Director Software Engineering

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 Director Software Engineering We are seeking a visionary and results-driven Director of Engineering to lead a service group in our critical Decision Management Platform for fraud detection. This role is pivotal in driving engineering excellence, scaling delivery capabilities, and fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement. You will be responsible for aligning engineering strategy with business goals, mentoring high-performing teams, and ensuring the successful delivery of complex software solutions.   • Are you passionate about low latency (the speed it takes to authorise a payment card), high volume (think Google searches and then some), and highly available (5 9s) software solutions?   • Would you like to work on a team that is building industry leading solutions for fighting fraud?   • Do you want to learn cutting edge technologies and help solve complex business problems?

Strategic Leadership & Execution   • Define and drive the engineering strategy in alignment with company objectives.   • Lead cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality, scalable software products on time and within budget.   • Champion engineering best practices, including DevOps, CI/CD, Observability and agile methodologies.   • Identify and mitigate technical and delivery risks across programs and initiatives. People Leadership & Coaching   • Build, mentor, and retain high-performing engineering teams through career development, coaching, and performance management.   • Foster a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous learning.   • Set clear goals and expectations, and provide regular feedback and development plans. Operational Excellence   • Own the end-to-end software delivery lifecycle, from requirements through release and support.   • Continuously improve engineering processes, tools, and metrics to optimize team performance and product quality.   • Ensure operational readiness, including incident response, monitoring, and service reliability. Collaboration & Communication   • Partner with Product, Operations, and Business stakeholders to define scope, priorities, and roadmaps.   • Communicate technical vision and progress to executive leadership and non-technical stakeholders.   • Represent engineering in strategic planning and budgeting discussions.

Education & Experience   • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).   • 15+ years of experience in software engineering and architecture, including leadership roles on complex, mission-critical platforms.   • Proven track record of delivering distributed/scalable systems and high-volume transaction applications.   • Experience with fintech, digital payments, authentication, or identity systems.   • Strong grounding in security, secure SDLC, PCI considerations, and compliance-driven architecture.   • Familiarity with reliability engineering, observability platforms, and operational excellence practices.   • Prior leadership in an organization undergoing significant platform evolution or transformation. Technical & Business Acumen   • Deep understanding of modern software architecture, cloud infrastructure, and service-oriented systems.   • Strong grasp of software operations, including