Lead AI Engineer

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, 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 AI Engineer

Job Description Summary

Overview
As a Lead AI Engineer at Mastercard, you will take ownership of platform support for our AI solutions and use cases, playing a key role in designing, developing, and scaling AI services that turn innovative ideas into reliable, production-ready components. Collaborating closely with data scientists and cross-functional teams, you’ll help deliver scalable and efficient AI capabilities that are seamlessly embedded within Mastercard’s broader ecosystem. This position is an excellent opportunity for someone eager to grow, expand their expertise, and become a recognized leader in the AI space.

Role & Key Responsibilities
• Provide platform level support for AI use cases across Microsoft Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Databricks, AWS, Azure, etc., helping teams adopt standards, tooling, and governance that enable rapid development and deployment across the organization.
• Lead the end-to-end design and development of AI powered services, focusing on modularity, scalability, and reusability to support various business units and applications.
• Drive the transition of AI models from notebook based PoCs and experimental phases into hardened, production grade components and services, ensuring performance, reliability, and maintainability.
• Design and implement robust APIs for AI services, facilitating seamless integration with existing Mastercard platforms and external systems.
• Identify and address performance bottlenecks within AI microservices and their underlying infrastructure, optimizing for latency, throughput, and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate closely with data scientists, MLOps engineers, product owners, and external partners to translate business requirements into technical specifications for agentic AI services.
• Mentor junior engineers on best practices for AI software development and scaling.
• Implement rigorous testing strategies, including unit, integration, and performance testing, to ensure the quality, accuracy, and stability of deployed AI microservices.

All about you/experience
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field. Master’s degree preferred.
• Professional experience in software development with a focus on building and deploying AI/ML powered applications or microservices in production environments.
• Proficiency in MSFT Power Platform, Copilot Studio, AWS, Databricks, etc. tools and practices tailored for AI/ML systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python.
• Extensive experience designing, developing, and deploying RESTful APIs and microservices.
• Solid understanding of the AI/ML lifecycle, from data preparation and model training to deployment and monitoring.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment of software and AI models.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to effectively articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives, drive cross functional projects, and influence outcomes within a fast-paced environment.

#AI1

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

O'Fallon, Missouri: $140,000 - $231,000 USD