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 Engineer

Job Description Summary
Job Overview:
As part of an exciting, fast paced environment developing authentication and security solutions at Mastercard, this position will provide technical expertise within the development lifecycle for Mastercard Identity Solution program.
As a Lead Engineer (Java), you will be a hands on technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and scaling high quality software solutions. You will work closely with product, architecture, security, and platform teams to deliver resilient, secure, and performant systems aligned with Mastercard engineering standards and guild practices.
Role:
• Develop and enhance software through programming, unit testing, implementation, documenting and delivery of software solutions. Research alternative technical solutions for changing business needs.
• Responsible for programming, testing, implementation, documentation, maintenance and support of systems application software in adherence with MasterCard standards, processes and best practices.
• Develop high quality, secure, scalable software solutions based on technical requirements specifications and design artifacts within expected time and budget.
• Research, create and evaluate technical solution alternatives for the business needs.
• Create systems and testing documentation per department standards.
• Follow MasterCard Quality Assurance and Quality Control processes.
• Actively look for opportunities to enhance standards and improve process efficiency.
• Write comprehensive unit, integration, and contract tests, ensuring high code coverage and reliability.
• Participate in code reviews, providing constructive feedback and upholding engineering excellence.
• Collaborate with architects to translate solution designs into working software.
• Partner effectively with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, QA, and cross‑functional teams in an Agile environment.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to knowledge sharing within the Java / Backend Engineering Guild.
• Drive technical decisions within the team while aligning with Mastercard reference architectures and standards.
• Participate in on‑call rotations and production support, driving root cause analysis and continuous improvement.
• Promote Mastercard values of inclusion, accountability, and continuous learning.
All About you
• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science or equivalent education.
• Excellent understanding and knowledge of Software Engineering Concepts and Methodologies is required.
• Experience building microservices based architectures.
• 5+ years of experience in the software engineering field.
• Strong proficiency in Java, Spring Boot, RESTful APIs, and backend development.
• Must have knowledge of AI Agents and hands on using AI Agents.
• Strong problem solving skills and the ability to work independently on complex problems.
• Experience working in Agile / Scrum environments.
• Must be high-energy, detail-oriented, proactive, and able to function under pressure to meet tight deadlines.
• Strong communication skills -- both verbal and written – and able to quickly learn and implement new technologies, application appropriate frameworks and tools.
• Strong relationship, collaborative skills and organizational skills with a high degree of initiative and self-motivation and Able to work as a member of matrix based diverse and geographically distributed project team.
• Willingness and ability to learn and take on challenging opportunities.

Nice to Have
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of event‑driven architectures (Kafka, messaging systems).
• Understanding of security best practices, including OWASP, authentication, and authorization.
• Experience in high‑throughput, low‑latency, or regulated systems (payments, banking, fintech).
• Exposure to performance tuning, resiliency patterns, and fault‑tolerant design.

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.