Manager, Software Engineering | Data & AI Platform

Mastercard is hiring a Manager, Software Engineering | Data & AI Platform in Arlington, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Mastercard.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this role: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions Databricks, AI Tools and software engineering among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Mastercard has 1,100+ other open roles on Level.
Posted within the past week.

AI in this role

Manage a software engineering team building a data and AI platform, owning technical direction, architecture, and hands-on delivery.

databricksai-tools

software-engineeringteam-managementarchitecturedata-platform

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

Manager, Software Engineering | Data & AI Platform

Overview:

Data Foundations, part of Business & Market Insights, solves shared data problems for Mastercard's analytics products: secure customer data exchange, consistent business definitions and metrics, reference datasets, data quality, and AI-assisted customer data onboarding. Engineering and product set direction together, and we own outcomes, not just delivery. Where enterprise platforms fit, we reuse and shape them. Where there is a shared gap, we solve it once.

We are looking for a Manager, Software Engineering to lead a new US-based team. Your first challenge is making business definitions, metrics and dataset relationships reusable across products, and the scope will grow from there. You will spend 40-50% of your time hands-on. In your first few months you will agree with product how you make decisions together, set the target architecture and ship a first end-to-end slice.

About the Role:
• Partner with product management to understand users, shape scope and priorities, and share accountability for outcomes.
• Manage and develop engineers: set goals, give regular feedback, run performance reviews, and help attract and grow talent as the team expands.
• Own the team's technical direction and architecture: decide what to build, reuse or influence, and review designs and code.
• Spend 40-50% of your time hands-on where it counts most: critical designs, high-leverage code, and key reviews.
• Own engineering execution and dependencies, turning ambiguity into clear decisions and plans.
• Set and uphold standards for design, testing, release, reliability, and cost, with clear ownership of production services.
• Communicate progress, risks, and decisions to senior leaders, and help the team use AI tools where they genuinely improve speed or quality.

All About You:
• Experience managing engineers, including performance management and career development.
• Strong product judgement and a record of shaping what is built, not just delivering it.
• Recent hands-on experience designing and building production data services on a cloud platform such as Databricks, Snowflake or AWS.
• Advanced knowledge of data modeling and data governance.
• Ability to turn ambiguity into clear decisions and influence across teams.
• Clear communication with technical and senior audiences.

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. THIS POSTING RELECTS ONE OR MORE CURRENT VACANCIES ON OUR TEAM, AND MASTERCARD INTENDS TO FILL THIS POSITION BY 01/19/2027. If the fill date has passed, Mastercard intends to fill this position as soon as possible.

Pay Ranges

Arlington, Virginia: $161,000 - $266,000 USD

How we rate this

Manager, Software Engineering | Data & AI Platform at Mastercard rates 35 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

Manager, Software Engineering | Data & AI Platform is an open job at Mastercard.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in Arlington, Virginia.
The job was posted on October 21, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
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

Software EngineeringTeam ManagementArchitectureData PlatformDatabricksAI Tools

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where team management was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where data platform was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used Databricks in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Software Engineering, Team Management, Architecture, Data Platform, and Databricks. 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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