PayPal · 2 weeks ago
Principal Design Technologist
San Jose, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff
$188K/yr - $324K/yr
10+ years expPayPal has been revolutionizing commerce globally for more than 25 years, creating innovative experiences for consumers and businesses. They are seeking a Principal Design Technologist to lead at the intersection of design, engineering, and product development, driving innovation and optimizing user experiences across their product portfolio.
E-Commerce PlatformsFinTechMobile PaymentsTransaction Processing
Responsibilities
Establish overall business or technical strategy for user experience initiatives
Negotiate with and influence decision-making reaching the senior executive level
Identify and resolve unique situations of substantial significance in user interface or interaction design
Allocate resources, responsibly and apply creativity to enhancing user and customer experiences across digital and physical products and services
Lead the development of user experience strategies that resonate with target audiences
Support and mentor less-experienced roles to provide an example of innovation, excellence, and day-to-day learning
Design and Build Developer Tools & Platforms : Lead the design of tools, documentation, and platforms that enhance the developer experience with PayPal’s APIs, SDKs, and integrations. This includes improving workflows, debugging tools, onboarding processes, and support materials
Prototyping & Front-End Development : Create high-fidelity prototypes and functional front-end components, and proof-of-concepts for emerging technologies, to define new interaction patterns, and/or to bring new ideas to life. Be comfortable experimenting with different technologies to validate solutions
Leadership: Drive best practices in process and methodology and deliver against business and customer needs
Collaborate Across Teams : Work closely with product managers, engineering teams, UX designers, and other cross-functional teams to ensure developer needs are met with robust, user-centered design solutions. Advocate for the voice of developers in product decision-making
Enhance API and SDK Usability : Work with engineers to design intuitive user interfaces and experiences for developers interacting with PayPal’s APIs, SDKs, and other technical resources, ensuring they are easy to use and well-documented
Advocate for Developer Experience : Serve as an advocate for the developer community by identifying pain points and opportunities to improve workflows, ensuring that developers have an efficient and enjoyable experience when using PayPal products and services
Stay Current with Industry Trends : Keep abreast of emerging trends in developer tools, frameworks, and best practices. Apply knowledge of current and future technologies to continuously improve PayPal’s developer platform and experience
Prototyping an interactive support wizard experience that helps find relevant developer documentation using the Brave Search API and testing it head-to-head against our current search tools in moderated user testing sessions
Working with a UI designer and content strategist to redesign the developer portal side navigation with improved information architecture and interaction patterns, then handing off an interactive vanilla HTML/CSS/JS template of the improved UI to engineering to guide their React component development
Reviewing early-stage UI wireframes of a PayPal integration upgrade flow for technical implementation risks, working with engineering to understand API constraints, and helping product management prioritize and roadmap the behind-the-scenes updates needed to deliver the intended user experience
Qualification
Required
10+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience
Experience creating modern mobile experiences in native mobile languages (Kotlin and Swift)
iOS development (UIKit, SwiftUI)
Android development (Jetpack Compose, Android Views)
Modern web frameworks (React/Next.js or similar)
Experience building or improving APIs, SDKs, and developer tools
Strong understanding of user-centered design principles and methodologies
Experience in designing interactive prototypes and wireframes
Familiarity with Figma or other modern UI design tools
Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team, blending design thinking with engineering processes
Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present technical and design concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
Experience in working closely with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders in a collaborative, agile environment
Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems by combining technical and design expertise
Passion for improving developer productivity and experience with a strong focus on making tools and processes more intuitive and efficient
10+ years of experience in a related position or equivalent experience in related disciplines
This ideally includes 3+ years of experience in a developer-focused position, or in a similar design technologist role
Preferred
Familiarity with API design best practices
Experience with modern front-end web frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js)
Experience with mobile development platforms and tools
Understanding of cloud services (AWS, Azure, etc.) and how they relate to developer tools
Prior experience working within fintech, payment systems, or a similar technical domain
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
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (1144)
2024 (917)
2023 (775)
2022 (921)
2021 (1051)
2020 (1049)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$12.17BKey Investors
Kohlberg Kravis RobertsBlueRun Ventures
2025-11-17Post Ipo Debt· $6.95B
2023-06-07Post Ipo Debt· $5B
2015-07-20IPO
Leadership Team
Simon Bladon
PayPal UK CEO
chaloem khompitoon
President & CEO
Recent News
2026-01-12
Financial Sector Technology
2026-01-11
Digital Trends
2026-01-11
Company data provided by crunchbase