Lead DevOps Engineer

Mastercard Inc.; O’Fallon (MO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard Inc. is seeking a Lead Platform Engineer to design and maintain automation frameworks for large-scale hybrid infrastructure. You will implement Chef cookbooks, Infra as Code patterns, and reusable automation to deliver secure, self-service capabilities.

Collaborate with cloud, platform, and security teams to enforce baselines and compliance, build CI/CD integrations, and mentor junior engineers across global environments. This role blends hands-on coding with architectural leadership.

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years of experience in DevOps, platform engineering, infrastructure automation, or configuration management roles.
• Strong hands-on experience with Chef Infra, including cookbook development, policy files, Test Kitchen, and InSpec.
• Experience managing large-scale configuration management environments (Chef Server, Chef Automate, or similar).
• Solid understanding of Linux systems administration, OS hardening, and configuration of lifecycle management.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and on Prem virtualization (VMware, HyperV).
• Strong scripting or programming skills (Ruby preferred for Chef, plus Python, Bash, or PowerShell).
• Experience with CI/CD tooling such as GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps.
• Strong understanding of Git workflows, branching strategies, and code review practices.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex automation and infrastructure issues across hybrid environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain Chef cookbooks, recipes, roles, and policy files to automate configuration management across cloud and prem environments.
• Build and maintain Chef Automate or equivalent orchestration pipelines for compliance, reporting, and fleet management.
• Engineer reusable automation frameworks, including shared libraries, templates, and patterns for consistent infrastructure provisioning.
• Integrate Chef automation with CI/CD pipelines, secrets management, artifact repositories, and enterprise governance controls.
• Implement automated testing and validation for Chef code using tools such as Test Kitchen, InSpec, and ChefSpec.
• Collaborate with cloud, platform, and security teams to define and enforce configuration baselines, compliance policies, and hardened system standards.
• Support the design and implementation of Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM/Bicep) for provisioning compute, network, and platform services.
• Troubleshoot complex automation and infrastructure issues across hybrid environments.
• Contribute to platform engineering initiatives such as self‑service catalogs, GitOps workflows, and automated remediation.
• Document automation patterns, architectural decisions, and operational runbooks.

Tools

Chef Infra

Chef Automate

Test Kitchen

InSpec

Ruby

Python

Bash

PowerShell

Terraform

CloudFormation

ARM/Bicep

VMware

Kubernetes

Helm

GitHub Actions

GitLab

Jenkins

Azure DevOps

Prometheus

Datadog

Splunk

ELK

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 Lead DevOps Engineer Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

Overview

The Lead Platform Engineer is a hands‑on technical leader responsible for designing, building, and maintaining automation frameworks and platform services that support large‑scale hybrid infrastructure environments. This role focuses on engineering reusable automation patterns using Chef, Infrastructure as Code, and DevOps tooling to deliver consistent, secure, and self‑service infrastructure capabilities. The ideal candidate brings strong DevOps engineering experience, deep knowledge of Chef (Infra, Habitat, or Automate), and a passion for building scalable automation systems, not performing manual operations.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain Chef cookbooks, recipes, roles, and policy files to automate configuration management across cloud and prem environments.
• Build and maintain Chef Automate or equivalent orchestration pipelines for compliance, reporting, and fleet management.
• Engineer reusable automation frameworks, including shared libraries, templates, and patterns for consistent infrastructure provisioning.
• Integrate Chef automation with CI/CD pipelines, secrets management, artifact repositories, and enterprise governance controls.
• Implement automated testing and validation for Chef code using tools such as Test Kitchen, InSpec, and ChefSpec.
• Collaborate with cloud, platform, and security teams to define and enforce configuration baselines, compliance policies, and hardened system standards.
• Support the design and implementation of Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM/Bicep) for provisioning compute, network, and platform services.
• Troubleshoot complex automation, configuration, and infrastructure issues across hybrid environments.
• Contribute to platform engineering initiatives such as self‑service catalogs, GitOps workflows, and automated remediation.
• Document automation patterns, architectural decisions, and operational runbooks.

All bout you

• 5–8+ years of experience in DevOps, platform engineering, infrastructure automation, or configuration management roles.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Chef Infra, including cookbook development, policy files, Test Kitchen, and InSpec.
• Experience managing large‑scale configuration management environments (Chef Server, Chef Automate, or similar).
• Solid understanding of Linux systems administration, OS hardening, and configuration of lifecycle management.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and on Prem virtualization (VMware, HyperV).
• Strong scripting or programming skills (Ruby preferred for Chef, plus Python, Bash, or PowerShell).
• Experience with CI/CD tooling such as GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps.
• Strong understanding of Git workflows, branching strategies, and code review practices.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex automation and infrastructure issues across hybrid environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Chef Habitat or application‑level automation.
• Experience with Chef Automate for compliance, reporting, and fleet orchestration.
• Familiarity with Terraform or other IaC tools for provisioning infrastructure.
• Experience with policy as code tools (OPA, Conftest, Sentinel).
• Background in security hardening, compliance frameworks, or CIS benchmarks.
• Exposure to Kubernetes, Helm, or container orchestration.
• Experience with monitoring and observability platforms (Prometheus, Datadog, Splunk, ELK).
• Knowledge of network automation or infrastructure APIs.

Core Technical Skills (Competency Areas)

• Configuration Management
• Chef Infra (cookbooks, recipes, policy files)
• Chef Automate, InSpec, Test Kitchen
• Ruby development for automation
• Infrastructure as Code & Provisioning
• Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM/Bicep (preferred but not required)
• Hybrid cloud provisioning (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• VMware and on Prem infrastructure automation
• DevOps & CI/CD
• Pipeline design and automation
• Automated testing, linting, and security scanning
• Git workflows and version control best practices
• Automation & Scripting
• Ruby, Python, Bash, PowerShell
• API integration and automation tooling
• Platform Engineering
• Self‑service automation
• Configuration baselines and compliance automation
• Observability and operational tooling

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must: 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.

Everyone wants easier ways to pay; we invent them. Checkout lines are slow; we speed them along. Merchants want more sales; we give them data and insights. People need financial access; we connect them. Corporate purchasing is complicated; we make it simple. Commuters are busy; we speed them on their way. Governments need greater efficiencies; we help create them. Small businesses are virtual; we give them access to a world of buyers. Retailers want to fight fraud; we provide the tools.