Lead Software Engineer (Architect)

Mastercard Inc.; O’Fallon (MO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 231,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Insurance (medical, dental, vision)

401k with company match

Paid time off

Job summary

Mastercard is seeking a Lead Software Engineer (Architect) to guide the design and evolution of Secure, scalable transaction systems. You will lead cross-functional teams across design, development, testing, deployment, and production readiness, delivering resilient cloud-native microservices and API-first architectures.

The role requires deep expertise in Java, Spring Boot and distributed systems, with strong leadership capabilities and experience in EMV 3DS and payments technologies.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant technical leadership responsibilities.
• Proven experience designing and delivering large-scale distributed enterprise applications and platforms.
• Strong cloud engineering experience across Azure, AWS, GCP or equivalent, including containerisation.
• Hands-on development experience with Java and Spring Boot.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development and evolution of Smart Interface.
• Translate requirements into scalable, secure solutions.
• Provide hands-on leadership across design, testing, deployment and production readiness.
• Own and evolve platform architecture and contribute to roadmaps.
• Mentor engineers and lead code and design reviews.
• Design highly available, low-latency transaction systems using microservices and APIs.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

Microservices

REST APIs

OpenAPI

Event-driven architectures

Distributed systems

Cloud computing

Mentoring engineers

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

Kubernetes

Docker

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 Software Engineer (Architect) Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we are building a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support digital payment choices that make transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Through secure networks, trusted partnerships and innovation, we help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential.

Overview The Mastercard Authentication Program delivers authentication solutions that enable secure digital commerce globally.

Role Software Engineering & Technical Leadership

• Lead the design, development and evolution of Smart Interface.
• Translate business, product and technical requirements into scalable, maintainable and secure solutions.
• Provide hands‑on leadership across design, development, testing, deployment, production readiness and support.
• Own and evolve platform architecture and contribute to technical roadmaps aligned with business and product strategy.
• Guide engineers through complex technical decisions and lead code and design reviews.
• Design highly available, low‑latency transaction systems and cloud‑native distributed applications using microservices, APIs and event‑driven architectures.
• Define integration and API standards and lead modernization initiatives that improve scalability, performance and maintainability.
• Apply software design, architecture, Domain‑Driven Design and data‑structure principles to distributed systems.
• Develop reusable components, frameworks and engineering patterns.
• Apply secure coding, encryption, authentication, TLS/mTLS, certificate management and secrets management practices.
• Design for resilience using fault isolation, retry strategies, disaster recovery and multi‑region deployment.
• Promote unit, functional and integration testing, performance engineering, observability and production diagnostics.
• Troubleshoot complex issues, perform root‑cause analysis and address technical debt and engineering risks.

EMV 3DS Domain Leadership

• Serve as a technical lead for Mastercard’s 3DS Server platform.
• Lead development of EMV 3DS capabilities supporting current and future EMVCo standards.
• Drive adoption of emerging authentication technologies and ensure interoperability across merchants, gateways, acquirers, Directory Servers and ACS providers.
• Partner with product, engineering, architecture and standards teams to evolve authentication capabilities.

Leadership & Influence

• Mentor engineers and technical leads in software design, development and engineering practices.
• Communicate technical decisions, trade‑offs and recommendations to engineering, product and business stakeholders.
• Influence technical direction without direct authority and foster collaboration and continuous improvement.

All About You Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related discipline.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant technical leadership responsibilities.
• Proven experience designing and delivering large‑scale distributed enterprise applications and platforms.
• Strong cloud engineering experience across Azure, AWS, GCP or equivalent platforms, including containerisation.
• Hands‑on development experience with Java and Spring Boot.
• Deep expertise in microservices, REST APIs, OpenAPI specifications, API‑first design, event‑driven architectures and distributed systems.
• Experience building high‑volume, low‑latency transactional applications.
• Advanced experience with software design and development, code review, testing, troubleshooting and production support.
• Strong understanding of data structures, relational and NoSQL databases, performance engineering, observability and secure coding practices.

EMV 3DS & Payments Expertise

• Deep knowledge of the EMV 3‑D Secure ecosystem and authentication flows.
• Experience with 3DS Servers, Directory Servers, Access Control Servers, authentication services, tokenisation platforms, payment gateways or card‑payment processing systems.
• Strong understanding of digital identity, authentication protocols, fraud prevention, payment participants and transaction lifecycles.
• Understanding of regulations affecting digital authentication and payments.

Leadership Competencies

• Strong technical problem‑solving, strategic thinking, communication and stakeholder‑management skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into business outcomes.
• Proven experience mentoring engineers and working across globally distributed teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing or supporting a commercial EMV 3DS Server platform and EMVCo certification/compliance.
• Knowledge of Mastercard Authentication products and services.
• Experience supporting high‑volume payment platforms.
• Knowledge of PSD2 SCA and related authentication regulations.
• Experience with tokenisation, digital credentials or identity verification.
• Familiarity with biometrics, FIDO2, passkeys, Kafka, SRE, DevSecOps and CI/CD.

Success Measures

• Provide hands‑on technical and architectural leadership for Smart Interface.
• Deliver scalable, resilient, secure and maintainable solutions while improving quality, performance and operability.
• Drive architectural consistency, simplify integrations and accelerate delivery through reusable components and standards.
• Mentor engineers and help evolve Mastercard authentication technologies.

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information and networks carry inherent risk. Every person working for or on behalf of Mastercard must:

• Follow Mastercard security policies and practices.
• Protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets.
• Report suspected security incidents or violations.
• Complete required security and compliance training.
• Support Mastercard’s commitment to secure, resilient and trusted payment solutions.

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.

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.

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
• many more

Mastercard benefits for interns generally include

• 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time
• jury duty leave
• on‑site fitness facilities in some locations

THIS POSTING RELECTS ONE OR MORE CURRENT VACANCIES ON OUR TEAM, AND MASTERCARD INTENDS TO FILL THIS POSITION BY 01/12/2027. If the fill date has passed, Mastercard intends to fill this position as soon as possible.

Pay Ranges O'Fallon, Missouri: $140,000 - $231,000 USD 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.