Lead Network Security Architect

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 Network Security Architect The Lead Network Security Architect is responsible for defining, designing, and evolving the enterprise network architecture to ensure best in class performance, reliability, and security. This role partners with other Network Architecture teams to set the strategic direction for network security platforms, develops architectural standards and roadmaps, and oversees the design and delivery of complex solutions that support a global, hybrid, and highly distributed environment. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in modern cloud networking, zero trust security models, and large scale enterprise architecture — along with the ability to influence, mentor, and partner across engineering, security, and operations teams. Key Responsibilities Develop and maintain comprehensive network architecture blueprints, standards, reference patterns, and multi-year roadmaps. Architect and design high performance, highly available, and secure network solutions aligned with enterprise strategy. Identify opportunities for modernization, optimization, and resiliency improvements across the network and security landscape. Lead and execute strategic network initiatives related to performance engineering, network security, zero trust adoption, automation, and infrastructure transformation. Define and communicate technology component standards spanning networking, security, cloud, and operating systems. Troubleshoot, analyze, and resolve complex and systemic network architecture issues; escalate rare or business impacting challenges as needed. Collaborate closely with Cloud Engineering, Information Security, Platform Engineering, Operations, and Application teams to ensure cohesive and scalable designs. Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers across teams, influencing architectural direction and best practices. Ensure architectural governance, design reviews, and adherence to standards for new and existing network implementations. All About You Education Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. A passion for working on a collaborative, innovative, and high performing Architecture team. Significant Knowledge And Experience In The Following Areas Enterprise Network Security Hands-on experience with major network and security vendors such as Palo Alto, Check Point, VMware, Illumio, and Zscaler across large scale design, deployment, and operational domains. Experience with Zero Trust architectures and methods including segmentation, identity-aware access, and secure access service edge (SASE) design patterns. Experience in global enterprise networking: LAN/WAN, routing, switching, firewalls, and encryption technologies. Experience designing and implementing large-scale network security architectures across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Demonstrated track record of delivering complex, mission critical infrastructure projects in enterprise environment. Preferred Qualifications Experience in deploying SASE solutions at a global scale. Experience with automation frameworks such as Terraform, Ansible, and infrastructure‑as‑code methodologies Familiarity with large-scale platform engineering automation patterns Exposure to integrating network and security platforms with CI/CD pipelines" Skills / Abilities Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, capable of conveying complex concepts to technical and non technical stakeholders. Self-starter with strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving abilities. Effective leader and mentor, with the ability to guide engineering teams, provide architectural direction, and foster a high-performance culture. Strong decision-making capabilities, especially in high-pressure or ambiguous technical situations. Ability to manage multiple initiatives, competing priorities, and dynamic timelines while maintaining high-quality outcomes. Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants wit