Mastercard is a global leader in powering economies and empowering individuals across more than 200 countries. We are dedicated to building a sustainable economy where everyone can thrive, offering secure, simple, and smart digital payment solutions. Our unique combination of technology, innovation, and strategic partnerships delivers products and services that help individuals, businesses, and governments reach their full potential.

As a Principal Software Engineer within Mastercard's Security Solutions Organization (SSO), you will play a pivotal role in shaping technical strategy and driving innovation. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Product, Engineering, Data Science, Security, and Platform, to transform business opportunities into robust architectural concepts and reusable solutions. This role emphasizes strategic thinking alongside hands-on prototyping to validate ideas and expedite decision-making, with a particular focus on agentic trust data, platforms, and non-network intelligence to enable the scaling of AI-driven solutions.

Define and champion solution architectures, reusable patterns, and shared components across SSO initiatives, translating complex business needs into clear engineering concepts.

Evaluate critical trade-offs concerning scalability, security, interoperability, and maintainability, ensuring architecture decisions are production-ready and consider long-term platform evolution.

Develop prototypes and proofs of concept to validate architectural assumptions, employing AI-assisted coding to accelerate exploration and development of emerging technologies like agentic commerce and AI agents.

Communicate architectural vision and recommendations effectively through clear diagrams and narratives, influencing technical direction and fostering alignment across diverse engineering, product, and business stakeholders.

A strong background as a software architect, principal engineer, or senior technical lead with extensive experience designing, building, and supporting production software is essential.

Possess deep knowledge of modern architectural principles, APIs, distributed systems, cloud-native platforms, and security best practices, coupled with robust Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) experience.

Demonstrated hands-on experience in building prototypes or proofs of concept, and proficiency in using AI-assisted coding tools to enhance development efficiency.

Excellent communication skills are required to translate complex requirements into practical technical approaches and influence technical strategies across teams without direct authority. Experience in payments, commerce, fraud, identity, or cybersecurity platforms is highly advantageous.