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Staff Software Engineer

PayPal

PayPal

Software Engineering
San Jose, CA, USA
Posted on Feb 5, 2026

The Company

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.

Job Description:

Essential 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

Expected Qualifications:

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

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:

Additional Responsibilities

  • Design, development, and testing of features/functions delivered via applications and services.
  • Collaborating with peers and seniors both within their team and across the organization.
  • Working with product managers using agile methodologies to deliver high quality solutions on time.
  • Collaborate frequently with other developers to design and implement the required solutions.
  • Work with product and design teams to develop new ideas and explore new opportunities.
  • Working with operations teams to ensure your applications and services are highly available and reliable.
  • Participate in formal and informal code reviews to ensure code quality.
  • Be a champion of high-performance, secure, and reliable software services.
  • Collaborate and communicate effectively with all non-technical stakeholders (Product, Design, Analytics, etc.)
  • Actively contribute to our automated test suite to enable speedy and reliable continuous integration.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Proficient in back-end development using Java technologies.
  • Experience with REST API's and competent designing and building web services/microservices.
  • Proficiency in Spring framework (Spring Boot, Spring Core, Spring Batch)
  • Solid understanding of concepts like Web Services, SOA, REST APIs, Message Queue, Distributed/Scalable Architecture.
  • Deep understanding of and extensive experience applying software design patterns, data structures, algorithms. advanced object-oriented design, development principles and good analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Be driven to get results and not let anything get in your way.
  • Be proactive and anticipate/handle most issues before they escalate.
  • Exhibit a strong backbone and challenge the status quo when needed.
  • Demonstrate a high level of curiosity and keep abreast of the latest technologies.
  • Show pride of ownership and strive for excellence in everything you do.
  • Bring fresh ideas for how to continuously improve our software and your team.
  • Advocate for ways to remediate technical debt on an ongoing basis.
  • Advocate & promote clean and scalable coding principles.

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

-

The base pay for this role will depend on where you work and the relevant experience and expertise you bring. The expected range of pay for this role by location is:

Primary Location | Pay Range:

San Jose, California | ($176,500.00 - $262,350.00 Annually)

Additional Location(s) | Pay Range:

No other locations are assigned to this requisition currently. Additional compensation for this role may include an annual performance bonus, equity, or other incentive compensation, as applicable. 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.

PayPal does not charge candidates any fees for courses, applications, resume reviews, interviews, background checks, or onboarding. Any such request is a red flag and likely part of a scam. To learn more about how to identify and avoid recruitment fraud please visit https://careers.pypl.com/contact-us.

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.

Our Benefits:

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.

Who We Are:

Click Here to learn more about our culture and community.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

PayPal provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. In addition, PayPal will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at paypalglobaltalentacquisition@paypal.com.

Belonging at PayPal:

Our employees are central to advancing our mission, and we strive to create an environment where everyone can do their best work with a sense of purpose and belonging. Belonging at PayPal means creating a workplace with a sense of acceptance and security where all employees feel included and valued. We are proud to have a diverse workforce reflective of the merchants, consumers, and communities that we serve, and we continue to take tangible actions to cultivate inclusivity and belonging at PayPal.

Any general requests for consideration of your skills, please Join our Talent Community.

We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don’t hesitate to apply.