Staff Software Engineer

PayPal • San Jose, CA

1d • 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 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.

Requirements

• 5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.

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
• Provide thought leadership in platform engineering—identify emerging technologies, define best practices, and influence technical direction across the organization
• Lead architecture, design, and execution of multiple complex platform initiatives, driving technical decisions from inception to delivery
• Design, develop, and maintain platform services using Java and Python, setting standards for code quality, scalability, and performance
• Build and optimize data pipelines and storage solutions leveraging GCP services including BigQuery, BigTable, and GKE
• Work with Kubernetes-based deployments, demonstrating a solid understanding of container orchestration, scaling strategies, and cluster operations
• Own low-level and high-level designs, ensuring technical specifications align with long-term platform strategy and architectural vision
• Drive end-to-end delivery across multiple workstreams with full ownership and accountability
• Contribute to frontend development (~20% of role) using React, supporting UI components and user-facing features as needed
• Partner with cross-functional teams (product, data science, operations) to shape roadmaps and deliver integrated solutions
• Leverage AI-powered development tools (Copilot, Claude, etc.) to accelerate development workflows and promote adoption across the team
• Demonstrate intellectual curiosity in problem-solving—proactively investigate root causes, explore innovative solutions, and continuously seek to understand the "why" behind technical challenges
• Mentor and guide senior and junior engineers, develop best practices for the team, and elevate overall engineering capabilities
• Troubleshoot critical production issues and drive systemic improvements to platform reliability

Benefits

• At PayPal, we’re committed to building an equitable and inclusive global economy.
• That’s why we offer comprehensive, choice-based programs, to support all aspects of personal wellbeing—physical, emotional, and financial—delivering meaningful value where it matters most.
• We strive to create a flexible, balanced work culture with a holistic approach to benefits, including generous paid time off, healthcare coverage for you and your family, and resources to create financial security and support your mental health.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level