Contract Mastercard Software Engineer Jobs in Reston, VA

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we're helping build asustainableeconomy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactionssecure, 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 EngineerOverview:
The Accelerators group under the Business & Market Insights - Platform Engineering program at Mastercard is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to drive high-impact technical initiatives that accelerate delivery, improve platform scalability, and enable innovation across the organization.
The Accelerators group is leading from the front in making meaningful contributions that allow the B&MI organization to go "faster." This team is intentionally agile and flexible, not defined by a single technology stack, domain, or rigid process. Instead, it is composed of self-starters and self-unblockers who focus on delivering outcomes while continuously improving how those outcomes shape the next phase of platform evolution.
If you're seeking an opportunity to impact a business unit across platform engineering, DevOps, software engineering, and process transformation-while also mentoring and growing others-this position is for you.
This is a hybrid role based in Arlington, VA, requiring three days per week onsite.
Role:
Make foundational changes to the CI/CD pipelines and practices at Mastercard to improve reliability, address common use cases, and deliver market facing solutions faster
Develop reusable engineering patterns, frameworks, and tools that improve developer experience and accelerate delivery across teams.
Drive modernization and optimization of SDLC/PDLC practices through intentional AI adoption and AI-first engineering initiatives.
Identify and implement process improvements that increase engineering velocity, quality, and operational efficiency.
Mentor and guide engineers across Mastercard's engineering community, promoting best practices and technical excellence.
Collaborate across platform, product, and engineering teams to align technical solutions with business objectives.
Contribute to architectural decisions that enable scalability, resilience, and long-term platform evolution.
Support DevOps and platform engineering initiatives to improve system reliability, automation, and deployment efficiency.
All About You:
Extensive experience as a Software Engineer, Full-Stack Engineer, or Platform Engineer in fast-paced, collaborative environments.
Strong full-stack development experience across modern stacks (e.g., .NET, Java, React, JavaScript, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or similar technologies)
Proven experience designing and building scalable backend services, APIs, and distributed systems.
Strong experience in cloud environments (AWS and/or Azure), with hands-on experience building and deploying cloud-native applications.
Deep DevOps and platform engineering experience, including CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and deployment automation.
Experience with API management, gateway technologies, secrets management, and infrastructure tooling.
Strong understanding of Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) and ability to improve engineering workflows end-to-end.
Experience working with large-scale data systems, including ETL pipelines and high-volume data processing environments.
Demonstrated ability to identify and implement engineering efficiency improvements across teams or platforms.
Strong interest in AI-enabled engineering, including workflow automation, developer productivity, and SDLC augmentation.
Experience working in Agile environments with cross-functional teams and iterative delivery models.
Proven ability to lead technical initiatives, manage complex engineering efforts, or drive platform-level improvements.
Experience mentoring or coaching engineers and contributing to technical team growth.
Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving skills, and ability to operate effectively in ambiguous or evolving environments.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Equivalent practical experience will be considered.Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.

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.

In line with Mastercard's total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in the US, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive base salary and may be eligible for an annual bonus or commissions depending on the role. The base salary offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including but not limited to location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Mastercard benefits for full time (and certain part time) employees generally include: 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; and many more. Mastercard benefits for interns generally include: 56 hours of Paid Sick and Safe Time; jury duty leave; and on-site fitness facilities in some locations.

Pay Ranges

Arlington, Virginia: $161,000 - $266,000 USD