Senior Software Engineer

Mastercard is hiring a Senior Software Engineer in Arlington, 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.
Tools and skills the posting cites include Databricks, Python and SQL.
Level classifies it as a senior role.
Level lists 1,100+ other open roles at Mastercard.
The role was posted within the past week.

AI in this role

Design and operate scalable data systems, modernizing Hadoop workloads to Databricks and cloud services.

databrickspythonsqlsparkhiveimpalahadoopaws

data-engineeringdistributed-systemscloud-migrationetl

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 Software Engineer

Overview:
Mastercard’s Economic Intelligence team is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and operate scalable data systems that power our economic intelligence products. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on delivering complex platform capabilities, modernizing data workloads from on-premises Hadoop technologies to Databricks and cloud-based services, and strengthening engineering practices across the team.
The Economic Intelligence team develops data products and analytical capabilities that help customers understand consumer spending, evaluate economic conditions, and make informed business decisions. We transform billions of global transaction records into trusted insights used by clients across financial services, retail, and government.
You will collaborate with software engineers, data engineers, data scientists, product managers, and data warehouse teams across multiple locations.
This is a hybrid role based in Arlington, VA, requiring three days per week onsite.

Role:
• Design, develop, test, and operate scalable data-processing solutions using Python, SQL, Spark, Hive, Impala, Databricks, and related technologies.
• Own complex data platform capabilities from ingestion and transformation through publishing and consumption.
• Provide technical leadership for the modernization of on-premises data workloads to Databricks and cloud-based platforms.
• Make and document architecture and design decisions that improve scalability, reliability, maintainability, security, and cost efficiency.
• Build production-ready pipelines with appropriate testing, data-quality controls, observability, operational documentation, and recovery procedures.
• Diagnose and resolve complex performance, reliability, and data-quality issues across distributed systems.
• Contribute directly to implementation while guiding technical execution through design reviews, code reviews, and collaborative problem-solving.
• Reduce technical debt by balancing near-term product delivery with long-term platform sustainability.
• Partner with product managers and data scientists to translate business and analytical requirements into clear, durable technical solutions.
• Mentor engineers, share technical knowledge, and help strengthen engineering practices across geographically distributed teams.
• Evaluate new tools and approaches based on measurable improvements to delivery speed, platform reliability, developer productivity, or analytical capability.
• Participate in production support and continuous improvement of the systems owned by the team.

All About You:
• Experience modernizing workloads from Hadoop-based environments to cloud or Databricks platforms.
• Experience with Hive, Impala, workflow orchestration, data Lakehouse patterns, or cloud object storage.
• Advanced SQL expertise, including query optimization and modeling for very large datasets.
• Knowledge of data governance, privacy, security, data lineage, and access-control practices.
• Experience supporting analytical, economic, financial, or other data-intensive products.
• Experience applying machine learning, generative AI, or agent-based capabilities within production systems.
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing architecture or engineering standards across teams.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, capable of explaining complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related STEM discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

This role is not eligible for Mastercard’s work authorization sponsorship. As such, candidates must be eligible to work in the United States now or in the future without employer sponsorship.

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 01/17/2027. If the fill date has passed, Mastercard intends to fill this position as soon as possible.

Pay Ranges

Arlington, Virginia: $132,000 - $212,000 USD

How we rate this

Senior Software Engineer at Mastercard rates 10 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

Senior Software Engineer 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 19, 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

Data EngineeringDistributed SystemsCloud MigrationETLDatabricksPythonSQLSpark

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

AWS Java 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 data engineering 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 cloud migration was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where etl 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: Data Engineering, Distributed Systems, Cloud Migration, ETL, 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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