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
We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer - Dev & Test (Java) to join the Developer Experience team, responsible for the Mastercard Developers portal and related tools used by developers globally.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an experienced engineer who combines strong software engineering and test automation expertise with the ability to drive quality strategy across teams. You will lead quality initiatives, influence engineering practices, and help teams deliver reliable, scalable, and production-ready software.
You will work closely with software engineers, product managers, and other engineering teams to embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle while contributing directly to design, implementation, and automation.
HOW WILL YOU WORK
You will serve as the quality and test automation lead within one or more feature teams, partnering with engineers throughout the software development lifecycle.
For each initiative, you will:
Drive quality strategy and test approach from design through production
Identify quality risks, dependencies, and release concerns early in the development process
Collaborate with engineers to improve testability, observability, and automation coverage
Lead root cause analysis of complex issues and drive long-term improvements
Design scalable automation solutions that support sustainable delivery
Mentor engineers and promote quality engineering best practices across teams
While remaining hands-on, you will also influence broader engineering standards and continuously improve how quality is delivered across the organization.
WHAT WILL YOU DO
Lead quality engineering efforts for major initiatives and business-critical features
Define and drive test automation strategy across multiple applications and services
Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks in Java
Establish quality standards, test practices, and release readiness criteria
Partner with engineering teams to improve development workflows, shift-left testing, and automation adoption
Drive improvements in CI/CD pipelines, deployment confidence, and release quality
Analyze production issues and lead quality improvement initiatives
Mentor and coach engineers in testing, automation, and quality engineering practices
Influence technical decisions and contribute to architecture discussions with a focus on reliability, scalability, and quality
WHAT YOU BRING
Significant experience in software engineering, test automation, or software development in test
Strong Java development skills with experience building automation frameworks and engineering solutions
Experience testing APIs, UI applications, distributed systems, and cloud-native services
Deep understanding of software quality practices, test strategy, and risk-based testing
Experience leading quality initiatives across multiple teams or complex projects
Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and modern software delivery
Ability to influence technical direction and drive improvements without direct authority
Strong communication and collaboration skills with engineers, product managers, and stakeholders
NICE TO HAVE
Experience with cloud platforms and microservices architectures
Experience defining engineering standards and automation strategies at scale
Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical communities of practice
Familiarity with developer platforms, API ecosystems, or developer experience tooling
Experience with performance, reliability, and observability testing
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.