AI software 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

AI Software Engineer

Overview
Mastercard’s AI Center of Excellence (AI COE) is seeking an AI Engineer to lead a team building production grade Agentic AI and traditional AI/ML solutions across the breadth of Mastercard’s business. You’ll lead the development of prototypes and evolve them into secure, compliant, highly available systems at global scale. This role is ideal for an engineer early in their career who’s eager to learn fast, ship meaningful features, and grow under the mentorship of senior engineers in a regulated environment.


The Role
As a key contributor to our AI and ML initiatives, you will:

• Contribute to well-defined prototype efforts and deliver production-ready features with high-quality code, tests, and CI/CD practices.
• Build core components for Agentic AI systems including RAG, embeddings, vector search, and tool/function calling, with guidance from senior engineers.
• Enhance model evaluation frameworks (offline/online, golden sets, HIL), monitor key metrics (quality, latency, cost, safety), and drive data-informed improvements.
• Collaborate on data ingestion, contracts, and catalog usage, ensuring compliance with privacy and access policies.
• Implement observability tools, guardrails, and cost controls; follow secure coding and Responsible AI practices for safety and auditability.
• Work cross-functionally with product, design, and platform teams; contribute to agile processes, documentation, and peer reviews.

All About You

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Data Science, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proficient in Python, REST, SQL, Git, Docker, and CI/CD workflows.
• Familiarity with LLMs, prompting, embeddings, RAG, and ML tools like PyTorch/TensorFlow.
• Exposure to major cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP), data lakes/warehouses, and event-driven systems (e.g., Spark, Kafka).
• Strong coding practices, iterative development mindset, and clear written/verbal communication.
• Professional hands-on experience building services, ML features, or GenAI applications.
• Hands-on with Agentic AI frameworks, prompt management, and evaluation tooling.
• Understanding of Responsible AI and safety/guardrail systems.
• Knowledge of Cloudera AI, Databricks, Spark, Delta/Unity Catalog, or similar stacks.
• Portfolio of open-source contributions, hackathons, or published work.

#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 [email protected] 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.

Pay Ranges

San Francisco, California: $110,000 - $176,000 USD

Boston, Massachusetts: $106,000 - $169,000 USD

New York City, New York: $110,000 - $176,000 USD

Purchase, New York: $106,000 - $169,000 USD

Remote - California: $92,000 - $147,000 USD

Job Posting Window

Applications for this job posting will be accepted on an ongoing basis.