Principal Architect – Edge Platform

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
Principal Architect – Edge Platform

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.

About The Role
We are seeking a visionary and hands-on Principal Architect to lead the architecture and design of Mastercard's Edge Platform (MEP) — a globally distributed financial services edge platform. This platform handles high-throughput financial transactions using ISO8583 and ISO20022 standards, and will be deployed across thousands of global locations in cloud and on-premises environments.

Key Responsibilities

• System Architecture & Design

○ Architect scalable, secure, and high-performance edge systems for financial transaction routing.

○ Design distributed systems capable of handling persistent TCP connections, ISO message parsing, transformation, validation, and routing.

○ Define and evolve the platform's microservices architecture using Golang and gRPC.

• Platform Engineering

○ Lead development of core routing logic, timers, retries, and business logic integration.

○ Ensure seamless integration with Mastercard's backend systems via gRPC.

○ Oversee containerization and deployment strategies using Kubernetes (K8s) across cloud and customer data centers.

• Fleet Management

○ Design and implement a robust fleet management system for global deployments.

○ Ensure observability, operability, and lifecycle management of edge nodes.

• Security & Compliance

○ Collaborate with security teams to integrate platform with Mastercard's security subsystems.

○ Ensure compliance with financial regulations and data protection standards.

• Cloud & DevOps

○ Work closely with cloud infrastructure teams to define deployment pipelines, connectivity, and operational tooling.

○ Drive automation, CI/CD, and infrastructure-as-code practices.

• Cross-functional Leadership

○ Collaborate with product, engineering, and operations teams to align architecture with business goals.

○ Mentor and guide engineering teams on best practices in distributed systems, cloud-native development, and secure coding.

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience in software architecture, with deep expertise in distributed systems and edge computing.
• Strong proficiency in Golang, gRPC, and TCP/IP networking.
• Experience with ISO8583, ISO20022, or other financial messaging standards.
• Proven track record in designing and operating Kubernetes-based platforms at scale.
• Deep understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and on-premises deployments.
• Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, observability, and fleet management.
• Strong knowledge of security architecture, including authentication, authorization, and secure communication.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence across teams and geographies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in financial services or