Staff Software Engineer

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:

What do you need to know about the role

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.

Meet Your Team

A customer focused, hands-on Java engineer, responsible for designing, implementing and delivering state of the art payments solutions for GSE of PayPal. The ideal candidate is an individual with experience building large scale systems engaging across the full software lifecycle, from system design and development of front-end systems components. Business acumen, hands-on technology skills, positive work ethic and a collaborative mindset are key to the success of this role.

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.

Preferred Qualification:

Your Way to Impact

At PayPal, we are looking for a visionary Staff Software Engineer to be an architect of our global payment platform. In this pivotal role, you will be instrumental in designing, developing, and optimizing the core systems that power millions of transactions daily. You will be responsible for delivering innovative, high-performance solutions that not only delight our global customer base but also drive significant business success. This is an opportunity to lead technical strategy, mentor top talent, and directly impact the future of financial technology.

Key Responsibilities

As a Staff Software Engineer – Full Stack, your day-to-day will involve high-impact work across the full technology stack:

• Architect and Implement Solutions: Lead the design and hands-on implementation of large-scale, complex Full Stack solutions for critical platform components, ensuring scalability, reliability, and security.

• Technical Leadership: Drive the adoption of technical excellence and best practices across the engineering team, including design patterns, code quality standards, and efficient development methodologies.

• System Optimization: Identify and address performance bottlenecks, optimizing core systems to handle increasing transaction volumes and ensure ultra-low latency.

• Data Architecture: Contribute to strong data architecture design, leveraging expertise in both relational and NoSQL databases to support high-throughput, mission-critical applications.

• Mentorship and Development: Act as a technical mentor and coach for junior and mid-level engineers, fostering their growth and developing high-performing engineering talent within the organization.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with product managers, data scientists, and other engineering teams to define system requirements and translate business needs into robust technical specifications.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.

• Experience: Minimum of 10+ years of hands-on, progressive Frontend development experience building and operating large-scale, distributed applications.

• Frontend Expertise: Deep proficiency in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, coupled with strong experience in at least one modern frontend framework such as React, Angular, or Vue.

• Backend & Systems: Strong experience with microservices architecture and building robust, scalable backend services.

• Database Skills: Solid understanding of relational databases, including strong data architecture and hands-on SQL/PL-SQL development skills. Exposure to and experience with NoSQL technologies is also required.

• Foundational Knowledge: Proven experience applying software design patterns, data structures, and algorithms to solve complex engineering challenges.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing and integrating with modern API technologies, such as GraphQL.

• Active contributor to open-source projects or a strong history of presenting at technical conferences/meetups.

• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

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

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 

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   

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.

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