Lead PostgreSQL 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

Lead PostgreSQL Engineer

Overview
The Database Engineering team is seeking a Lead Platform Engineer to lead the design, engineering, automation, modernization, and operational excellence of Mastercard's enterprise database platforms.
This role combines deep expertise in PostgreSQL database technologies with Platform Engineering practices to build and operate secure, scalable, highly available database services that power Mastercard's global applications. The successful candidate will provide technical leadership, define engineering standards, drive automation initiatives, improve platform reliability, and advance cloud-native database capabilities across the organization.
The role partners closely with software engineers, architects, security teams, Site Reliability Engineers, and business stakeholders to deliver resilient database platforms while improving developer experience through automation, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD enablement, and operational excellence. This aligns with the expectations of the Platform Engineering job family, including ownership of cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, security, automation, troubleshooting, and continuous platform improvement.
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About the Role
The Lead Platform Engineer, Database Engineering is responsible for the strategy, architecture, implementation, lifecycle management, and continuous improvement of Mastercard's enterprise database platforms.
This individual will serve as the technical lead for PostgreSQL platforms while contributing to the modernization and support of Oracle, Cassandra, MongoDB, Redis, and cloud-native database technologies. The role requires expertise in platform engineering, cloud infrastructure engineering, Infrastructure as Code, automation, distributed systems, performance optimization, security, and operational excellence.
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Key Responsibilities
• Lead the design, implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of enterprise database platforms.
• Serve as the primary technical leader for PostgreSQL, including Open Source PostgreSQL, EnterpriseDB (EDB), and AWS Aurora PostgreSQL.
• Design highly available, secure, scalable, and resilient database solutions using modern platform engineering principles.
• Engineer and support cloud infrastructure and cloud-native database services across AWS and hybrid environments.
• Drive Infrastructure as Code (IaC) adoption and platform automation using Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, Chef, XLR, and related technologies.
• Build and enhance CI/CD integration for database provisioning, deployments, upgrades, testing, and operational workflows.
• Develop automation solutions that improve platform velocity, reliability, consistency, and operational efficiency.
• Design and maintain database infrastructure supporting distributed systems, microservices-based applications, and cloud-native architectures.
• Perform advanced troubleshooting, root cause analysis, performance analysis, capacity planning, tuning, backup, recovery, and disaster recovery planning.
• Establish monitoring, observability, reliability, and operational health frameworks for database services.
• Collaborate with software engineering and platform teams to provide architecture guidance, technical consultation, and platform support.
• Define and implement database engineering standards, configuration management practices, governance processes, and operational procedures.
• Ensure database platforms meet security requirements, risk controls, audit standards, regulatory requirements, and compliance obligations.
• Evaluate emerging database technologies and contribute to platform roadmaps, proof-of-concepts, and modernization initiatives.
• Lead complex technical initiatives spanning multiple teams and regions.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence through coaching, knowledge sharing, and technical leadership.
• Champion Agile delivery practices, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across database engineering services.
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About You
Technical & Functional Skills
• Deep expertise in PostgreSQL architecture, administration, replication, performance tuning, high availability, disaster recovery, and security.
• Strong experience with AWS Aurora PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB (EDB).
• Expertise in cloud infrastructure engineering and enterprise-scale platform operations.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment methodologies.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management tools including Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, Chef, and related technologies.
• Experience building and supporting distributed systems and cloud-native platforms.
• Working knowledge of container platforms such as Kubernetes and OpenShift.
• Strong Linux/Unix system administration and software scripting skills.
• Experience with software programming and automation development.
• Understanding of microservices architectures and modern platform engineering practices.
• Expertise in troubleshooting, performance analysis, root cause analysis, and operational problem solving.
• Experience implementing security requirements, risk controls, platform hardening, and compliance standards.
• Experience supporting enterprise database technologies including Oracle, Cassandra, MongoDB, Redis, and cloud-native database services.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, collaboration, and influencing skills.
• Experience leading strategic initiatives and driving technology modernization across geographically distributed teams.
• Demonstrated commitment to Agile methodologies, IT Service Management, and operational excellence.

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 reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com 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: $122,000 - $207,000 USD