Lead Software Engineer (SDET)

Mastercard is hiring a Lead Software Engineer (SDET) in Toronto, Canada. Level rates it ; you can apply on Mastercard.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions sdet, testing and distributed systems 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 engineer in test focused on building reliable, distributed payment validation and fraud-combating systems.

sdettestingdistributed-systemsjavapython

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 (SDET)

Who is Mastercard?

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.

Ethoca is a Mastercard business unit where you can join a team of top business and technology innovators who are changing the payments landscape and reinventing the way global merchants and issuers combat fraud and reduce costs. Our services allow customers to focus on what really matters - increasing sales and creating a great customer experience. Our relentless customer focus is what makes us an award-winning company.

We believe that when people come together, it unlocks potential. Our collaborative environment enables our teams to deliver and develop solutions that provide safety, security and convenience for our customers.

Ethoca is a place where risk-takers thrive, change makers excel, and innovators shape a better tomorrow. Innovation requires taking thoughtful risks and moving with speed and agility, so that’s what we do. We invite our employees to bring their hearts, minds and whole selves to work every day to push boundaries and dream up new possibilities. Let’s create new possibilities together.

Overview

To support our continued growth and success, we are scaling our platform and building new products. Ethoca’s growth is explosive, and only great problem-solvers, collaborators and thinkers can help us take it to the next level. If that sounds like you then keep reading!

We believe in decoupled, message-driven, and distributed systems. We strive to keep codebases small and manageable. We’re interested in reactive design patterns that will make our systems more resilient and responsive, yet remain elastic to change. As we proceed through our technology roadmap, we are evaluating and implementing new community endorsed technologies for every tier of our platform. Our backend tiers are presently JVM-based. We are using or considering technologies like Kafka, Springboot, Angular, Bootstrap, Chef, Nomad, Docker and so on.

We are recruiting a Lead Software Engineer In Test who has a proven record of leading and solutioning full automation testing strategies and lifecycles for microservice-oriented Cloud-based systems using the appropriate industry leading products, patterns, and practices.

Role

• Work as a member of an agile team to design, build, test, and deploy new products and features
• Lead Testing strategies and efforts inside and across teams and software components
• Design and implement test frameworks reusable across multiple components in on-prem and cloud environments
• Create test plans to achieve the best test approach in collaboration with team members
• Create comprehensive and well-structured test cases for all test types in scope
• Independently design and implement modularized, data driven, reusable automated tests
• Troubleshoot defects to resolution and closure
• Support the release process by executing and maintaining test suites for smoke, sanity, regression and operational validation.
• Conduct reviews of test case coverage for any test types in scope to ensure appropriate risk-based testing approach is achieved.
• Conduct peer code reviews, providing feedback and coaching over logical implementation, and best practice improvement opportunities around patterns, algorithms, etc
• Provide technical guidance, support and mentoring to other QA Team members
• Proactively understand stakeholder needs, goals and expectations to deliver results
• Effectively host technology education forums (i.e. Technology Brown Bag Session) around relevant topics for the wider organization
• Independently apply problem solving skills to identify symptoms and root causes of issues
• Make effective and efficient decisions even when data is ambiguous
• Thrive in a highly collaborative company environment where agility is paramount

All About You

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field.
• Ability to understand new concepts quickly and apply them accurately through an evolving, dynamic, agile environment.
• Solid experience with Continuous Integration & Delivery principles
• Practical experience using AI to improve Test Automation and Testing efficiency.
• Advanced working knowledge of Java.
• Solid experience using testing frameworks like Selenium, TestRail, Junit, TestNG.
• Experience with JavaScript testing frameworks like protractor/jasmine.
• Experience with testing SOAP/REST web APIs.
• Working knowledge of Postgres and/or other relational databases.
• Expertise in microservice-based applications development using Springboot
• Excellent knowledge of QA principles within SDLC.
• Strong experience with Agile Development Practices and Processes, advocating and developing Agile values and principles.

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 Canada, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive pay based on location, experience and other qualifications for the role and may be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program. This posting reflects one or more current openings on our team.

Pay Ranges

Toronto, Canada: $127,000 - $203,000 CAD

How we rate this

Lead Software Engineer (SDET) at Mastercard rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● 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 (SDET) is an open job at Mastercard.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in Toronto, Canada (Ethoca).
The job was posted on August 21, 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

SdetTestingDistributed SystemsJavaPython

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python AWS C++Kubernetes TypeScript React

Pay

Typical software engineer job: $168k

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

Tell me about a project where sdet was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where testing 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?
Tell me about a project where java was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where python was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Sdet, Testing, Distributed Systems, Java, and Python. 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.

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