Principal Design Technologist

PayPal•San Jose, CA

23h•Hybrid

About The Position

At PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), we believe that every person has the right to participate fully in the global economy. Our mission is to revolutionize commerce globally to make moving money, selling and shopping, personalized and secure. The Venmo Team is seeking an exceptional Principal Design Technologist to lead at the intersection of design, engineering, and product development. This senior role combines strategic technical leadership with deep design expertise to drive innovation across our product portfolio. You will architect and optimize user experiences for both internal and external developers, using advanced technical skills and design thinking to create delightful, efficient, and scalable solutions that bridge the gap between design vision and technical implementation. Do you make your way through ambiguity? This might be the role for you.

Requirements

10+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
Strong understanding of user-centered design principles and methodologies.
Experience in designing interactive prototypes and wireframes
Familiarity with Figma or other modern UI design tools
Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team, blending design thinking with engineering processes.
Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present technical and design concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Experience in working closely with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders in a collaborative, agile environment.
Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems by combining technical and design expertise.
Passion for improving developer productivity and experience with a strong focus on making tools and processes more intuitive and efficient.
10+ years of experience in a related position or equivalent experience in related disciplines. This ideally includes 3+ years of experience in a developer-focused position, or in a similar design technologist role.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with API design best practices.
Experience with modern front-end web frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js).
Experience with mobile development platforms and tools.
Understanding of cloud services (AWS, Azure, etc.) and how they relate to developer tools.
Prior experience working within fintech, payment systems, or a similar technical domain.

Responsibilities

Establish overall business or technical strategy for user experience initiatives.
Negotiate with and influence decision-making reaching the senior executive level
Identify and resolve unique situations of substantial significance in user interface or interaction design
Allocate resources, responsibly and apply creativity to enhancing user and customer experiences across digital and physical products and services
Lead the development of user experience strategies that resonate with target audiences.
Support and mentor less-experienced roles to provide an example of innovation, excellence, and day-to-day learning
Design and Build Developer Tools & Platforms: Lead the design of tools, documentation, and platforms that enhance the developer experience with PayPal’s APIs, SDKs, and integrations. This includes improving workflows, debugging tools, onboarding processes, and support materials.
Prototyping & Front-End Development: Create high-fidelity prototypes and functional front-end components, and proof-of-concepts for emerging technologies, to define new interaction patterns, and/or to bring new ideas to life. Be comfortable experimenting with different technologies to validate solutions.
Leadership: Drive best practices in process and methodology and deliver against business and customer needs.
Collaborate Across Teams: Work closely with product managers, engineering teams, UX designers, and other cross-functional teams to ensure developer needs are met with robust, user-centered design solutions. Advocate for the voice of developers in product decision-making.
Enhance API and SDK Usability: Work with engineers to design intuitive user interfaces and experiences for developers interacting with PayPal’s APIs, SDKs, and other technical resources, ensuring they are easy to use and well-documented.
Advocate for Developer Experience: Serve as an advocate for the developer community by identifying pain points and opportunities to improve workflows, ensuring that developers have an efficient and enjoyable experience when using PayPal products and services.
Stay Current with Industry Trends: Keep abreast of emerging trends in developer tools, frameworks, and best practices. Apply knowledge of current and future technologies to continuously improve PayPal’s developer platform and experience.

Benefits

PayPal is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices.
Actual Compensation is based on various factors including but not limited to work location, and relevant skills and experience.
The total compensation for this practice may include an annual performance bonus (or other incentive compensation, as applicable), equity, and medical, dental, vision, and other benefits.
For more information, visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.
At PayPal, we’re committed to building an equitable and inclusive global economy.
And we can’t do this without our most important asset—you.
That’s why we offer benefits to help you thrive in every stage of life.
We champion your financial, physical, and mental health by offering valuable benefits and resources to help you care for the whole you.
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.