Senior Software Engineer (Sanctions Service & AI Inference)

AI in this role

Design and develop scalable software solutions and AI inference services for global sanctions screening at Mastercard.

ai-agentsai-automationai-safetysoftware-engineeringai-inferencesanctions-screeningscalability

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 (Sanctions Service & AI Inference)

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
We are seeking a Senior Software/AI Engineer to join our AI & Decision Product Enablement team in Vancouver and help advance Mastercard's Sanctions Screening solutions. This role focuses on building scalable, high-performance services that help financial institutions manage sanctions risk, support regulatory compliance, and enable secure payment processing.

This is an opportunity to work on a highly visible platform while helping shape the adoption of AI-enabled engineering practices across the organization.

Role
As a Senior Software/AI Engineer, you will design, develop and support business-critical software systems that operate at global scale. You will work closely with engineering, product, compliance and operations teams to deliver reliable, secure and innovative solutions.

Key Responsibilities
• Design, develop and maintain scalable, secure and high-performance software solutions.
• Drive technical design and implementation of new product capabilities and platform improvements.
• Participate in all stages of the software development lifecycle, including design, development, testing, deployment and production support.
• Lead technical discussions, perform code reviews and promote engineering best practices.
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues and drive root-cause analysis and resolution.
• Mentor and coach engineers through technical guidance, knowledge sharing and hands-on leadership.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver solutions that meet business, security and compliance requirements.
• Improve system resiliency, scalability, operational excellence and cloud readiness.

AI Engineering Focus
A key aspect of this role is leveraging AI and agentic technologies to improve engineering effectiveness and accelerate delivery.

You will:
• Use AI-assisted development tools to improve software delivery, testing, troubleshooting and documentation.
• Identify and implement opportunities to automate engineering and operational workflows.
• Develop reusable AI-enabled solutions that improve productivity and reduce operational overhead.
• Establish best practices for responsible AI adoption with emphasis on trustworthy models and harness engineering.
• Ensure AI-assisted solutions maintain high standards of quality, security, transparency and human oversight.

Qualifications Required
• Strong software engineering experience with Java and modern application development frameworks.
• Experience designing and building scalable, highly available distributed systems.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical and technical design skills.
• Experience with automated testing and software quality practices.
• Strong understanding of software reliability, performance and security principles.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and provide technical leadership.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred
• Experience in payments, compliance, fraud, risk management or financial services.
• Experience with cloud-native architectures and modern software delivery practices.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools, agentic workflows or intelligent automation solutions.
• Experience working in highly regulated and mission-critical environments.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline.

What Success Looks Like
• Delivering reliable, scalable and secure sanctions-screening capabilities that support business growth and regulatory compliance.
• Improving engineering productivity through effective use of AI and automation.
• Raising the technical capability of the team through mentorship and technical leadership.
• Driving measurable improvements in service reliability, operational efficiency and customer outcomes.
• Helping establish a modern AI-enabled engineering culture that balances innovation with strong governance and operational excellence.

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.

Pay Ranges

Vancouver, Canada: $111,000 - $160,000 CAD

How we rate this

Senior Software Engineer (Sanctions Service & AI Inference) at Mastercard rates 85 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.

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 AgentsAI AutomationAI SafetySoftware EngineeringAI InferenceSanctions ScreeningScalability

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Tell me about a workflow you automated with AI tools, end to end.
How do you think about the risk of an AI system in this kind of role failing silently?
Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where ai inference was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Agents, AI Automation, AI Safety, Software Engineering, and AI Inference. 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.

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