Vice President Platform Engineering

Socket.dev; O’Fallon (MO); On-site; USD 200,000 - 330,000; Full time

Job summary

Mastercard is seeking a Vice President of Platform Engineering in the U.S. to lead enterprise platform strategy, cloud infrastructure, and software delivery capabilities.

The role requires 12+ years of progressive engineering experience and 5+ years leading large teams, with a focus on security, reliability, and architectural excellence. You will drive modernization across AWS/Azure, establish CI/CD governance, and mentor senior technical leaders while partnering with Security, Architecture &

Qualifications

• Extensive leadership of engineering teams at scale.
• Proven ability to influence executives and drive enterprise tech initiatives.
• Deep expertise in platform engineering, cloud, automation, and software delivery platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute platform engineering strategy across software delivery and cloud infrastructure.
• Lead modernization initiatives for cloud-native capabilities across AWS/Azure and on-prem environments.
• Drive secure-by-default engineering practices and scalable CI/CD governance.
• Build and develop high-performing engineering teams and future leaders.
• Partner with Security, Architecture & Technology, product, and engineering to align roadmaps.

Skills

Platform engineering

DevOps

Cloud infrastructure

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Tools

AWS

Azure

Terraform

Jenkins

Job description

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build asustainableeconomy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactionssecure, 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

Vice President Platform Engineering

Overview

MSBX (Mastercard Secure Build Experience) is driving the next generation of the software engineering experience for more than 11,000 engineers globally. Our mission is to provide a world-class, secure, resilient, and scalable platform ecosystem that enables teams to innovate rapidly while maintaining Mastercard's highest standards for reliability, security, and compliance.

This role requires strong people leadership, technical depth, strategic vision, and enterprise influence. The successful candidate will build and develop high-performing engineering teams, partner across Security, Architecture & Technology, product, and engineering organizations, and guide platform transformation initiatives across Mastercard.

Role

Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Define and execute the enterprise platform engineering strategy supporting software delivery, cloud infrastructure, container platforms, infrastructure automation, developer productivity, and secure engineering practices.
• Drive the enterprise strategy for pipeline-as-code workflows, build runner/agent architectures, and software delivery platforms, ensuring they are scalable, resilient, secure, and aligned with Security and Architecture & Technology standards.
• Establish enterprise standards and governance for CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, reusable platform capabilities, cloud-native architectures, and secure-by-default engineering practices.
• Anticipate emerging technology trends and identify opportunities to improve engineering efficiency, quality, reliability, and operational excellence.
• Partner with Architecture & Technology to define platform roadmaps and long-term technology direction.

Cloud, Infrastructure & Platform Engineering

• Lead platform modernization initiatives that advance cloud-native engineering capabilities across AWS, Azure, and enterprise infrastructure environments.
• Establish standards for scalable, resilient, cost-efficient cloud infrastructure and platform services.
• Drive adoption of Infrastructure as Code, policy-as-code, automated governance, and reusable infrastructure patterns.
• Define enterprise approaches for container platforms, Kubernetes operations, workload orchestration, platform reliability, observability, and capacity management.
• Ensure platform designs support fault tolerance, scalability, distributed systems performance, and operational resilience.

Software Delivery & Engineering Excellence

• Advance application security within the software delivery lifecycle including SAST, SCA, secret scanning, container security, Infrastructure as Code scanning, and automated compliance controls.
• Define and automate enterprise CI/CD guardrails that consistently enforce security, compliance, architectural, and operational standards.
• Champion AI-assisted engineering, establishing governance frameworks, adoption strategies, productivity standards, and measurable quality outcomes.
• Establish software engineering standards covering development practices, code quality, testing, performance engineering, API architectures, and microservices design.
• Promote engineering excellence through reusable platform patterns, automation, standardization, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Reliability, Security & Operations

• Establish enterprise standards for observability, service reliability, incident readiness, operational excellence, and platform health.
• Partner with Security to identify, analyze, and embed security requirements into platform solutions and engineering workflows.
• Drive secure-by-default platform capabilities that proactively reduce risk and improve developer adoption.
• Define and monitor platform KPIs, including reliability, security posture, adoption, developer productivity, service availability, and business value realization.

Leadership & Organizational Development

• Build, lead, and develop diverse, high-performing teams that deliver innovative platform engineering solutions.
• Attract, hire, coach, mentor, and retain engineering talent while developing future engineering leaders.
• Create a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, continuous learning, and customer focus.
• Lead organizational change initiatives, helping teams navigate platform transformation and evolving ways of working.
• Raise organizational capability through coaching, technical mentorship, and leadership development programs.

Enterprise Partnership & Influence

• Partner with Product, Security, Architecture & Technology, and Engineering leaders to prioritize investments and maximize enterprise impact.
• Represent Platform Engineering in enterprise governance forums, engineering communities, and architecture councils.
• Influence enterprise engineering standards, technology decisions, and strategic platform direction.

All About You

Leadership Experience

• 12+ years of progressive engineering experience with 5+ years leading engineering organizations at enterprise scale.
• Demonstrated success building, leading, and developing high-performing engineering teams.
• Experience managing managers and senior technical leaders within complex organizations.
• Proven ability to influence executive stakeholders and drive enterprise-wide technology initiatives.
• Strong track record leading large-scale modernization, transformation, and organizational change efforts.

Technical Expertise

• Deep expertise in Platform Engineering, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, automation, and enterprise software delivery platforms.
• Extensive experience designing and operating large-scale CI/CD ecosystems, pipeline-as-code frameworks, and software development platforms.
• Strong knowledge of cloud infrastructure engineering across AWS, Azure, or comparable enterprise cloud environments.
• Experience establishing Infrastructure as Code standards using modern automation and configuration management approaches.
• Expertise with Kubernetes, container platforms, workload orchestration, and cloud-native platform operations.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, microservices architectures, API platforms, observability, resiliency, and performance engineering.
• Experience implementing enterprise security controls and integrating security throughout the software delivery lifecycle.
• Advanced knowledge of automation tooling, operating systems, platform infrastructure, and developer productivity solutions.
• Proficiency with modern programming languages such as Java, C#, Go, Python, or equivalent technologies.

Business & Strategic Capabilities

• Ability to define multi-year platform strategies aligned to business objectives.
• Strong analytical, communication, and executive presentation skills.
• Experience defining metrics, KPIs, and success measures for engineering organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to balance innovation, operational excellence, security, cost efficiency, and customer outcomes.

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.

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.

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.

Pay Ranges

O'Fallon, Missouri: $200,000 - $330,000 USD