Vice President, Software Engineering - Decision Management Program

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

Vice President, Software Engineering - Decision Management Program

Join Mastercard's Services Technology organization as an engineering leader for the Decision Management Program (DMP)-a patented, real-time decisioning platform that powers fraud prevention, risk scoring, and identity verification across the global payments network. The platform processes billions of transactions each month, consistently delivering results in milliseconds to support mission critical business solutions.

In this role, you will guide the strategy, architecture, and delivery of new capabilities for a platform at the core of Mastercard's fraud and identity products. You will lead global engineering teams, drive modernization across cloud and on prem environments, and advance a highly scalable architecture leveraging In-Memory data grids and real time processing technologies.


This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of Mastercard's decisioning ecosystem-advancing innovative, high-performance solutions and driving engineering and operational excellence across a critical real-time platform

Responsibilities:
• Define and drive the engineering vision and In-Memory data grid strategy for the Decision Management Platform.
• Lead and grow global engineering teams across multiple regions, ensuring alignment, collaboration, and delivery excellence.
• Partner with Product, Architecture, Security, and Operations to shape platform direction and execution priorities.
• Oversee the design and development of high throughput, low latency, Java-based distributed systems that power fraud prevention and identity solutions.
• Lead modernization across cloud and on prem environments, ensuring scalability, resiliency, and world class performance.
• Champion engineering and operational excellence, including reliability, observability, performance tuning, and incident management.
• Improve system uptime, latency, throughput, and deployment efficiency through data driven KPIs.
• Recruit, develop, and retain top engineering talent while fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and execution.
• Provide coaching and mentorship to senior engineers, architects, and team leads.
• Implement enhanced engineering processes, SDLC best practices, governance models, and quality standards.
• Manage delivery timelines, resource planning, and budgets across multiple complex programs.

Qualifications:
Technical Expertise
• Strong hands-on background in Java, enterprise programming, and distributed systems architecture.
• Prior experience as an Architect or Technical Lead for large-scale, real-time enterprise platforms.
• Deep expertise in high volume, low latency transaction processing systems.
• Advanced experience with In Memory Data Grid (IMDG) technologies, including:
oVMware GemFire / Apache Geode
oHazelcast
oRedis
• Strong data engineering and data architecture skills, including real time pipelines, event streaming, telemetry, and stateful data systems.
• Experience working across cloud, on prem, and hybrid environments with modern DevOps tooling.
• Background leading architecture for global, distributed, mission critical platforms.

Leadership Capabilities
• Demonstrated success leading global engineering organizations across multiple time zones.
• Ability to drive both engineering excellence (architecture, quality, design) and operational excellence (SRE practices, scaling, performance).
• Skilled in setting strategic direction, building roadmaps, and influencing senior stakeholders across functions.

Execution & Communication
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills across executive, business, and technical audiences.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills, with the ability to manage ambiguity and complex problem spaces.
• Highly organized, able to manage multiple strategic initiatives and priorities simultaneously.

This is a hybrid position based in Mastercard's O'Fallon Main Campus, requiring three days on-site per week.


#LI-TE1

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 View email address on click.appcast.io 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: $212,000 - $339,000 USD