Principal Software Engineer (Real-Time Payments)

About the role

Mastercard is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of its Real‑Time Payments (RTP) platform. You will own the technical integrity of critical services, ensuring they meet the highest standards of resiliency, correctness, and operational discipline.

Key responsibilities

• Own design and implementation decisions for complex, high‑impact platform components.
• Provide technical leadership during major incidents and complex production troubleshooting.
• Drive improvements in performance, scalability, fault tolerance, and observability.
• Raise engineering standards through design reviews, code reviews, and mentoring.
• Partner with DevOps and Operations teams to improve deployment safety and operational readiness.
• Influence long‑term platform evolution through technical credibility and sound judgment.

Required profile

• Deep hands‑on experience building and operating high‑throughput, low‑latency distributed systems.
• Strong production mindset with proven experience resolving complex live‑site issues.
• Broad technical expertise across application, messaging, and platform layers.
• Ability to influence without authority and communicate complex technical concepts clearly.
• Demonstrates Mastercard expectations for technical excellence, ownership, and collaboration.

Required skills

• Java
• Spring framework
• Functional programming languages (plus)