Lead Software 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 Software Engineer
Who is Mastercard?
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
Good adjustment. For a Software Engineer role, the candidate should first be seen as a Java developer who can build payment systems, with automation expertise as a key responsibility rather than the primary identity.
Overview
Payments Network Technology is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design, develop, and support payment processing applications and automation solutions. The role combines hands-on Java development with automated validation of end-to-end transaction flows across ISO 8583, tokenization, authorization, clearing, and settlement services.
Roles and Responsibilities
Design, develop, test, and support scalable Java-based applications and services.
Build and maintain automated test frameworks using Java, Cucumber, JUnit/TestNG, and API automation tools.
Develop solutions supporting authorization, tokenization, clearing, settlement, and payment processing workflows.
Create automated validation for ISO 8583 messages, transaction routing, response handling, and exception scenarios.
Participate in architecture, design, code reviews, and production support activities.
Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines to improve release quality and engineering productivity.
Troubleshoot complex payment processing issues and collaborate across engineering, product, and operations teams.
Mentor engineers and drive engineering and automation best practices across teams.
Essential Skills
Strong software development experience using Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, and distributed systems.
Experience designing, developing, and supporting enterprise-scale applications.
Hands-on experience with Cucumber, JUnit/TestNG, Rest Assured, Selenium, or similar Java-based automation frameworks.
Understanding of automated testing principles and test framework design.
Knowledge of ISO 8583 messaging and payment transaction processing.
Experience with authorization, clearing, tokenization, settlement, or related payment technologies.
Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, SQL, and cloud-native development practices.
Strong debugging, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
All About You
Hands-on Java engineer with a passion for building reliable and scalable software.
Experience combining application development with automation engineering.
Strong understanding of software quality, testing strategies, and automation-first development practices.
Ability to work effectively across globally distributed engineering, product, and operations teams.
Experience in Agile development environments.
Experience applying AI-assisted engineering tools, including GitHub Copilot and Claude CLI.
Payments or financial services experience preferred.
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.