Lead Software Engineer

Mastercard is hiring a Lead Software Engineer in Dublin, Ireland. Level rates it ; you can apply on Mastercard.

Level's read on this job

Works on AI ●●●○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
The posting mentions Java, Spring Boot and prompt engineering among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a lead role.
Mastercard has 1,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Lead software engineering teams in building scalable microservices and integrating enterprise AI solutions, prompt engineering, and AI automation.

javaspring-boot

prompt-engineeringai-solution-architectureenterprise-ai-integrationai-governancemicroservices

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

Lead Software Developer – Job Description Summary

Overview:

The Lead Software Developer is a technical leader responsible for designing, developing, and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performing software solutions while providing technical leadership across engineering teams. This role combines deep hands-on development expertise with architectural leadership, mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration to drive successful product delivery and technology innovation. The individual serves as a subject matter expert, influences technical strategy, promotes engineering best practices, and guides teams in building resilient, cloud-native applications.

Role:

Key Responsibilities
• Lead the design, development, and implementation of enterprise-scale software solutions.
• Define application architecture, technology standards, and engineering best practices.
• Drive technical design discussions and architectural decisions across multiple teams.
• Develop and maintain scalable, resilient, and secure microservices-based platforms.
• Perform code reviews and ensure adherence to quality, security, and performance standards.
• Mentor and coach engineers, fostering technical excellence and continuous learning.
• Collaborate with Product, Architecture, Operations, and Business stakeholders to deliver strategic initiatives.
• Lead troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and resolution of complex production issues.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and drive innovation through Proof of Concepts (PoCs).

Required Technical Expertise:

• AI & Intelligent Solutions: AI solution architecture, enterprise AI integration, prompt engineering, AI governance, and AI-powered automation and productivity solutions.
• Application Development & Design: Advanced Java development, Spring Boot, object-oriented design and programming, SOLID principles, design patterns, and Domain-Driven Design (DDD).
• Distributed Systems & Microservices: Distributed systems architecture, microservices architecture, event-driven architecture, service discovery, circuit breakers, resilience patterns, and scalable system design.
• API & Integration Engineering: RESTful API development, API gateway patterns, API security (OAuth2, JWT, OpenID Connect), and integration with enterprise platforms and external services.
• Engineering Excellence: Code quality, technical debt management, performance engineering, scalability, and software architecture best practices.

All about you:

Preferred Experience
• 10+ years of software development experience.
• 3+ years in a technical lead or lead developer role.
• Proven experience building enterprise-scale distributed systems.
• Strong track record of leading architecture and modernization initiatives.
• Experience delivering AI-enabled solutions in production environments.

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.

How we rate this

Lead Software Engineer at Mastercard rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Lead Software Engineer is an open job at Mastercard.
Level rates this role AI Level 3 of 4: Works on AI.
The role is based in Dublin, Ireland.
The job was posted on September 15, 2026.
Seniority: lead.
Applications are handled by Mastercard. Apply on Mastercard

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Prompt engineeringAI Solution ArchitectureEnterprise AI IntegrationAI GovernanceMicroservicesJavaSpring Boot

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python AWS LLM AI agents Kubernetes TypeScript

Pay

Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical software engineer figure when pay comes up. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

How do you structure and test a prompt to get consistent output from a language model?
Tell me about a project where ai solution architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where enterprise ai integration was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where ai governance was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where microservices was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Prompt engineering, AI Solution Architecture, Enterprise AI Integration, AI Governance, and Microservices. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

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