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:

We are a team of small and self-driven engineers & product managers to deliver innovative solutions to drive business impact, on a mission to empower consumers with Digital Wallets and enable commerce globally.

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

Minimum Qualifications:

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

Essential Responsibilities:

• Makes technical decisions affecting multiple teams, crossing organizational boundaries

• Establishes conventions & processes to be followed by other employees

• Actions determine the utilization of company resources (people, money, assets) and affect the effectiveness of the company

• Handles multiple, multi-team initiatives simultaneously, using judgement to prioritize among more issues than can be handled individually.

• Understands evolving industry capabilities & practices and can judiciously apply up--to-date information for optimal results

• Competent at communicating technical issues with non-technical audiences

• Spreads their behavior, principles, and knowledge as a means of improving technical results of other employees (via many means – modeling behavior, 1:1s, working sessions, quality documentation)

• Partners with product management, to ideate solutions to business problems & goals

Expected Qualifications:

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

As a Staff Software Engineer in our platform engineering team, you will play a pivotal role in designing and building scalable, secure, and highly available systems that support real-time transaction processing, digital wallet integrations, and global money movement. You will be the technical go-to person for architecture, design, and deep system-level troubleshooting across our payment platform.

Your Day-to-Day:

• Lead major initiatives to design, develop, and optimize large-scale distributed systems for wallet-based payments and cross-border transactions.

• Architect and build core platform components using TypeScript, Node.js, and AWS-native services with a strong focus on performance, observability, and fault tolerance.

• Design APIs (REST & GraphQL) and real-time processing workflows that integrate with internal and external wallet providers.

• Drive best practices in cloud-native architecture leveraging AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, SQS/SNS, Kinesis, Step Functions, EKS, and EventBridge.

• Mentor and pair-program with engineers to raise the bar for code quality, operational excellence, and system design.

• Collaborate closely with product, compliance, and partner integration teams to deliver seamless and reliable payment experiences.

• Implement observability, monitoring, and alerting to ensure end-to-end reliability and proactive incident response.

• Participate in on-call rotations and support production systems with a focus on minimizing downtime and user impact.

• Continuously evaluate and improve system performance using metrics and real-world transaction data.

What You Bring:

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering with a proven track record in financial systems, payments, or digital wallets.

• Deep hands-on experience building resilient backend services and transaction processing pipelines on AWS Cloud.

• Desired proficiency in TypeScript and strong command of Java and at least one scripting language (e.g., Python, Shell).

• Experience with event-driven architectures, messaging systems (Kafka, SQS/SNS), and distributed data processing.

• Strong SQL and data modeling skills with experience in MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redshift, or similar databases.

• Proficient in infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform and/or CloudFormation.

• Demonstrated success building and scaling mission-critical APIs, real-time services, and batch workflows.

• Prior experience in payments, FX handling, ledger systems, or settlement workflows is a strong plus.

• Passion for clean code, robust testing, and secure design practices.

• Strong communication and collaboration skills across engineering, product, and partner-facing teams.

• A mindset focused on customer impact, agility, and continuous improvement.

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.

PayPal does not charge candidates any fees for courses, applications, resume reviews, interviews, background checks, or onboarding. When making an application directly, we will never ask you to share passwords, one-time passcodes (OTP), or verification codes. Any such request is a red flag and likely part of a scam. All communication regarding your application will come from official PayPal email domains. If you suspect fraudulent activity, please report it immediately. 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 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.

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.