Staff Software Engineer
About The Position
At PayPal, Staff Software Engineers are hands-on technical leaders who design, build, and scale the systems that power millions of secure global transactions every day. As a Backend Python Engineer on the Venmo Identity Engineering team, you will architect and deliver high-performance, fault-tolerant identity solutions that directly impact customer trust and security. You’ll define technical direction, lead complex engineering efforts, and mentor teams to achieve excellence in design, development, and delivery. This role demands strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to tackle complex challenges and deliver impactful, scalable solutions.
Requirements
- 5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
Nice To Haves
- 8+ years of backend development experience, including leading large-scale systems initiatives.
- Expertise in Python (preferred) or another backend language, with a strong focus on scalable architecture and distributed systems.
- Proven success designing and optimizing identity and authentication systems at scale.
- Advanced proficiency with RDBMS and NoSQL databases.
- Deep understanding of cloud-native architectures, microservices, and containerization technologies.
- Experience applying advanced security practices, including secure coding, encryption, and access control.
- Familiarity with the payments industry and regulatory compliance.
- Contributions to open-source projects or developer communities.
- Lead the design and architecture of scalable identity and authentication systems leveraging Python and frameworks like Django or Flask.
- Define and drive the technical roadmap for identity services, ensuring alignment with strategic business goals.
- Act as a system leader, coordinating engineering efforts across multiple teams and setting clear technical direction.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship, fostering a culture of innovation, quality, and continuous improvement.
- Architect and implement secure token management solutions, including OAuth2 and related standards.
- Establish and uphold engineering standards, promoting code quality, design excellence, and operational rigor.
- Design and implement fault-tolerant, high-availability systems with strong disaster recovery capabilities.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Product, Security, Infrastructure) to deliver impactful business outcomes.
- Continuously improve technical frameworks, development processes, and system performance.
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
Benefits
- medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, parental and family leave, 401(k) savings plan, paid time off
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
