Principal Software Engineer R-277444

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

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Principal Software Engine

er
Overv

iewMastercard is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to architect, build, and operate the API platform that securely exposes foundation model capabilities across the organization. This role is critical to enabling safe, scalable, and compliant adoption of generative AI and advanced analytics across Mastercard products and servic

es.As a senior technical authority, you will define the architectural standards and operational practices that allow teams to consume AI model capabilities reliably and responsibly. You will partner closely with AI/ML engineers, product, security, and platform teams to deliver production‑grade APIs that meet Mastercard’s requirements for performance, resilience, governance, and tru

st.

RoleIn this role, you will be responsible for end‑to‑end ownership of the foundation model API layer, ensuring it is secure, scalable, observable, and easy to ad

opt.Key responsibilities incl

ude:Architect and build enterprise‑grade API platforms that expose foundation model capabilities (e.g. inference, embeddings, agents) to internal consu

mersDefine and enforce API standards, including versioning, backward compatibility, SDKs, and developer experience best pract

icesDesign and implement security and governance controls, including authentication, authorization, policy enforcement, audit logging, and usage li

mitsEnsure platform reliability, scalability, and performance, including traffic management, caching, retries, and graceful degrada

tionPartner with AI/ML engineering teams to productionize model capabilities while abstracting complexity from downstream consu

mersDrive observability and cost control, delivering usage metrics, monitoring, alerting, and cost attribution across tenants and applicat

ionsLead technical design reviews and code reviews for critical services, setting a high bar for engineering quality and operational readi

nessInfluence broader platform and AI strategy through architectural guidance, technical proposals, and trade‑off anal

ysisMentor senior engineers and act as a role model for secure, resilient, and maintainable software engineering pract

ices
All Abou

t YouExtensive experience designing and operating large‑scale, distributed production sy

stemsDeep expertise in API and platform engineering, including REST and/or gRPC, service gateways, and multi‑tenant architec

turesStrong background in software security, including authN/authZ, encryption, secrets management, and threat mod

elingExperience building services in cloud‑native environments (e.g. Kubernetes, managed cloud services on AWS, Azure, or

GCP)Proven ability to deliver reliable, observable, and cost‑efficient services in high‑availability environ

mentsStrong programming skills in one or more backend languages (e.g. Java, Go, C#, Kotlin, Py

thon)Familiarity with foundation model integration patterns, such as inference APIs, embeddings, RAG pipelines, and safety controls (prefe

rred)Experience working in regulated or enterprise environments, with an understanding of compliance, auditability, and risk manag

ementExcellent communication skills with the ability to influence technical direction across

teamsDemonstrated leadership through technical excellence, mentorship, and architectural ownership, rather than people management

alone
Corporate Security Responsi

bilityAll 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 prac
• tices;Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being acc
• essed;Report any suspected information security violation or breac
• h, andComplete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guide