Lead Software Engineer

Title and Summary

Lead Software Engineer at Mastercard

Hands‑on Lead Engineer focused on building backend and full‑stack capabilities for Mastercard's next‑generation Decision Management Platform, the real‑time system that scores and approves billions of payment transactions. You will own technical areas end‑to‑end, write code, shape architecture, mentor engineers, and turn ambiguous goals into reliable services, APIs, workflow tools, and user‑facing experiences.

• Own meaningful backend and full‑stack capabilities from problem definition through design, implementation, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Design and build scalable services, APIs, workflow tooling, frontend experiences, and integrations.
• Set technical direction, make pragmatic architecture decisions, and align engineers around maintainable solutions.
• Use design reviews, code reviews, and hands‑on coaching to raise engineering quality and reduce complexity.
• Write code, build prototypes, and use AI coding tools to improve speed, quality, and team effectiveness.
• Work closely with product, engineering, and senior stakeholders to turn ambiguous goals into working software and measurable outcomes.

• You lead through delivery, having shipped meaningful backend, full‑stack, or product‑facing capabilities in complex production systems.
• You think end‑to‑end, connecting user experience, APIs, backend design, data flows, operations, and business outcomes.
• You influence by doing the work, guiding technical direction through judgment, clear communication, and hands‑on credibility.
• You care about quality: testing, observability, security, clean interfaces, and maintainability are part of how you build.
• You are adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity, changing priorities, and small, fast‑moving teams.

• Strong hands‑on depth in several of the following areas:
  • Backend services, API design, service integration, and domain modeling.
  • Full‑stack applications, workflow tooling, dashboards, authoring tools, or operational interfaces.
  • High‑throughput, low‑latency, event‑driven, or distributed systems.
  • Decisioning, rules, data, feature platforms, or real‑time transaction processing.
  • AI/ML systems, low‑latency inference, or LLM‑enabled product experiences.
  • AI‑assisted development and agentic harnesses.

• Strong hands‑on software engineering experience building backend services, APIs, full‑stack applications, or complex production systems.
• Experience owning technical areas end‑to‑end, including design, implementation, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Strong fundamentals in software design, architecture, API design, data modeling, testing, code review, secure coding, performance, and troubleshooting.
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction through design reviews, code reviews, and clear communication.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Mastercard is a merit‑based, inclusive, equal‑opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
• In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact reasonable and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

In line with Mastercard’s total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary based on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Mastercard benefits for full time (and certain part time) employees generally include: insurance (including medical, prescription…