Principal Software Engineer

Mastercard is hiring a Principal Software Engineer for a remote role open to applicants in United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Mastercard.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this software engineer role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
This is listed as a remote role.
The posting mentions Cloud Native Architecture, software architecture and cloud computing 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 the architectural vision and delivery of secure, scalable cloud-native B2B payment platforms.

cloud-native-architecture

software-architecturecloud-computingscalabilityb2b-platforms

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

Principal Software Engineer

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.

Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

Overview

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Partnerships and Cashflow division, team is looking for a Principal Sales Engineer to drive our customer experience strategy forward by consistently innovating and problem-solving. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in modern software architecture, with a proven ability to design and build cloud-native solutions that operate at global scale and support high transaction volumes.

As a key member of the engineering team, you will help shape a worldwide B2B technology platform that enables businesses of all sizes to seamlessly engage with Mastercard’s SME Program. As part of a global organization, you will design and deliver highly scalable, secure, resilient, and high-performing services capable of supporting a diverse and growing customer base. This is a unique opportunity to play a key role in the continued evolution and expansion of Mastercard’s SME Partnership Program while driving innovative solutions that create meaningful business impact.

Role

• Define and lead the architectural vision for Mastercard’s SME Partnerships platform, delivering secure, scalable, and cloud-native solutions that support global business growth.
• Design and champion modern engineering standards, ensuring all solutions align with 12-factor application principles, enterprise security requirements, and industry best practices.
• Develop and maintain architectural roadmaps, technical blueprints, and service designs that drive the evolution of partnership and Cashflow platforms.
• Partner closely with product, engineering, and technology leaders to translate business objectives into innovative, compliant, and high-performing technology solutions.
• Lead architecture reviews and governance activities to ensure consistency, reliability, scalability, and adherence to enterprise design standards.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across engineering and architecture teams, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and engineering excellence.
• Represent the Mastercard SME Program as a trusted technical leader, collaborating with Architecture & Technology teams to advance global-scale cloud and hybrid solutions while leveraging AI-driven tools to enhance engineering efficiency and accelerate delivery.

All About You

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong foundation in computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, web applications, APIs, and microservices-based architectures.
• Proven experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions using technologies such as Azure, AWS, Kafka, Kubernetes, and containerized platforms.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling high-volume transactional systems within financial services, banking, payments, or other mission-critical environments.
• Deep expertise developing large-scale backend services using Java, Spring, Spring Boot, Kafka, and modern event-driven architectures.
• Proficiency with modern web technologies, including HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and front-end frameworks such as React.
• Extensive experience designing and optimizing data solutions using PostgreSQL, NoSQL databases, and other storage technologies at enterprise scale.
• Hands-on experience with automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, Git-based development workflows, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong collaborator and mentor who effectively partners with engineers, architects, product managers, and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence both technical and non-technical

#LI-FT1

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: $170,000 - $281,000 USD

How we rate this

Principal Software Engineer 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

Principal Software Engineer is an open job at Mastercard.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in Atlanta, Georgia and is marked remote.
The job was posted on July 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

Software ArchitectureCloud ComputingScalabilityB2b PlatformsCloud Native Architecture

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python C++TypeScript Docker Google Cloud C#

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

Tell me about a project where software architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where cloud computing was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where scalability was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where b2b platforms was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used Cloud Native Architecture in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Software Architecture, Cloud Computing, Scalability, B2b Platforms, and Cloud Native Architecture. 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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