Lead Chef Automation 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 Chef Automation Engineer

Overview

The Lead Chef Automation Engineer is a hands-on technical leader responsible for designing and building scalable automation solutions for large, hybrid infrastructure environments. This role focuses on creating reusable automation frameworks using Chef, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and DevOps practices to deliver secure, consistent, and self-service infrastructure capabilities.

The ideal candidate is a strong DevOps or platform engineer with deep hands-on Chef experience who enjoys building automation solutions at scale rather than performing manual infrastructure operations.

Key Responsibilities
Design, develop, and maintain Chef cookbooks, recipes, Policyfiles, and automation frameworks across cloud and on-premises environments.
Build and maintain Chef Automate capabilities for configuration management, compliance, reporting, and fleet management.
Develop reusable automation libraries, templates, and patterns that standardize infrastructure configuration and provisioning.
Integrate automation with CI/CD pipelines, secrets management, artifact repositories, APIs, and governance controls.
Build automated testing and validation using Test Kitchen, InSpec, ChefSpec, and related tools.
Partner with cloud, platform, security, and SRE teams to establish configuration baselines, security standards, and compliance policies.
Develop and support Infrastructure as Code using technologies such as Terraform, CloudFormation, and ARM/Bicep.
Troubleshoot complex automation and configuration issues across hybrid environments.
Contribute to broader platform engineering capabilities, including self-service infrastructure, GitOps, and automated remediation.
Help establish engineering standards, reusable automation patterns, and platform architecture.
Required Qualifications
Strong experience in DevOps, platform engineering, infrastructure automation, or configuration management.
Deep hands-on experience with Chef Infra, including cookbook development, Policyfiles, Test Kitchen, and InSpec.
Experience supporting large-scale configuration management environments using Chef Server, Chef Automate, or similar technologies.
Strong understanding of Linux, operating system configuration, hardening, and lifecycle management.
Experience working across cloud and on-premises infrastructure, including AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, or Hyper-V.
Strong scripting or programming skills with Ruby, Python, Bash, or PowerShell, with Ruby particularly relevant to Chef.
Experience integrating automation into CI/CD environments such as GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps.
Strong understanding of Git-based development, testing, code review, and version-control practices.
Ability to diagnose and resolve complex infrastructure and automation problems.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with Chef Habitat and/or Chef Automate.
Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure as Code platforms.
Familiarity with policy-as-code technologies such as OPA, Conftest, or Sentinel.
Experience with security hardening, compliance automation, or CIS benchmarks.
Exposure to Kubernetes, Helm, and container platforms.
Familiarity with observability technologies such as Prometheus, Datadog, Splunk, or ELK.
Experience integrating infrastructure through APIs or network automation.
Core Technical Areas

Chef & Configuration Management: Chef Infra, Chef Automate, InSpec, Test Kitchen, Policyfiles, Ruby
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM/Bicep
DevOps & CI/CD: Git, GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, Azure DevOps
Automation & Scripting: Ruby, Python, Bash, PowerShell, APIs
Infrastructure: Linux, AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, Hyper-V
Platform Engineering: Self-service automation, configuration compliance, secrets management, observability, GitOps

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 [email protected] 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. THIS POSTING RELECTS ONE OR MORE CURRENT VACANCIES ON OUR TEAM, AND MASTERCARD INTENDS TO FILL THIS POSITION BY 01/25/2027. If the fill date has passed, Mastercard intends to fill this position as soon as possible.

Pay Ranges

O'Fallon, Missouri: $122,000 - $207,000 USD