Title and Summary

Lead Mainframe Storage Engineer

Based on Mastercard's documented lead-role responsibilities around operational ownership, technical direction, risk management, capacity management, audit support, and cross-functional coordination, a Storage Team Lead role should combine hands-on technical leadership with people leadership, governance, and operational accountability.
Storage Engineering Lead
Position Summary
The Storage Engineering Lead is responsible for the technical leadership, operational stability, strategic direction, and day-to-day management of enterprise storage platforms. This role leads a team of storage engineers responsible for the design, implementation, support, security, performance, capacity management, and lifecycle management of on-premises and cloud storage infrastructure.
The Storage Engineering Lead serves as the primary escalation point for storage-related issues, drives continuous improvement initiatives, ensures compliance with enterprise standards, and partners with architecture, platform engineering, security, infrastructure, and application teams to deliver reliable and scalable storage services.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership
• Provide technical leadership and strategic direction for enterprise storage platforms.
• Define and maintain storage architecture standards, roadmaps, and operational procedures.
• Lead evaluation, selection, and implementation of new storage technologies and services.
• Serve as the highest level technical escalation point for complex storage incidents and performance issues.
• Mentor engineers and develop technical expertise across the team.
Operational Excellence
• Ensure availability, resiliency, and performance of enterprise storage environments.
• Oversee storage monitoring, alerting, incident response, and problem management processes.
• Drive root cause analysis and corrective actions for major incidents.
• Maintain operational readiness through automation, documentation, and process improvement.
• Ensure compliance with operational, security, and engineering standards.
Capacity & Performance Management
• Own storage capacity forecasting and utilization planning.
• Monitor growth trends and recommend upgrades, optimizations, and lifecycle actions.
• Ensure proactive identification and mitigation of storage performance bottlenecks.
• Provide regular reporting on capacity, utilization, performance, and risk posture.
• Partner with business and platform teams to support future demand forecasting.
Team Leadership
• Lead, mentor, coach, and develop storage engineering staff.
• Establish team goals, priorities, and development plans.
• Drive accountability for operational excellence and customer service.
• Support succession planning and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
• Foster a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
• Ensure storage platforms adhere to security, regulatory, audit, and operational requirements.
• Support internal and external audit activities.
• Maintain documentation, standards, and evidence required for compliance reviews.
• Identify and manage operational risks associated with storage infrastructure.
• Drive remediation activities and continuous improvement efforts.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Partner with Infrastructure, Mainframe, Cloud, Database, Security, Network, and Application teams.
• Coordinate major infrastructure projects, migrations, and technology refresh initiatives.
• Represent storage engineering in architecture reviews, change governance, and strategic planning discussions.
• Communicate technical risks, recommendations, and business impacts to senior leadership.
Required Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of enterprise infrastructure experience with significant focus on storage technologies.
• 3+ years of technical lead or people leadership experience.
• Deep expertise with enterprise storage platforms (IBM, Dell EMC, NetApp, Pure Storage, Hitachi, or similar).
• Strong understanding of SAN, NAS, Fibre Channel, replication, backup, disaster recovery, encryption, and data protection technologies.
• Experience with capacity planning, performance tuning, and operational automation.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience supporting mainframe storage environments (DS8000, GDPS, z/OS storage management).
• Experience with cloud storage platforms and hybrid cloud architectures.
• Experience with automation tools, scripting, and Infrastructure as Code.
• ITIL, cloud, or storage vendor certifications.
• Experience supporting highly regulated, mission-critical environments.
Success Measures
• Storage platform availability and reliability.
• Successful delivery of storage modernization and optimization initiatives.
• Capacity risks identified and mitigated proactively.
• Audit and compliance objectives met with minimal findings.
• Reduced operational incidents through automation and process improvements.
• Strong team engagement, capability growth, and succession readiness.

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
Remote - Ohio: $122,000 - $207,000 USD

Job Posting Window
Posting windows may change based on the volume of applications received and business necessity. Candidates are encouraged to apply expeditiously.