Lead, Kubernetes Platform Engineer

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
Lead, Kubernetes Platform Engineer
Overview
Mastercard's Kubernetes Platform Engineering team is seeking a highly skilled Lead Kubernetes Platform Engineer to drive the strategy, architecture, and evolution of our enterprise container platform. This role is responsible for designing, building, and operating cloud-native platform capabilities across Amazon EKS and Azure AKS while enabling secure, scalable, and resilient application delivery at global scale.
As a technical leader, you will serve as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert for Kubernetes, GitOps, platform automation, service mesh, and cloud-native engineering practices. You will lead complex initiatives, guide architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and partner with Architecture, Security, SRE, and Product teams to accelerate adoption of modern platform capabilities across Mastercard. Role
Platform Architecture & Engineering• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of enterprise Kubernetes platform capabilities across AWS and Azure.• Define and evolve platform standards for cluster lifecycle management, networking, workload identity, security, observability, and resiliency.• Drive the long-term technical vision and roadmap for Mastercard's multi-cloud Kubernetes ecosystem.• Champion cloud-native design patterns and engineering best practices across the organization.
Platform Automation & Developer Experience• Own the enterprise GitOps strategy leveraging Argo CD, ApplicationSets, and multi-cluster fleet management.• Design and implement reusable platform services, automation frameworks, and Infrastructure-as-Code solutions using CDK and Bicep.• Improve developer experience through self-service platform capabilities and standardized deployment workflows.• Lead adoption of progressive delivery practices including canary, blue/green, and traffic-managed deployments.
Technical Leadership• Serve as a lead technical authority for Kubernetes and platform engineering initiatives.• Lead architecture reviews, design discussions, and engineering best-practice adoption.• Mentor engineers and provide technical guidance to help develop next-generation platform talent.• Influence technical direction across multiple teams and partner organizations.
Reliability, Security & Operations• Drive operational excellence through automation, monitoring, observability, and continuous improvement.• Lead troubleshooting and resolution of complex distributed systems issues across multi-cloud environments.• Ensure platform solutions meet reliability, compliance, security, and scalability requirements.• Establish operational standards, runbooks, and engineering practices that improve platform health and sustainability.
Collaboration & Enterprise Impact• Partner with Architecture, Security, Infrastructure, and application teams to align platform capabilities with business objectives.• Communicate technical strategy and recommendations to engineering leadership and stakeholders.• Build consensus across teams to accelerate enterprise cloud-native transformation initiatives.All About You
Technical Expertise• Proven experience designing, building, and operating large-scale Kubernetes platforms in enterprise environments.• Deep expertise with Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, container orchestration, networking, and cloud-native architectures.• Strong hands-on experience with Argo CD, GitOps methodologies, ApplicationSets, and multi-cluster management.• Advanced knowledge of Kubernetes networking, ingress architectures, Gateway API, and traffic management.• Expertise with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation technologies including CDK, Bicecp, Helm, and CI/CD tooling.• Experience implementing progressive delivery strategies utilizing Argo Rollouts, Flagger, or similar technologies.• Strong understanding of observability, policy management, security controls, and Kubernetes ecosystem tooling.
Leadership & Execution• Demonstrated ability to lead large, complex engineering initiatives involving multiple stakeholders and teams.• Recognized technical leader with a track record of influencing architecture and engineering standards.• Experience mentoring engineers and elevating team technical capabilities.• Proven ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on technical execution.• Strong problem-solving skills and experience resolving complex platform and infrastructure challenges.
Business & Stakeholder Impact• Strong understanding of system ownership, platform lifecycle management, and long-term technical health.• Ability to make sound technical trade-offs that balance scalability, security, reliability, and business value.• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.• Passion for continuous improvement, automation, operational excellence, and customer-centric platform delivery.
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 [email protected] 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.
Pay Ranges
O'Fallon, Missouri: $122,000 - $207,000 USD