PayPal · 1 year ago
Staff Engineer - API Lead, Digital Wallet
San Jose
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$152K/yr - $262K/yr
8+ years expPayPal is a global leader in commerce, providing innovative payment solutions for consumers and businesses. The Staff Engineer - API Lead will act as a project leader, coordinating engineering activities, making technical decisions, and improving existing processes while representing PayPal to external partners.
Consumer GoodsE-CommerceFinTechPaymentsConsumerE-Commerce PlatformsMobile PaymentsTransaction Processing
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
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, 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
Qualification
Required
Minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience and a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
14+ 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
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
Preferred
Prior experience in payments, FX handling, ledger systems, or settlement workflows is a strong plus
Benefits
Flexible work environment
Employee shares options
Health and life insurance
Company
PayPal
PayPal is a financial service company that provides online payment solutions to its users worldwide.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
PayPal has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
81%
Represents job field similar to this job
Engineering and Development
Product Management
Accounting and Finance
Management and Executive
Customer Service and Support
Marketing
Creatives and Design
Sales
Legal and Compliance
Human Resources
Education and Training
Public Sector and Government
Trends of Total Sponsorships
*2026 (922)
2025 (1113)
2024 (913)
2023 (775)
2022 (921)
2021 (1051)
2020 (1049)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$12.17BKey Investors
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.Madison Dearborn Partners,VertexClearstone Venture Partners,Goldman Sachs
2025-11-17Post Ipo Debt· $6.95B
2023-06-07Post Ipo Debt· $5B
2015-07-20IPO
Leadership Team
Enrique Lores
President & CEO
May Zabaneh
SVP, GM of Crypto | CEO PayPal Digital, Inc.
Recent News
Electronic Payments International
2026-08-18
Company data provided by crunchbase