Director of Software Engineering

About Mastercard and Role Overview

Mastercard operates in over 200 countries and territories, powering economies and enabling individuals worldwide. The company focuses on fostering a sustainable economy by supporting diverse digital payment options that emphasize security, simplicity, intelligence, and accessibility. Leveraging advanced technology, innovation, partnerships, and networks, Mastercard provides products and services that help individuals, businesses, and governments reach their full potential.

We are hiring a Director of Software Engineering to lead a team responsible for developing and maintaining software platforms and APIs which provide secure, scalable access to foundational AI model capabilities. This position is crucial in transforming AI innovations into robust, production-ready enterprise solutions accessible safely across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a software engineering team focused on designing API platforms and backend services that deliver foundational AI model features such as inference, embeddings, and orchestration.
• Set and promote best practices in API design, service architecture, and the development of distributed systems.
• Ensure the platform's security architecture, including authentication, authorization, data protection, and audit capabilities.
• Supervise the creation of scalable, dependable, and high-performance services, addressing traffic management, resilience, and latency optimization.
• Collaborate closely with AI engineering teams to integrate machine learning models into production smoothly while simplifying complexity for end users.
• Oversee DevOps and platform operations teams to maintain effective continuous integration and deployment pipelines and operational readiness.
• Encourage the implementation of observability tools such as monitoring, logging, alerting, and performance measurement.
• Define and uphold engineering standards pertaining to code quality, testing protocols, documentation, and maintainability.
• Coordinate delivery efforts across multiple project streams, ensuring alignment with program priorities, deadlines, and quality benchmarks.
• Recruit, mentor, and guide engineering staff to build a high-performance team.
• Serve as a key liaison, translating business and product needs into technical roadmaps and actionable execution plans.

Candidate Profile and Qualifications

• Extensive leadership experience managing teams responsible for delivering scalable production software systems, preferably within platform or API-centric settings.
• Strong expertise in backend and distributed systems development, with proficiency in REST and gRPC API design and service-based system architectures.
• Hands-on experience with cloud-native platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, including containerization and orchestration frameworks.
• Comprehensive understanding of security best practices covering authentication, authorization, encryption, secrets handling, and secure API development.
• Desirable experience in AI/ML or data-driven environments, especially around production integration of AI models.
• Robust knowledge of DevOps methodologies, encompassing continuous integration and delivery, infrastructure as code, and automated deployment workflows.
• Familiarity with observability and reliability practices including monitoring, alerting, incident management, and service-level objectives.
• Proven ability to lead and scale engineering teams along with nurturing senior technical expertise.
• Excellent stakeholder management with the skill to communicate technical details and trade-offs effectively.
• Adaptable to fast-paced, evolving situations with shifting priorities and uncertain factors.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in computer science, engineering, or similar disciplines.

Corporate Security Responsibilities

• Comply with Mastercard’s security policies and protocols.
• Maintain the confidentiality and integrity of accessed information.
• Promptly report any suspected security violations or breaches.
• Complete mandatory security training programs as per organizational guidelines.