Lead Software Engineer (Backend & AI)

About the role

Mastercard is looking for a Lead Software Engineer to own the design, development, and scaling of high‑performance backend systems enriched with AI capabilities. You will combine deep backend expertise with AI integration experience to deliver data‑driven products that power secure, simple, and smart digital payments.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and implementation of scalable backend services and APIs.
• Design and integrate AI‑driven features, including model inference pipelines and versioning.
• Define best practices for distributed systems, data processing, and system reliability.
• Collaborate with data scientists and AI engineers to deploy, monitor, and optimize machine‑learning models in production.
• Build and maintain data pipelines that support AI workloads.
• Mentor and grow a team of backend/full‑stack engineers, fostering a culture of ownership and rapid iteration.
• Partner with product, data, and business teams to translate requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Ensure end‑to‑end delivery of complex projects with high quality and timely releases.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field.
• 8+ years of backend software development experience.
• 2+ years in a technical leadership or lead engineer role.
• Proven experience building large‑scale distributed systems.
• Hands‑on experience deploying or integrating machine‑learning models in production.

Required skills

• Python
• Node.js
• Design of distributed systems
• AI/ML model integration and serving
• Data pipeline development