Lead Software Development Engineer

The Lead Software Development Engineer is a technical leader responsible for driving software architecture, engineering strategy, and delivery of Mastercard’s next-generation payment platforms. This role combines hands-on engineering leadership with architecture ownership, modernization initiatives, and adoption of Agentic AI-powered engineering practices.

What You Will Do Software Architecture & Engineering Leadership

• Lead software design and architecture decisions across multiple teams and platforms.

• Define engineering standards for software development, testing, security, operability, and deployment.

• Conduct architecture reviews and provide technical governance across projects.

• Mentor engineers and cultivate a culture of engineering excellence.

Scalable Distributed Systems

• Architect highly available, fault-tolerant distributed systems capable of processing millions of transactions daily.

• Drive performance engineering initiatives including load testing, capacity planning, scalability analysis, and production optimization.

• Design solutions supporting low latency, high throughput, resiliency, and operational excellence.

Event-Driven Architecture

• Design and implement large-scale event-driven architectures utilizing Kafka and modern messaging patterns.

• Drive adoption of asynchronous processing and distributed system design best practices.

Cloud Native Engineering

• Lead development and deployment using PCF, Kubernetes, Docker, and CI/CD platforms.

• Champion platform engineering and infrastructure automation practices.

Security, Reliability & Operations

• Establish secure coding standards and application security best practices.

• Drive operational readiness, observability, monitoring, and supportability strategies.

• Lead complex troubleshooting efforts, root cause analysis, and remediation activities.

• Establish standards for unit, functional, and integration testing.

Agentic AI Engineering

• Lead adoption of AI-assisted development, AI agents, MCP-based integrations, autonomous workflows, and modern engineering productivity tools.

• Evaluate and implement emerging AI engineering capabilities while ensuring governance and responsible AI practices., 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.

10+ years of software engineering experience.

• 3+ years leading large-scale distributed system initiatives.

• Expert-level Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices architecture, and distributed systems expertise.

• Strong software architecture and software design leadership experience.
• Deep expertise in performance engineering and reliability engineering.

• Extensive experience implementing secure coding standards and software quality practices.

• Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical decision-making.

• Deep understanding of observability, monitoring, operability, and production support.

• Demonstrated experience with AI-assisted software development, AI agents, MCP, RAG, and agentic workflows.

• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and technical leadership skills.

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 depending 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 drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance); flexible spending account and health savings account; paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave); 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire; 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays; 401k with a best-in-class company match; deferred compensation for eligible roles; fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities; eligibility for tuition reimbursement; and many more. Mastercard benefits for interns generally include: 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations.

Pay Ranges O’Fallon, Missouri: $140,000 - $231,000 USD

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.