Lead Backend & Full‑Stack Engineer, Real-Time Decisions

Mastercard; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 161,000 - 266,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401k match

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Mastercard is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to build backend and full-stack capabilities for our Decision Management Platform. This hands-on role involves owning technical areas end to end, writing code, shaping architecture, mentoring engineers, and turning ambiguous goals into reliable services and APIs.

You will design scalable services, APIs, workflows, and frontend experiences, set technical direction, and collaborate with product teams to deliver measurable outcomes in a fast-paced

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on software engineering experience in backend services, APIs, or full-stack systems.
• Experience owning technical areas end to end, from design to production support.
• Solid fundamentals in software design, architecture, API design, data modeling, and testing.
• Experience mentoring engineers and guiding technical direction through reviews.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Own meaningful backend and full-stack capabilities from problem definition through design, implementation, testing and production support.
• Design and build scalable services, APIs, workflow tooling, frontend experiences, and integrations.
• Set technical direction and align engineers around maintainable solutions.
• Conduct design and code reviews; raise quality and reduce complexity.
• Write code, build prototypes, and use AI coding tools to improve speed and quality.
• Collaborate with product and stakeholders to turn goals into working software and measurable outcomes.

Skills

Backend services

APIs design

Full-stack development

Mentoring

Security fundamentals

Education

BS in CS

Job description

Mastercard is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to build backend and full-stack capabilities for our Decision Management Platform. This hands-on role involves owning technical areas end to end, writing code, shaping architecture, mentoring engineers, and turning ambiguous goals into reliable services and APIs.

You will design scalable services, APIs, workflows, and frontend experiences, set technical direction, and collaborate with product teams to deliver measurable outcomes in a fast-paced