Who you are

• O Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Engineering, or related (Master’s preferred), or equivalent experience
• O Years of professional experience in data engineering/platform operations
• O Hands on with Hadoop/Ozone/Cloudera, Spark, SQL (OLAP/warehouse), Python/R, and BI/Tableau
• O Expertise in ETL/ELT orchestration, CI/CD for data, and environment management (dev → test → prod)
• O Proven track record migrating to Databricks or building lakehouse architecture is required
• O Strong background using Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP) and enterprise security/compliance frameworks
• O Orchestration tools (Airflow/Databricks Jobs), dbt, and (optionally) streaming (Kafka)
• O Experience with GenAI/LLMs for data & analytics (e.g., RAG, vector search, NL→SQL), and basic LangOps/MLOps (MLflow/Model Registry)
• O Strong data governance & quality: catalog/lineage, data contracts, naming conventions, automated DQ checks, SLAs/SLOs
• O Strong communication and stakeholder management skills

What the job involves

• Mastercard Economics Institute (MEI) is seeking an experienced Lead Data Platform Engineer to lead our multiyear data strategy and own day to day data operations for a modern, research grade analytics environment
• Reporting to MEI’s VP for Applications & Innovation, you will ensure MEI’s data is well managed, well structured, well governed, documented, and reliably accessible to economists and analysts
• This is a unique opportunity for someone energized by managing large scale datasets across relational and distributed systems, automating data pipelines, and adopting new applications and platforms—while applying AI to improve data management and unlock differentiated insight
• This role ensures the integrity and accessibility of the data that underpins strategically important priorities to deliver insights, support leadership, and engage customers with precision and speed
• O Develop MEI’s multiyear data strategy aligned to business objectives in Economics, Product, and Customer Engagement
• O Liaise with Mastercard Technology (BizOps, Data Platform, DB Admins, Security, Networking) to align on access to centralized datasets and data access technology, standards, timelines, and support models
• O Standardize data and platforms orchestration and usage. Maintain compliance with data security, privacy, and regulatory requirements
• O Own day to day operations for MEI data environments (Hadoop/Ozone/Cloudera; SQL; R/Python; Tableau) and Databricks (lakehouse architecture, Spark jobs, Splunk Catalog, Delta, etc.). Design, build, and run ETL/ELT pipelines for automated data refresh across internal and external datasets
• O Define and implement data quality standards (accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency, uniqueness) with automated checks, alerts, and remediation workflows
• O Create templates, starter kits, and documentation to reduce onboarding friction and enable independence

Benefits

• Gym membership
• Pension plan
• Share purchase options
• Extra holiday purchase optional
• 25 days holiday (excl. bank holidays)
• Work from home opportunities
• Health insurance