Principal Software Engineer

Mastercard • Vancouver, BC

4d • CA$138,000 - CA$221,000

About The Position

The Principal Engineer shapes technical architecture, solution patterns, and engineering approaches for strategic initiatives within Mastercard’s Security Solutions Organization (SSO). Sitting within Solutions Engineering, the role partners across Product, Engineering, Data Science, Security, and Platform teams to turn business opportunities into practical architecture concepts, reusable patterns, and prototypes. The role is primarily strategic but includes hands-on prototyping to validate concepts and accelerate decisions. It supports a range of emerging capabilities with a strong emphasis on reusability and cross-product platform thinking. Agentic Trust Data, Platforms & Non Network Intelligence is a key focus area, and this role will help define the architecture patterns and reusable foundations that enable Mastercard’s agentic and AI-driven solutions to scale.

Requirements

• Extensive experience designing, building, and supporting production software.
• Strong background as a software architect, principal engineer, or senior technical lead.
• Deep knowledge of modern architecture, APIs, distributed systems, cloud-native platforms, and security.
• Strong PDLC experience across discovery, architecture, delivery, and production readiness.
• Hands-on experience building prototypes, proofs of concept, or reference implementations.
• Comfortable using AI-assisted coding tools to accelerate development and validation.
• Skilled at translating complex needs into practical technical approaches.
• Strong communicator across engineering, product, business, and executive audiences.
• Able to influence technical direction across teams without direct authority.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in payments, commerce, fraud, identity, cybersecurity, or trust platforms preferred.
• Experience with agentic commerce, AI agents, or generative AI is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Define solution architectures, reusable patterns, and shared components across SSO initiatives.
• Translate product and business needs into clear engineering concepts and architecture options.
• Evaluate trade-offs across scalability, security, interoperability, and maintainability.
• Identify connective architecture and reusable capabilities across products and platforms.
• Apply strong PDLC experience to move initiatives from concept through validation to production readiness.
• Partner with Product and Engineering teams to clarify technical requirements, dependencies, and risks.
• Ensure architecture decisions account for real-world delivery, supportability, and platform evolution.
• Build prototypes and proofs of concept to validate architecture assumptions and demonstrate feasibility.
• Use AI-assisted coding to accelerate exploration and development.
• Explore emerging technologies, with particular attention to agentic commerce, AI agents, non-network intelligence, modern APIs, and cloud-native platforms.
• Distinguish prototype work from production-grade implementation while informing product and engineering direction.
• Create clear architecture diagrams, technical narratives, and decision materials for varied audiences.
• Present concepts and recommendations to engineers, product leaders, and senior stakeholders.
• Drive cross-functional alignment and serve as a trusted technical advisor.

Benefits

• Competitive pay based on location, experience and other qualifications for the role
• May be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program

What This Job Offers

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