Lead AI Platform & Infrastructure Architect

MasterCard; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 170,000 - 281,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard in Austin, Texas seeks a Principal AI Platform Engineer to build and scale AI infrastructure across compute, storage, networking, and accelerators. You will lead the on-prem private cloud roadmap and collaborate with data science and MLOps teams to enable enterprise AI workloads.

The role demands deep technical leadership, experience with RFIs/RFPs, and the ability to balance performance, cost, and governance while aligning with Mastercard’s standards for security and responsible AI.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electronics, or a related engineering field.
• Significant experience in large-scale infrastructure, platform engineering, or systems architecture in a complex enterprise.
• Proven ability to own infrastructure roadmaps and deliver in on-premise or private clouds at scale.
• Deep familiarity with AI/ML concepts, data science workflows, MLOps, and model lifecycle management.
• Knowledge of Generative AI and Agentic AI architectures and their infrastructure needs.
• Strong understanding of compute (CPU/GPU), high-performance storage, and networking in modern AI platforms.
• Hands-on or architectural exposure to high-density, power-rich AI infrastructure including cooling and data center design.
• Excellent product thinking to balance user needs, feasibility, cost, and evolution.
• Experience running RFIs/RFPs and partnering with sourcing/finance for investments.
• Ability to influence across a large matrixed organization with security, governance, and compliance stakeholders.
• Executive-level communication skills to present complex topics clearly and credibly.
• Curiosity, forward-looking mindset, and passion for enterprise-scale AI foundations.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI infrastructure roadmap for Mastercard’s on-premise private cloud, aligning with enterprise AI priorities.
• Act as a product owner for AI infrastructure, translating data science needs into scalable platform capabilities for ML and generative AI workloads.
• Lead RFIs and RFPs for AI infrastructure components (CPU, GPU, storage, networking) with clear evaluation criteria.
• Architect and scale infrastructure to train large-scale models on petabytes of data and support low-latency inference across global workloads.
• Define modern AI infrastructure standards, including storage, networking, and data center design (cooling, power density).
• Collaborate with data science, MLOps, and platform teams to align infra with model development and deployment lifecycles.
• Work with enterprise architecture, security, risk, governance, compliance, and legal teams to meet Mastercard’s standards.
• Communicate trade-offs, ROI, and risks to senior leadership through structured narratives and exec-ready presentations.
• Stay ahead of AI infrastructure trends and evaluate new technologies and vendors for long-term strategy.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / Electronics / related engineering field

Job description

Mastercard in Austin, Texas seeks a Principal AI Platform Engineer to build and scale AI infrastructure across compute, storage, networking, and accelerators. You will lead the on-prem private cloud roadmap and collaborate with data science and MLOps teams to enable enterprise AI workloads.

The role demands deep technical leadership, experience with RFIs/RFPs, and the ability to balance performance, cost, and governance while aligning with Mastercard’s standards for security and responsible AI.