Principal 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
Principal Software Engineer
Job Overview
You'll join the Real Time Payments (RTP) Platform, Tooling & Engineering Enablement team as a senior technical individual contributor. We uplift engineering across RTP and act as a force multiplier for the program. We align RTP to Mastercard standards and push beyond them across platform, CI/CD, and governance, while driving developer experience and AI enablement. You'll bring deep SME knowledge and experience to complex and open problems across the RTP program. You'll work with many teams across RTP Engineering, while owning your time and output.
How success is measured
The Team Is Measured On Four Key Areas
Developer Experience – DX improves across RTP and stays above the Mastercard benchmark
Innovation & Architecture – the right technology comes into RTP, and what works is shared back with the enterprise
AI Enablement – AI is adopted consistently and acts as a force multiplier across RTP
Standards & Governance – Mastercard and RTP standards embedded, with teams, including our own, held to them
Major Accountabilities
Bring SME expertise to drive significant improvements to how RTP builds, tests, and ships software
Architect secure, resilient, and scalable solutions with clear, well-documented designs
Take on open and uncertain problems, analysing data and areas of failure or inefficiency, and turn findings into clear recommendations
Look ahead at engineering practice, identifying where approved technology can improve how RTP works
Drive practical AI adoption across RTP Engineering teams using approved tools
Help embed standards and governance by driving adoption, auditing how we work, and turning gaps into actions we own or items for the program tech roadmap
Support program-wide teams, customers, and initiatives
Make complex technical topics accessible to leadership through clear communication and reporting
Coach and mentor engineers across cross-functional teams
Education
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or Engineering, or equivalent experience
Knowledge / Experience
Strong experience in software engineering and architecture, with Java desired
Strong experience in platform engineering and cloud
Strong experience in CI/CD
Experience in technical leadership, setting direction on complex technical problems
Experience using AI in day-to-day engineering, such as AI coding assistants and agents, and driving its adoption across teams
Experience embedding engineering standards, including design, secure coding, and testing
Experience preparing and delivering executive-level presentations to business and technology audiences
Experience mentoring and developing engineers in a high-performance culture
Experience influencing teams without direct authority
Knowledge of payments, or experience working in a regulated industry
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.

Work arrangement
Hybrid