Staff Software Engineer - SDK

PayPal•San Jose, CA

43d•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. Job Summary: This job acts as a project leader, coordinating the activities of other engineers, determining technical tasks, and improving existing structures and processes. It involves making technical decisions, collaborating with management to set standards, and representing the company to external partners. Essential Responsibilities: Delivers complete solutions spanning all phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) (design, implementation, testing, delivery and operations), based on definitions from more senior roles. Advises immediate management on project-level issues Guides junior engineers Operates with little day-to-day supervision, making technical decisions based on knowledge of internal conventions and industry best practices Applies knowledge of technical best practices in making decisions

Requirements

5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
10+ years of experience in professional software development, with significant experience in building and scaling services or SDKs.
Experience acting as a tech lead for full-stack components, services, with a focus on both front-end and back-end architecture.
Strong proficiency in Node.js/React.JS and JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem; understanding of SDK/API design principles.
Deep knowledge of internationalization and localization engineering practices, including Unicode, CLDR etc.
Proven experience architecting cloud services (AWS, GCP, or both).
A track record of technical leadership, mentoring, and influencing decisions in large-scale engineering organizations.
Strong understanding of developer experience, usability, and ease-of-integration when building SDKs or frameworks.
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines such as Harness, testing strategies, and quality metrics for SDKs/services.
Strategic mindset with interest in applying AI and automation tools to improve internalization and developer efficiency.
Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to operate in a globally distributed, fast-paced environment.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex technical information in a clear and concise manner to a variety of audiences.

Nice To Haves

Experience with open-source SDK development and contribution to widely adopted libraries.
Background in building developer platforms or frameworks with internal customer focus.
Hands-on experience integrating AI models or ML-based services into developer workflows.
Exposure to multiple programming languages beyond Node.js (Python, Java etc.).

Responsibilities

Acts as a project or system leader, coordinating the activities of other engineers on the project or within the system
Determines the technical tasks that other engineers will follow
Actions result in the achievement of customer, operational, program or service objectives
Proactively improves existing structures & processes
Exercises judgement in reconciling diverse and competing priorities (time, quality, complexity risk) to identify optimal solutions to problems
Notices patterns and condenses repetition into densely meaningful generalized solutions
Collaborates with management to set/improve standards for engineering rigor
Trusted to represent PayPal, Inc to the outside world via interactions with partners, customers, or industry organizations
Personally contribute code across the full technology stack, maintaining a hands-on approach while providing technical leadership
Lead the technical vision and execution of i18n SDKs and services used by hundreds of PayPal developers globally.
Collaborate with partner teams to define requirements and deliver developer-friendly solutions that enable scalability, and international readiness across PayPal platforms.
Architect, design, and implement Node.js SDKs and microservices with a focus on robustness, performance, and developer usability.
Drive adoption of best practices for internalization and localization across engineering teams.
Mentor and guide junior engineers, sharing your expertise to foster their growth and enhance the team's technical capabilities.
Proactively identify and address technical debt, creating a roadmap for its resolution to maintain a clean and efficient codebase.
Contribute to cloud adoption efforts (AWS/GCP), designing for scalability, reliability, and security in a multi-cloud environment.
Explore and evaluate the use of AI-powered tools to optimize developer productivity, internationalization processes, and SDK usability.
Represent the Internalization Engineering team in cross-org architecture forums and provide guidance on internationalization strategies.
Champion best practices in software engineering, advocating for approaches that improve quality, scalability, and maintainability.
Effective communication, listening, interpersonal, influencing, and alignment driving skills; able to convey important messages in a clear and compelling manner.