Principal Data Scientist

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 Principal Data Scientist Overview: Mastercard is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead the development and delivery of advanced AI and machine learning solutions for Mastercard’s Ethoca product that enhances consumer purchase experiences. This is a senior technical role, responsible for defining the data science product design, guiding execution across multiple business initiatives, and ensuring solutions are delivered at scale to support chargeback reduction, dispute resolution, and consumer clarity. The successful candidate will combine technical depth with strong cross-functional skills to drive measurable business impact.

Leading Engineering Culture • Design and execute the data science vision and roadmap for the product enhancement, aligning technical initiatives with business priorities and product strategy. • Lead, mentor, and inspire a high-performing data science team, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and collaboration. • Partner with product, engineering, and business leaders to shape requirements and deliver data-driven capabilities that improve customer experience and reduce disputes. Product Impact • Build and scale AI/ML models that enrich merchant data, enhance transaction clarity, and reduce chargeback/dispute rates. • Guide the design and implementation of solutions that leverage generative AI, multi-agent systems, NLP, and computer vision to enhance purchase experiences. • Monitor and continuously improve deployed models to ensure accuracy, reliability, and compliance in a regulated financial environment. Technical & Operational Excellence • Provide hands-on technical leadership in model development, deployment, and governance across cloud environments (Azure, Snowflake, Spark). • Ensure compliance with Mastercard’s data governance, security, and privacy requirements. • Review and oversee code, models, and engineering components developed by the team to maintain enterprise-grade standards. Innovation & Thought Leadership • Drive exploration of cutting-edge technologies, including generative AI and agentic frameworks, to strengthen the product offering and Mastercard technical competence. • Represent Mastercard’s AI leadership through patents, publications, conference presentations, and academic partnerships. • Incubate prototypes and proofs-of-concept to evaluate new methods before scaling into production. All About You: • Proven experience leading data science teams and delivering enterprise-scale AI/ML solutions. • Deep expertise in supervised, unsupervised, and generative AI methods, with strong understanding of their mathematical foundations. • Hands-on background in NLP, information extraction, or computer vision or multi-modal AI applied to real-world business challenges. • Strong track record of translating complex data problems into scalable, measurable business outcomes. • Proficiency in Python, ML frameworks (Scikit-learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow), SQL, Spark, and Azure ML/Snowflake. • Experience working in highly regulated industries, with an emphasis on data governance and compliance. • Skilled at engaging with senior stakeholders, presenting technical results to diverse audiences, and driving alignment across functions. • Master’s degree required; PhD preferred. Nice to Have: • Experience in payments, FinTech, or consumer transaction data. • Prior patents or publications in