Principal Data 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
Principal Data Engineer
Principal Data Engineer | Data Platform Architecture | Distributed Data Processing
Role Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Data Engineer to lead the architecture, engineering, and modernization of Mastercard's Rewards Data Platform, supporting 400+ customers globally and processing millions of transactions daily.
This role serves as a senior technical leader responsible for defining data engineering strategy, architecture standards, workflow orchestration frameworks, and scalable data processing solutions that support critical business operations. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in distributed data processing, data integration, data modeling, and data platform architecture, while influencing engineering best practices across teams and programs.
The successful candidate will operate as a recognized subject matter expert, providing hands-on technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance in complex, large-scale, and evolving environments.
Key Responsibilities:
Data Platform Architecture & Modernization
Define and drive the strategic architecture for enterprise-scale data platforms and data ecosystems.
Lead modernization initiatives from legacy platforms to scalable, cloud-native data architectures.
Establish standards and best practices for data modeling, data integration, data storage, governance, security, and operational excellence.
Design scalable and resilient solutions supporting transactional, analytical, and operational workloads.
Identify technical debt and develop modernization roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
Influence architecture decisions across engineering teams, partner platforms, and enterprise initiatives.
Data Engineering & Distributed Data Processing
Architect and guide high-volume batch and real-time data processing solutions.
Design and optimize distributed data processing frameworks for large-scale workloads.
Lead implementation of ETL/ELT pipelines, workflow orchestration, data ingestion, transformation, reconciliation, and integration capabilities.
Establish standards for data quality, lineage, monitoring, validation, auditing, and error handling.
Drive performance optimization, scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency across data platforms.
Support solutions involving Data Lakes, Lakehouse architectures, relational databases, NoSQL platforms, streaming technologies, and cloud data services.
Workflow Orchestration & Data Integration
Define enterprise patterns for workflow orchestration and workflow management across critical business processes.
Design automated, scalable, and resilient workflows that coordinate data movement, processing, and downstream consumption.
Enable seamless integration across internal systems, partner platforms, and enterprise services.
Improve operational efficiency through automation, monitoring, and workflow optimization.
Ensure reliable execution, dependency management, fault tolerance, and recovery mechanisms across data workflows.
Data Security & Governance
Ensure data platforms adhere to enterprise security, privacy, compliance, and governance standards.
Define and implement controls for data protection, access management, auditability, and regulatory compliance.
Promote best practices for secure data design, storage, processing, and transmission.
Partner with security and compliance teams to maintain enterprise-grade data controls.
Technical Leadership
Provide hands-on leadership for complex data engineering and platform initiatives.
Conduct architecture and design reviews to ensure consistency, scalability, and engineering quality.
Develop reusable frameworks, standards, and engineering accelerators.
Mentor engineers and technical leaders on data engineering, workflow orchestration, distributed systems, and platform best practices.
Shape engineering standards and influence strategic technology decisions across multiple teams and programs.
Required Experience & Skills
Technical Expertise:
Proven experience as a Principal Data Engineer, Lead Data Engineer, or Data Architect in enterprise-scale environments.
Deep expertise in:
Workflow Orchestration
Distributed Data Processing
Data Engineering
Data Integration
Data Lakes and Lakehouse Architectures
Data Modeling
Database Design
Data Security
Workflow Management
Strong experience with technologies such as:
Apache Spark
Databricks
Hadoop Ecosystem
Kafka or Streaming Platforms
Relational and NoSQL Databases
Cloud Data Platforms
Experience designing and operating high-volume, mission-critical, multi-tenant data platforms.
Strong knowledge of ETL/ELT frameworks, data pipelines, workflow automation, and distributed data architectures.
Experience with Azure, AWS, or GCP cloud environments.
Understanding of Kubernetes/OpenShift, CI/CD, observability, and platform automation.
Strong focus on performance, scalability, resiliency, operational excellence, and secure-by-design principles.
Leadership & Influence
Recognized subject matter expert with the ability to lead in complex and evolving technical environments.
Experience defining engineering standards, best practices, and architectural frameworks.
Proven ability to influence decisions across organizations and multiple engineering teams.
Strong mentoring and coaching experience for engineers and technical leaders.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience supporting large-scale financial services, payments, loyalty, or rewards platforms.
Experience with enterprise Data Lake, Lakehouse, and distributed processing platforms.
Experience leading cloud migration and data platform modernization initiatives.
Familiarity with analytics platforms and AI/ML data enablement.
Experience working in highly regulated environments with strong security and compliance requirements.
Level Expectation (Expert/Strategic Leadership): Acts as a recognized subject matter expert, applies expertise in ambiguous and complex environments, shapes organizational best practices, drives strategic technical direction, and regularly mentors and develops other engineers.
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.