Director of Engineering

Mastercard • New York, NY

10d

About The Position

We are looking for a world-class Director of Architecture to lead architecture for Mastercard Checkout Services — one of Mastercard’s most strategic and technically complex platforms. This is a rare opportunity to help define how digital checkout works globally for the next decade. You will set the architectural direction, drive modernization, influence cross-organizational decisions, and guide a team of highly skilled architects through deep technical and strategic challenges. Join us if you want to: • Shape the north-star architecture of a global-scale platform. • Solve complex challenges around security, resilience, performance, multi-system interactions, and long-term sustainability. • Play a central leadership role in Mastercard’s digital commerce evolution. • Build and mentor a high-caliber architecture team that partners deeply with Product, Engineering, SRE, Security, and the global Architecture & Technology group. This role is for leaders who thrive on complexity, scale, ambiguity, and impact — and who want their work to matter across the entire digital ecosystem.

Requirements

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering and architecture, including leadership roles on complex, mission-critical platforms.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures, and cloud-native technologies.
• Strong grounding in security, secure SDLC, PCI considerations, and compliance-driven architecture.
• Proven experience driving large-scale modernization initiatives and setting long-term technical direction.
• Exceptional communication, executive presence, and ability to simplify complex technical topics for senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated success in leading and developing senior architects, principal engineers, or technical leaders.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with fintech, digital payments, authentication, or identity systems.
• Background in high-scale transaction platforms or federated architectural environments.
• Familiarity with reliability engineering, observability platforms, and operational excellence practices.
• Prior leadership in an organization undergoing significant platform evolution or transformation.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the MACS north-star architecture and multi-year technical roadmap.
• Translate business objectives into cohesive architectural themes and platform strategies.
• Drive modernization across cloud-native patterns, resilience, eventing, API evolution, and platform unification.
• Lead architecture governance including Budgetary Guidance, high-level design reviews, architectural quality gates, and cross-platform alignment.
• Establish rigorous standards, principles, and reusable reference patterns that raise overall design quality.
• Ensure all solutions meet Mastercard’s expectations for security, compliance, availability, performance, and operability.
• Champion the long-term health of the MACS platform by proactively identifying systemic risks, single points of failure, and technical debt.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and guide strategic technology investments.
• Partner with Security, SRE, and Infrastructure to strengthen resilience, observability, and operational readiness.
• Work closely with Product, TPM, and Engineering leaders to align roadmaps, ensure clarity of scope, and support delivery planning.
• Influence senior leadership on architecture trade-offs, risk posture, and long-term technical decisions.
• Represent MACS architecture in Mastercard’s global Architecture & Technology councils and strategic forums.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing architecture team covering multiple technical specialties.
• Foster a culture of innovation, technical depth, accountability, and proactive problem-solving.
• Build career ladders, strengthen architectural judgment, and elevate technical maturity across teams.

Benefits

• insurance (including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, disability, life insurance)
• flexible spending account and health savings account
• paid leaves (including 16 weeks of new parent leave and up to 20 days of bereavement leave)
• 80 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time, 25 days of vacation time and 5 personal days, pro-rated based on date of hire
• 10 annual paid U.S. observed holidays
• 401k with a best-in-class company match
• deferred compensation for eligible roles
• fitness reimbursement or on-site fitness facilities
• eligibility for tuition reimbursement

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed