Beginning his career with the Department of Corrections in 2003, Mazza worked as a correctional officer at the Kentucky State Reformatory (KSR) on third shift. He volunteered to work every post and soon proved himself an invaluable member of the team. He worked his way up through the security ranks, promoting to sergeant in 2005, lieutenant in 2006, and then captain in 2007. In 2011, he was promoted to operations manager for Kentucky Correctional Industries at KSR.

In 2012, Mazza returned to security as an administrative captain and then promoted to senior captain a year later. In 2015, he promoted to deputy warden of security at Western Kentucky Correctional Complex. As deputy warden, Mazza oversaw the operations for many areas, including security, maintenance, food service, and institutional training.

Mazza has been recognized with numerous awards during his career, including employee of the month, volunteer of the year, and the DOC Achievement Award for KSR. Just this week, in the department's annual awards ceremony, Mazza was named Warden of the Year for his outstanding leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

​