Lead the architecture and engineering standards for scalable data platforms and pipelines. Provide technical direction, conduct design reviews, and oversee Databricks administration, CI/CD, DataOps, observability, deployment, migration, and upgrades. Resolve complex platform challenges, mentor engineers, strengthen code quality, and partner with stakeholders on roadmaps and technical trade-offs. The role requires deep expertise in Databricks, Spark, Python, PySpark, dbt, and engineering governance.
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 Data Engineer
Who is Mastercard?
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
Overview
Mastercard is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to join our team in Hyderabad, India. This is a senior individual-contributor and technical leadership role that drives design standards and guides a team's engineering practices. It will appeal to you if you combine deep technical mastery with the ability to lead the technical direction of a team and elevate its overall engineering quality.
You will set the technical bar for how we build and operate data platforms at scale, balancing hands-on architecture with team leadership. Our teams are small, agile, and focused on the needs of the high growth fintech marketplace, and you will work across functional teams within Mastercard to deliver on our cloud strategy.
Key Responsibilities
Set and enforce design standards, patterns, and best practices for pipelines built on Databricks, Spark, Python, PySpark, and dbt.
Provide technical leadership and direction to a team of engineers, owning architecture and design reviews.
Lead the design of CI/CD (GitLab, Jenkins), DataOps, and data observability strategy for the team.
Own Databricks platform administration standards and deployment governance using Databricks Asset Bundles.
Drive resolution of complex technical challenges across pipelines and the platform.
Mentor and grow engineers, establishing a strong code review and quality culture.
Partner with product and stakeholders on roadmap, prioritization, and technical trade-offs.
Own the deployment, migration, and upgrade strategy for the team's data platforms.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science or a related technical field.
8+ years of data engineering experience, including demonstrated technical leadership.
Expert hands-on experience with Databricks (including administration), Spark, Python, and PySpark.
Deep dbt/TDD and CI/CD (GitLab, Jenkins) expertise.
Proven ability to define engineering standards and lead a team's practices.
Strong architecture and platform ownership across observability, cost, and performance.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
Ideally you have experience in banking, e-commerce, credit cards or payment processing and exposure to both SaaS and premises-based architectures. In addition, you have a post-secondary degree in computer science, mathematics, or quantitative science.
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:
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 Data Engineer
Who is Mastercard?
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
Overview
Mastercard is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to join our team in Hyderabad, India. This is a senior individual-contributor and technical leadership role that drives design standards and guides a team's engineering practices. It will appeal to you if you combine deep technical mastery with the ability to lead the technical direction of a team and elevate its overall engineering quality.
You will set the technical bar for how we build and operate data platforms at scale, balancing hands-on architecture with team leadership. Our teams are small, agile, and focused on the needs of the high growth fintech marketplace, and you will work across functional teams within Mastercard to deliver on our cloud strategy.
Key Responsibilities
Set and enforce design standards, patterns, and best practices for pipelines built on Databricks, Spark, Python, PySpark, and dbt.
Provide technical leadership and direction to a team of engineers, owning architecture and design reviews.
Lead the design of CI/CD (GitLab, Jenkins), DataOps, and data observability strategy for the team.
Own Databricks platform administration standards and deployment governance using Databricks Asset Bundles.
Drive resolution of complex technical challenges across pipelines and the platform.
Mentor and grow engineers, establishing a strong code review and quality culture.
Partner with product and stakeholders on roadmap, prioritization, and technical trade-offs.
Own the deployment, migration, and upgrade strategy for the team's data platforms.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science or a related technical field.
8+ years of data engineering experience, including demonstrated technical leadership.
Expert hands-on experience with Databricks (including administration), Spark, Python, and PySpark.
Deep dbt/TDD and CI/CD (GitLab, Jenkins) expertise.
Proven ability to define engineering standards and lead a team's practices.
Strong architecture and platform ownership across observability, cost, and performance.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
Ideally you have experience in banking, e-commerce, credit cards or payment processing and exposure to both SaaS and premises-based architectures. In addition, you have a post-secondary degree in computer science, mathematics, or quantitative science.
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.
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What you need to know about the Los Angeles Tech Scene
Los Angeles is a global leader in entertainment, so it’s no surprise that many of the biggest players in streaming, digital media and game development call the city home. But the city boasts plenty of non-entertainment innovation as well, with tech companies spanning verticals like AI, fintech, e-commerce and biotech. With major universities like Caltech, UCLA, USC and the nearby UC Irvine, the city has a steady supply of top-flight tech and engineering talent — not counting the graduates flocking to Los Angeles from across the world to enjoy its beaches, culture and year-round temperate climate.
Key Facts About Los Angeles Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 375,800; 5.5% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Snap, Netflix, SpaceX, Disney, Google
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, adtech, media, software, game development
- Funding Landscape: $11.6 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Strong Ventures, Fifth Wall, Upfront Ventures, Mucker Capital, Kittyhawk Ventures
- Research Centers and Universities: California Institute of Technology, UCLA, University of Southern California, UC Irvine, Pepperdine, California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, Center for Quantum Science and Engineering
