Lead Software Architect

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 Software Architect
About the Role
We are seeking a Lead Technical Architect to define, design, and drive technology strategy across our enterprise platforms. This role requires deep expertise in Java-based open-source frameworks, cloud-native technologies (PCF, AWS/Azure/GCP), web and API integrations, and directory services. The architect will deliver highly resilient, low-latency, high-throughput systems while managing stakeholder engagement, ensuring adoption of best practices, and enabling innovation at scale.
We are looking for candidates who have deep experience in working with Local and Remote directory patterns and are well versed in architecture strategies of building Digital Platforms that used Webhooks and other related async site to site connectivity for scalable asynchronous communications.
Key Responsibilities
Lead the architecture and design of large-scale enterprise-grade systems.
Design scalable APIs and define API standards, governance, and versioning practices.
Drive resiliency, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery into all solution designs.
Architect low-latency, high-throughput systems optimized for performance at scale.
Define and implement architecture patterns (microservices, event-driven, domain-driven, API-first, cloud-native).
Establish and enforce architecture governance, standards, and reusable reference models.
Guide and mentor architects and engineering teams in API design, cloud-native deployments, and integration best practices.
Design and implement directory integration patterns (user directories, identity, federation, and synchronization).
Engage with business, product, and technology stakeholders to ensure alignment of solutions with business goals.
Evaluate emerging technologies and propose adoption strategies aligned to enterprise priorities.
Required Skills & Experience
10+ years of software development and architecture experience, with 5+ years in a lead architect role.
Strong expertise in Java, Spring Boot, REST API design, and open-source frameworks.
Hands-on experience with cloud-native application design and deployment on PCF and at least one public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Proven track record designing and delivering resilient, low-latency, high-throughput distributed systems.
Solid understanding of directory technologies (LDAP, Active Directory, federated identity, and integration patterns) and remote directory integrations.
Proficiency in web integrations, API gateways, messaging systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ), containers (Docker, Kubernetes).
Experience with DevOps/CI-CD, observability, automation, and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible, etc.).
Strong understanding of security best practices, compliance, and NFRs (availability, scalability, performance).
Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and leadership skills.
Preferred Qualifications & Certifications
Cloud Certifications: AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or Google Cloud Professional Architect.
Architecture Certifications: TOGAF, Certified Kubernetes Architect, or equivalent.
Experience in financial services, payments, or high-scale transaction platforms is a strong plus.
Exposure to modern identity/directory federation patterns and advanced AI-driven system optimization will be an advantage.
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.