Senior AI Architect & Tech Strategy Leader

Mastercard; Blanchardstown; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard is seeking a highly experienced Principal Engineer to lead technology strategy within the BET organization. You will guide architects, shape opportunities, and oversee the delivery of AI-enabled platforms across the Sourcing and Delivery team.

The role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, backend development, and cross-functional collaboration with product, data, and engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of full-stack engineering experience in an agile production environment.
• Strong backend engineering using Java, Kotlin, Python, Scala, or similar.
• Experience leading design/implementation of large, complex features spanning teams.
• Ability to connect business opportunities with technical paths and influence what to build.

Responsibilities

• Serve as senior technology and architecture advisor for new business opportunities, ensuring feasibility and architecture implications.
• Partner with product, business, sourcing, and engineering to shape hypotheses, solutions, and initial feasibility assessments.
• Assess pathways (build, partner, invest, acquire, discontinue) and provide technical recommendations.
• Mentor engineers and influence engineering standards and decisions.
• Guide architecture decisions during incubation, prototyping, and scaling phases.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

APIs & services

LLMs / AI integration

Python

Scala

Java

Kubernetes

Security & compliance

Cloud platforms

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Java

Kotlin

Python

Scala

Spark

SQL

AWS EMR

Aurora

Databricks

Snowflake

Job description

Mastercard is seeking a highly experienced Principal Engineer to lead technology strategy within the BET organization. You will guide architects, shape opportunities, and oversee the delivery of AI-enabled platforms across the Sourcing and Delivery team.

The role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, backend development, and cross-functional collaboration with product, data, and engineering teams.