Lead Software Engineer

Our Purpose

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.

Title and Summary

Lead Software EngineerOverview
Mastercard is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to serve as a technical leader and subject matter expert responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining secure, scalable, and reliable software solutions. This role drives software engineering excellence by leading architecture and design activities, promoting engineering best practices, mentoring team members, and ensuring high-quality delivery across the software development lifecycle.
The ideal candidate applies deep technical expertise to solve complex engineering challenges, influence technology decisions, and contribute to the continuous improvement of products, services, and engineering processes.

What You Will Do
Software Design & Architecture
-Lead the design and architecture of scalable, maintainable, and secure software solutions that support business and technology objectives.
-Define architectural patterns, standards, and technical approaches that promote performance, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
-Evaluate complex requirements and translate them into effective technical designs and implementation strategies.
-Conduct design and architecture reviews to ensure alignment with organizational standards and engineering best practices.

Software Development & Engineering Excellence
-Design, develop, test, and maintain high-quality software solutions across the full software development lifecycle.
-Drive adoption of modern engineering practices that improve software quality, delivery velocity, and operational effectiveness.
-Contribute to the creation of technical documentation, design specifications, deployment strategies, and other engineering artifacts.
-Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend solutions that improve products, services, or engineering efficiency.

Testing & Quality Engineering
-Establish and promote standards for unit, functional, and integration testing.
-Ensure software solutions are thoroughly validated through effective testing strategies that support quality, reliability, and maintainability.
-Drive continuous improvement of quality engineering practices throughout development and deployment processes.

Performance & Reliability Engineering
-Analyze, design, and optimize software systems to meet performance, scalability, and reliability requirements.
-Lead performance testing, monitoring, capacity planning, and tuning initiatives.
-Identify and resolve bottlenecks to ensure solutions operate efficiently under varying workloads.

Secure Software Engineering
-Apply and champion secure coding practices throughout the software development lifecycle.
-Ensure software solutions adhere to security standards and protect against vulnerabilities and emerging threats.
-Partner with stakeholders to identify and remediate security risks while maintaining compliance with organizational standards.

Operational Excellence & Troubleshooting
-Design solutions with observability, maintainability, and operational readiness in mind.
-Support production environments through monitoring, incident management, problem resolution, and root cause analysis.
-Lead troubleshooting efforts for complex technical issues across applications and systems.
-Drive continuous improvements that enhance system stability, resiliency, and supportability.

Code Review & Technical Leadership
-Conduct code reviews to ensure adherence to coding standards, maintainability requirements, and quality expectations.
-Provide constructive feedback and technical guidance to engineering teams.
-Influence engineering decisions through technical expertise and collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.
-Mentor and coach engineers to foster professional growth and technical excellence.

All About You
-Demonstrated experience designing, developing, and supporting enterprise-scale software solutions.
-Strong expertise in software design, software architecture, and software development principles.
-Experience implementing and maintaining unit, functional, and integration testing strategies.
-Strong understanding of performance engineering, scalability, and reliability best practices.
-Experience applying secure coding standards and software security principles.
-Proven ability to perform code reviews and maintain high standards of software quality.
-Experience designing solutions with operational excellence, observability, and maintainability considerations.
-Strong troubleshooting and root cause analysis capabilities in complex technical environments.
-Ability to independently manage complex technical work while influencing broader engineering initiatives.
-Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across teams.
-Strong collaboration, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications
-Experience designing and supporting distributed systems and microservices architectures.
-Experience with cloud-native technologies, automation, and modern software delivery practices.
-Experience evaluating and adopting emerging technologies, tools, and engineering methodologies.
-Familiarity with AI-assisted software development and other modern engineering productivity capabilities.Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. 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_accommodation@mastercard.com 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.

Corporate Security Responsibility

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.

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