post-implementation reviews to optimize processes and enhance future implementations.
• Collaborated with account executives to strengthen client relationships, delivering targeted solutions that improved customer satisfaction and retention.

- Assisted senior test engineers in creating test plans, test cases, and test scripts for software applications.
- Executed test cases and documented results, reporting defects and issues to the development team using bug tracking systems.
- Participated in test case reviews and design discussions, providing input and suggestions for improvement.
- Conducted functional testing, regression testing, and integration testing to ensure the quality and stability of software releases.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams, including developers and business analysts, to understand requirements and validate software functionality.

• Experienced at analysing Business requirements and generating test cases and performing the testing for key banks using MasterCard Simulators in Europe Region.
• Managing End-to-End implementation of Cards, Terminals, and other services and products available in Mastercard.
• Test Data Preparation: Identify or create test data that covers a range of scenarios, including valid and invalid data, edge cases, and boundary conditions.
• Documented project scope, business requirements, and functional specifications, ensuring clear communication and alignment between stakeholders and project teams.
• Preparing the Project Document defining the scope, budget, and schedule, and organizing the project kick-off meeting to discuss & execute MasterCard’s certification.

- Managed the end-to-end chargeback and dispute resolution process for customer transactions, ensuring adherence to card association rules and regulations.
- Conducted thorough investigations and analyses to determine the validity of customer disputes, reviewing transaction details, supporting documentation, and applicable policies.
- Collaborated with customers, merchants, and card issuers to gather necessary information and documentation to support the resolution process.
- Prepared and submitted chargeback representment packages to card networks, providing compelling evidence and documentation to defend against invalid chargebacks.
- Worked closely with cross-functional teams, including fraud prevention, customer service, and operations, to gather relevant information and ensure prompt resolution of customer disputes.
- Communicated with customers and merchants to provide updates on dispute resolution progress, address concerns, and ensure timely resolutions.