Director, Software Engineering

Role Summary

Lead Quality Engineering as a strategic function across all CNPF products and platforms. Build and lead a global team of quality engineers obsessively focused on customer experience and product reliability - operating across the full stack (frontend, backend, APIs, data pipelines, AI/ML, infrastructure). Define QE strategy and ensure its execution at pace. The role is responsible for designing, developing, testing, maintaining, and enhancing Mastercard's software solutions to ensure quality, security, scalability, and performance to deliver measurable business value.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute short-term and medium-term strategic plans for Quality Engineering.
• Lead the design and delivery of complex testing solutions across full-stack applications, data systems, and infrastructure.
• Drive test automation strategy - define what to automate, at what layer, with what tooling.
• Embed quality earlier in the lifecycle (shift-left) and extend into production (shift-right).
• Define QE strategy for data products - pipeline validation, data contracts, schema drift detection, ML model quality.
• Establish evaluation and quality frameworks for AI and agentic products - guardrail testing, hallucination detection, prompt regression testing.
• Own release quality gates and define ship-or-hold criteria.
• Drive root cause analysis on production incidents and escaped defects.
• Manage budget, resource planning, and vendor relationships for QE.
• Hire, develop, and retain world-class QE talent; build compelling career paths.
• Evaluate, select, and manage QE tooling; drive build vs buy decisions.
• Stay current with industry QE practices and represent Mastercard externally.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with 7+ years focused on Quality Engineering at increasing levels of scope and leadership.
• 5+ years managing engineering teams, including managing people leaders (managers of managers).
• Demonstrated expertise across full stack application quality (API, UI, microservices) and data/ML system quality (pipelines, models, data platforms).
• Track record of defining and executing QE strategy at scale - not just running a test team, but transforming how an organization approaches quality.
• Experience in financial services, payments, or other highly regulated technology environments.
• Strong communication skills including the ability to assert quality positions to senior leadership, present to executives, and influence without authority.
• Experience with budget and resource management, including forecasting, vendor management, and build vs buy decisions.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Corporate Security Responsibility

• 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.
• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard's guidelines.