Lead Software Engineer

Mastercard is hiring a Lead Software Engineer in Atlanta, United States. 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.
Tools and skills the posting cites include Databricks, Java and Spring Boot.
Level classifies it as a lead role.
Level lists 1,000+ other open roles at Mastercard.

AI in this role

Lead software engineering teams building large-scale marketing platforms while utilizing GenAI and agentic tools to accelerate delivery.

databricksjavaspring-bootreactgraphqlawssparkhadoop

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

Overview:

Interested in building the next generation platform that empowers end-to-end marketing campaign management inclusive of audience targeting, campaign execution, and measurement? Our platforms operate at global scale, processing massive volumes of data and enabling data-driven marketing solutions across markets worldwide. The overarching goal of data-driven marketing is to deliver the right content, to the right person, at the right time.

We are looking for individuals who are passionate about reimagining products, features, and services at scale while helping shape the future of digital marketing technology. If you wish to be part of this Priceless® experience, read below.

The Marketing Services (MS) Technology team is looking for a Lead Software Development Engineer (Technical Lead) to provide technical ownership, with an emphasis on engineering efficiency, on-time delivery, innovation, and an outstanding experience for our customers.

The ideal candidate is passionate about architecting and building highly available, large-scale platforms using modern engineering practices. You will work across technologies including Java, Spring Boot, React, GraphQL, Databricks, AWS, Spark, Hadoop, real-time data processing frameworks, and cloud-native architectures. Our teams leverage GenAI and Agentic AI capabilities throughout the product development lifecycle to accelerate delivery, improve quality, strengthen automation, and drive engineering effectiveness. This role provides an opportunity to lead innovative solutions while helping drive Mastercard's cloud transformation journey and the future of intelligent marketing platforms.

Role:

In this role, you will:

• Provide technical leadership and expertise for architecting new platform capabilities.
• Lead teams comprising dynamic UI developers, full-stack engineers, and data engineers to build highly available, large-scale, and fault-tolerant platforms.
• Be responsible for assessing technologies and approaches for integrating backend data services with user interfaces.
• Work closely with team members from across Mastercard to identify functional and system requirements.
• Understand complex application and data flows and bridge the gap between technical and business requirements.
• Drive engineering best practices across software quality, automation, observability, reliability, and performance.
• Design & develop REST APIs and web services using Java, Spring Boot, and modern cloud-native technologies.
• Champion adoption of GenAI, Agentic AI, automation, and modern cloud engineering practices across the software development lifecycle.
• Drive platform modernisation initiatives supporting Mastercard's cloud transformation strategy, including AWS and Databricks-based solutions.

All About You:

The ideal candidate for this position is expected to:

• Provide technical thought leadership and expertise for architecting new platform capabilities.
• Be hands-on with Java, Spring Boot, and distributed service architectures (REST APIs).
• Be familiar with modern web development technologies including React and/or Angular, NodeJS, GraphQL, etc.
• Be familiar with Big Data and analytics technologies such as Databricks, Hadoop, Spark, Python, Scala, and cloud-based data platforms.
• Have experience working with real-time or near real-time data ingestion and processing systems.
• Be skilled at architecting large and complex distributed platforms.
• Understand Domain Driven Design (DDD) and Event Driven Design (EDD).
• Build and govern automated quality frameworks based on JUnit and Mockito and have a solid understanding of BDD testing frameworks.
• Understand CI/CD using tools such as Jenkins and automated deployment pipelines.
• Have experience architecting and delivering cloud-native solutions on AWS.
• Demonstrate a proven track record of delivering highly available, observable, automated, resilient, and high-performance products at scale.
• Have experience implementing monitoring, logging, alerting, reliability engineering, and operational excellence practices across the software lifecycle.
• Demonstrate experience using GenAI and AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity, software quality, and delivery outcomes.
• Be familiar with Agile/Scrum methodologies.
• Have demonstrated ability to adapt to new technologies and learn quickly.
• Be strong, confident, and able to communicate solutions and architecture effectively to a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Have a passion for cloud transformation, platform modernisation, and adoption of emerging technologies.
• Last but not least, have a bias for action.

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.

Pay Ranges

Atlanta, Georgia: $140,000 - $231,000 USD

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 role is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
The job was posted on August 18, 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

DatabricksJavaSpring BootReactGraphQLAWSSparkHadoop

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

TypeScript Kubernetes C++JavaScript Docker SQL

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

What's a project where you used Databricks hands-on?
Walk me through how you've used Java in your day-to-day work.
What are the limits of Spring Boot that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
What's a project where you used React hands-on?
Walk me through how you've used GraphQL in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Databricks, Java, Spring Boot, React, and GraphQL. 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.

Want an expert to read your CV for this job?

Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. You get your review by email within 24 hours.

Get a free CV review Get your CV rewritten Check your resume with the ATS resume checker

Get new software engineer jobs (Uses AI ●●○○ or higher) by email

One email a week with the new software engineer jobs (Uses AI ●●○○ or higher), each rated for how much AI is in the work. No recruiter spam, unsubscribe in one click.

Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.