Director, Technical Programs

PayPal • San Jose, CA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

PayPal has been revolutionizing commerce globally for more than 25 years. Creating innovative experiences that make moving money, selling, and shopping simple, personalized, and secure, PayPal empowers consumers and businesses in approximately 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. We operate a global, two-sided network at scale that connects hundreds of millions of merchants and consumers. We help merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments, whether they are online or in person. PayPal is more than a connection to third-party payment networks. We provide proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on our platform on behalf of our customers. We offer our customers the flexibility to use their accounts to purchase and receive payments for goods and services, as well as the ability to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible credit card rewards. Our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds and payouts. We also help merchants connect with their customers, process exchanges and returns, and manage risk. We enable consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend their global reach while reducing the complexity and friction involved in enabling cross-border trade. Our beliefs are the foundation for how we conduct business every day. We live each day guided by our core values of Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness. Together, our values ensure that we work together as one global team with our customers at the center of everything we do – and they push us to ensure we take care of ourselves, each other, and our communities. This role provides strategic leadership and direction for PayPal’s agentic commerce programs. Accountable for the end-to-end execution of agentic commerce programs, this role owns the translation of the agentic commerce vision and product roadmap into a coherent portfolio of programs, ensures disciplined execution across functions and regions, and drives value realization from pilots through global scale. This leader orchestrates work across Product, Engineering, Sales, Commercial Operations, Legal, Risk, Finance, and regional teams to deliver on strategic outcomes, not just project milestones.

Requirements

• 10+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Proven ability to manage large, complex engineering programs.
• "Driver" mindset with demonstrated bias for action, ownership mentality, and ability to operate autonomously in ambiguous environments
• Proven track record of driving operational rigor through structured processes, clear accountability, and proactive problem-solving
• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives from planning through delivery with on-time execution

Nice To Haves

• Domain Expertise in AI Commerce & Payments
• Strong understanding of AI/LLM platforms, agentic commerce frameworks, payments infrastructure, and commerce ecosystems
• Knowledge of emerging trends at intersection of AI and commerce, including agent protocols, smart wallets, and agentic shopping behaviors

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement the strategic vision for engineering operational programs.
• Oversee the planning and execution of engineering programs.
• Ensure alignment of engineering programs with business goals.
• Manage and mentor program managers and engineering teams.
• Monitor program performance and drive continuous improvement.
• Communicate program status and strategic initiatives to executive leadership.
• Manage program budgets and financials.
• Orchestrate the portfolio of agentic commerce programs – including LLM partnerships, custom deals, product roadmap initiatives, GTM motions from initial framing through scale and Business as Usual (BAU) transition
• Translate company and Commercial Growth OKRs into clear program objectives, success metrics, and prioritized roadmaps for agentic commerce
• Run a regular portfolio review rhythm to make tradeoffs, reallocate resources, and retire low value efforts
• Design and maintain the operating model for agentic commerce: how ideas become funded programs, how pilots are run, and how scale decisions are made
• Establish and chair cross functional governance forums and steering groups for agentic programs, including clear decision rights and escalation paths
• Define and standardize program artifacts (charters, dependency maps, risk logs, decision logs, rollout plans) to drive consistency across initiatives
• Orchestrate cross functional delivery across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Operations, and regional stakeholders to ensure alignment on scope, timelines, dependencies, and launch criteria
• Remove execution blockers by driving decisions, clarifying priorities, and aligning leaders when tradeoffs arise between agentic programs and other work
• Ensure that launches are sequenced logically (e.g., pilots vs. broad rollouts) and that readiness criteria are met before moving between phases
• Collaborate with VP of Agentic Commerce to define program level and portfolio level KPIs specific to agentic commerce
• Partner with analytics, product, and product ops to build dashboards and review cadences for tracking performance during pilots and at scale
• Lead post launch reviews and value realization check-ins, ensuring learnings are captured and fed back into product, GTM, and operational processes
• Maintain a consolidated risk view for agentic commerce programs, including AI specific, regulatory, trust & safety, and operational risks
• Partner with Legal, Risk, Compliance, and Security to define guardrails and approval pathways for new agentic features, LLM integrations, and data usage
• Ensure appropriate monitoring and incident management processes are in place once programs are live
• Work with Commercial Operations to codify agentic processes into repeatable BAU workflows (e.g., intake for new opportunities, qualification, solutioning, implementation, and support)
• Collaborate with Operations, Support, and Service teams to define standard operating procedures, runbooks, and handoffs for live agentic solutions
• Partner with Finance, Billing, and RevOps to establish scalable models for pricing, invoicing, tracking revenue, and managing incentives for agentic offerings
• Define which steps and decisions remain in the Agentic Programs team vs. which become BAU for other teams once offerings stabilize
• Cocreate process maps and RACI models with Commercial Operations and other functions that describe how agentic opportunities flow from initial interest through implementation and ongoing support
• Ensure documentation, training, and knowledge management are in place so that new teams and regions can adopt agentic commerce offerings without bespoke guidance every time
• Establish a joint governance rhythm with Commercial Operations, Product Ops, and other enabling functions to review BAU metrics, pain points, and improvement opportunities
• Ensure feedback from BAU teams (sales, support, implementation, operations) is systematically fed back into the agentic roadmap and program design. Use these forums to decide when a capability is mature enough to transition from “program” to “BAU,” and to identify the next wave of strategic agentic bets.

Benefits

• This role is also eligible for a range of benefits which may include, medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, parental and family leave, 401(k) savings plan, paid time off, and other benefits.
• For more information visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.
• For the majority of employees, PayPal's balanced hybrid work model offers 3 days in the office for effective in-person collaboration and 2 days at your choice of either the PayPal office or your home workspace, ensuring that you equally have the benefits and conveniences of both locations.
• We have great benefits including a flexible work environment, employee shares options, health and life insurance and more.
• To learn more about our benefits please visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees