Director, AI Engineering, Transformation Team

Mastercard; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 196,000 - 323,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard seeks a Director of AI Engineering within the Transformation Team to lead strategic initiatives across AI engineering, aligning AI projects with organizational goals. You will oversee the ML lifecycle from architecture to deployment, guiding cross-functional teams toward robust, ethical AI solutions.

The role emphasizes governance, model evaluation, and collaboration with product managers and data scientists to deliver impact at scale in a fast-moving AI landscape.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on understanding of transformer architectures and generative AI, including fine-tuning and evaluation.
• Experience bridging model development to business impact and production deployment.
• Solid engineering background with Python and ML frameworks; production deployment patterns.

Responsibilities

• Develops and executes strategic plans for AI Engineering across Mastercard, aligning initiatives with objectives.
• Translates priorities into actionable plans for AI/ML teams within scope and budget.
• Collaborates with product and business leaders to deploy scalable AI solutions.

Skills

Transformer architectures

Generative AI

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

MLOps

Stakeholder management

Communication

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

MLflow

Git

Job description

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

Director, AI Engineering, Transformation Team

Overview

The Transformation Team leads strategic change initiatives to reimagine how Mastercard works and scales, simplifies, and accelerates business outcomes. The team partners across leadership, product, technology, and operations to design and implement new organizational models, embed AI across key workflows, drive enterprise-wide transformation programs, improve operating effectiveness, and ensure successful adoption of change. By combining strategy, AI engineering, organizational design, change management, and program execution, the team helps align people, processes, and priorities to support long-term growth and business performance.

Role

• This job develops and executes short-term and medium-term strategic plans for AI Engineering across Mastercard, aligning functional initiatives with organizational objectives by modifying existing methods to make significant improvements to existing processes, programs, and/or policies.
• Drives the development and execution of short-term functional strategies for AI/ML teams, translating organizational priorities into actionable plans and deliverables.
• Collaborates with product and business leaders to translate organizational needs into scalable AI solutions and operational strategies.
• Oversees the ML engineering lifecycle of AI/ML projects, from architecture, design to deployment and monitoring, ensuring timely delivery within scope and budget.
• Leads cross-functional teams in optimizing, fine-tuning, and deploying models that meet performance, robustness, and ethical standards, ensuring operational stability, scalability, and compliance of AI/ML systems, including model governance, ethical standards, and risk management.
• Provides technical guidance and mentorship to senior technical leads, supporting their professional growth and ensuring technical excellence.
• Serves as a key stakeholder and influencer in cross-functional initiatives, working closely with product managers, data scientists, and business units to align AI/ML solutions with strategic objectives.
• Defines and refines best practices, standards, and methodologies for AI/ML optimization, deployment, and maintenance, ensuring consistency and high-quality outputs.
• Contributes to organizational strategy by identifying emerging trends, evaluating new technologies, and recommending investments in AI/ML capabilities.

All About You

• Strong hands-on understanding of transformer architectures and generative AI, including fine-tuning, prompting, embeddings, and evaluation
• Experience bridging model development and real-world application, translating AI capabilities into business impact
• Solid engineering background, with familiarity in Python, ML frameworks (e.g. PyTorch/TensorFlow), and production deployment patterns
• Experience working with data engineering and MLOps practices to support training, evaluation, and inference at scale
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to align technical delivery to business priorities and measurable outcomes
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, evolving AI landscape with ambiguity and shifting priorities
• Excellent communication skills, able to articulate complex AI concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

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 [e-mail] 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

• 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

Purchase, New York: $195,000 - $323,000 USD

Arlington, Virginia: $196,000 - $323,000 USD

O'Fallon, Missouri: $170,000 - $281,000 USD