Senior Principal AI Engineer- AI Center of Excellence

Mastercard is hiring a Senior Principal AI Engineer- AI Center of Excellence in San Francisco, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

AI in this role

ai-safety

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

Senior Principal AI Engineer- AI Center of Excellence

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. 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.

Overview:

The AI Center of Excellence is seeking a Senior Principal AI Engineer – AI Infrastructure to serve as a technical expert and thought leader for Mastercard’s enterprise AI infrastructure.
This senior individual-contributor role will shape the architecture and engineering of secure, scalable, production-grade platforms supporting LLM model training and inferencing, machine learning models, large language models (LLMs), agentic AI, and emerging AI capabilities in production.
The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in high-performance computing (HPC), GPU and accelerated computing, rack-scale systems architecture, private and hybrid cloud, Kubernetes, high-performance networking and storage, observability, security, and reliability. They will work closely with AI Engineers, Data Scientists, Platform Engineers, Security, Architecture, and Product partners to deliver resilient, cloud-native AI platforms in a highly regulated environment.

About the Role:
• Define the technical vision, architecture, and engineering standards for enterprise AI infrastructure and platforms.
• Lead the architecture and evolution of HPC, GPU and accelerated compute, rack-scale systems, private and hybrid cloud, Kubernetes, high-performance networking, storage, and AI platform services.
• Design infrastructure supporting LLM training and inferencing, model serving, machine learning workloads, agentic AI orchestration, and emerging AI capabilities.
• Solve complex infrastructure, performance, and scalability challenges through hands-on architecture, prototyping, performance engineering, and troubleshooting.
• Establish engineering patterns for reliability, resiliency, observability, automation, capacity management, security, and operational readiness.
• Embed security, privacy, Responsible AI, governance, compliance, and auditability into AI infrastructure by design.
• Evaluate emerging AI, HPC, GPU, networking, storage, and infrastructure technologies and influence enterprise architecture and platform roadmaps.
• Lead complex cross-functional technical initiatives and mentor engineers through architecture reviews, engineering standards, reference designs, and knowledge sharing.

All About You:
• Years of experience in AI engineering, high-performance computing, platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, distributed systems, cloud technology, or related disciplines.
• Proven experience architecting and operating secure, mission-critical platforms at enterprise scale.
• Deep expertise in HPC, GPU/accelerated computing, rack-scale systems architecture, Kubernetes, private and hybrid cloud, high-speed networking, storage, and infrastructure automation.
• Experience supporting LLM training and inferencing, machine learning models, large language models, agentic AI, and production AI platforms.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems, SRE, observability, resiliency, security, governance, compliance, and production operations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex architecture and engineering initiatives through technical expertise, influence, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Strong communication and mentoring skills with the ability to engage senior stakeholders and elevate technical expertise across engineering teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred.

#AI1

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 IS NOT FOR A CURRENT VACANCY, BUT MASTERCARD IS SEEKING RESUMES TO REVIEW IN THE FUTURE WHEN JOBS BECOME AVAILABLE.

Pay Ranges

San Francisco, California: $254,000 - $407,000 USD

Atlanta, Georgia: $212,000 - $339,000 USD

Boston, Massachusetts: $244,000 - $390,000 USD

Miami, Florida: $212,000 - $339,000 USD

New York City, New York: $254,000 - $407,000 USD

O'Fallon, Missouri: $212,000 - $339,000 USD

Purchase, New York: $244,000 - $390,000 USD

Remote - New York: $212,000 - $339,000 USD

Seattle, Washington: $244,000 - $390,000 USD

Job Posting Window

Posting windows may change based on the volume of applications received and business necessity. Candidates are encouraged to apply expeditiously.

How we rate this

Senior Principal AI Engineer- AI Center of Excellence at Mastercard rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● 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. Open the description and count.

Key facts

Senior Principal AI Engineer- AI Center of Excellence is an open job at Mastercard.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The role is based in San Francisco, California.
The job was posted on October 7, 2026.
Seniority: lead.
Applications are handled by Mastercard. Apply on Mastercard

Prepare for this job

A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI Safety

Questions you could be asked

How do you think about the risk of an AI system in this kind of role failing silently?
How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Safety. 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.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped — this role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

Want an expert to read your CV for this job?

Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. We reply by email within 2 to 4 business days.

Get a free CV review

Get new AI engineer jobs (Builds AI ●●●●) by email

One email a week with the new AI engineer jobs (Builds AI ●●●●), 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.