Lead Software Engineer

Mastercard is hiring a Lead Software Engineer in Arlington, United States. It pays $161k-$266k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Mastercard.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this software engineer role Uses AI ●●○○: an ordinary role that requires AI tools.
The listed pay starts close to the typical software engineer posting on Level.
Tools and skills the posting cites include AI Coding Tools, backend and full stack.
Level classifies it as a lead role.
Level lists 948 other open roles at Mastercard.

AI in this role

Lead backend and full-stack development for Mastercard's decision management platform while leveraging AI coding tools.

AI Coding Tools

backendfull-stackapi-designdistributed-systems

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

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. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

Role Overview

This is a hands-on Lead Engineer role focused on building backend and full-stack capabilities for Mastercard's next-generation Decision Management Platform, the real-time system that helps score and approve billions of payment transactions.

You will own technical areas end to end, write code, shape architecture, mentor engineers, and turn ambiguous goals into reliable services, APIs, workflow tools, and user-facing experiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Own meaningful backend and full-stack capabilities from problem definition through design, implementation, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Design and build scalable services, APIs, workflow tooling, frontend experiences, and integrations.
• Set technical direction, make pragmatic architecture decisions, and align engineers around maintainable solutions.
• Use design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on coaching to raise engineering quality and reduce complexity.
• Write code, build prototypes, and use AI coding tools to improve speed, quality, and team effectiveness.
• Work closely with product, engineering, and senior stakeholders to turn ambiguous goals into working software and measurable outcomes.

What We're Looking For

• You lead through delivery. You have shipped meaningful backend, full-stack, or product-facing capabilities in complex production systems.
•You think end to end. You connect user experience, APIs, backend design, data flows, operations, and business outcomes.
•You influence by doing the work. You guide technical direction through judgment, clear communication, and hands-on credibility.
•You care about quality. Testing, observability, security, clean interfaces, and maintainability are part of how you build.
•You are adaptable. You are comfortable with ambiguity, changing priorities, and small, fast-moving teams.

Relevant Experience
•You do not need experience in every area, but should bring strong hands-on depth in several of the following:
•Backend services, API design, service integration, and domain modeling.
•Full-stack applications, workflow tooling, dashboards, authoring tools, or operational interfaces.
•High-throughput, low-latency, event-driven, or distributed systems.
•Decisioning, rules, data, feature platforms, or real-time transaction processing.
•AI/ML systems, low-latency inference, or LLM-enabled product experiences.
•AI-assisted development and agentic harnesses

Requirements

•Strong hands-on software engineering experience building backend services, APIs, full-stack applications, or complex production systems.
•Experience owning technical areas end to end, including design, implementation, testing, deployment, and production support.
•Strong fundamentals in software design, architecture, API design, data modeling, testing, code review, secure coding, performance, and troubleshooting.
•Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction through design reviews, code reviews, and clear communication.
•Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Salary Ranges
Arlington: 161,000 - 266,000 USD
Atlanta: 140,00 - 231,00 USD

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 reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com 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.

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.

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.

How we rate this

Lead Software Engineer at Mastercard rates 45 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Uses AI (AI Level 2 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Uses AI. An ordinary role that requires AI tools.

●●●● 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 2 of 4: Uses AI.
The listed salary is $161k-$266k a year.
The role is based in Arlington, Virginia.
The job was posted on September 10, 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

BackendFull StackAPI DesignDistributed SystemsAI Coding Tools

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python Java AWS TypeScript React Kubernetes

Pay

This job starts at: $161k
Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting starts close to the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where backend was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where full stack was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where api design was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used AI Coding Tools in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Backend, Full Stack, API Design, Distributed Systems, and AI Coding Tools. 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.
Put the AI tool in a bullet point about what you did, not just in a skills list. This role treats it as a required part of the job.

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