PayPal · 14 hours ago
Web Architect
San Jose, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff
$218K/yr - $324K/yr
12+ years expPayPal has been revolutionizing commerce globally for more than 25 years. They are hiring a Principal Web Architect to define and drive the end-to-end web architecture strategy for Checkout experiences across consumer and merchant journeys, blending deep technical expertise with broad organizational influence.
E-Commerce PlatformsFinTechMobile PaymentsTransaction Processing
Responsibilities
Increases results & effectiveness of all software engineers in a large domain
Sets the technology roadmap for a domain
Adapts their role to the need, selecting the most effective means of realizing their technical goals
Provides advice and counsel to senior executives within PayPal, influencing the development of multi-year business strategies
Exercises wide latitude in determining objectives and approaches to assignments and takes initiative to achieve results
Handles ambiguous and unfamiliar situations and uses creativity to deliver decisive resolutions
Uses discovery & exploratory research, not being limited to technical domains, to make successful decisions
Identifies themes & trends that span projects and teams, and finds broadly impactful opportunities for improvement
Uses professional savvy to determine when industry-standard solutions can be adopted, versus when a problem space warrants a novel solution (“build/buy”)
Mentor others as a means of propagating technical influence, and to enhance the performance of their organization
Own the web architecture vision for Checkout, aligning long-term platform strategy with near-term product priorities
Define and evolve standards for modern web engineering, such as micro-frontend strategies, shared UI foundations/design systems, SSR/SPA tradeoffs, BFF/API-for-frontend patterns, and edge/CDN architecture
Lead architecture governance: establish decision frameworks, run architecture reviews, and maintain reference architectures and standards documentation
Set measurable targets for web performance (e.g., Core Web Vitals, startup latency, TTI, bundle efficiency) and drive outcomes through engineering roadmaps and guardrails
Partner with SRE/Platform to improve availability and resilience: graceful degradation, dependency isolation, safe rollouts, feature flags, canary strategies, and incident readiness
Build a culture of observability and data-driven iteration: client telemetry, tracing, logging, funnel instrumentation, experimentation frameworks, and actionable dashboards
Ensure Checkout web architecture is secure-by-design: threat modeling, authentication/session patterns, secure coding and dependency practices, and robust PII handling
Partner with Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to ensure designs meet internal controls and regulatory requirements while preserving performance and UX
Operate as a senior technical leader across multiple squads: align stakeholders, resolve architectural conflicts, and unblock execution
Mentor senior engineers and technical leads; elevate standards through design reviews, code review practices, and technical deep dives
Influence product strategy with technical insight—identifying platform investments that reduce toil, increase delivery velocity, and improve user outcomes
Qualification
Required
10+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience
12+ years of experience building and operating large-scale web systems, including recent depth in modern front-end architecture
Demonstrated Principal-level impact: driving architecture across multiple teams, influencing roadmaps, and delivering measurable improvements in platform health and business outcomes
Expert in modern web engineering and architecture, including: JavaScript/TypeScript and component-based architectures (e.g., React or equivalent), Build systems and bundling optimization, monorepo strategies, dependency governance, Server-side and edge patterns (Node.js, SSR, caching, CDN/edge computing) and BFF/API design collaboration
Strong track record in: Performance engineering (profiling, rendering pipelines, caching, bundle splitting, CWV optimization), Observability (client telemetry, tracing, metrics, experimentation analysis), Quality and release engineering (CI/CD, progressive delivery, test strategy, rollout safety)
Excellent communication: able to articulate complex technical decisions clearly to engineering and non-engineering stakeholders and drive alignment at senior levels
Preferred
Experience with high-scale checkout/payments, identity, fraud/risk, or other high-trust consumer flows
Experience operating globally distributed systems with strict latency and uptime requirements
Accessibility expertise (WCAG) and experience building inclusive, scalable UI foundations
Experience building platform libraries/frameworks used broadly across an organization
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 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
Alex Chriss
President & CEO
Simon Bladon
PayPal UK CEO
Recent News
2026-02-07
2026-02-07
The Motley Fool
2026-02-07
Company data provided by crunchbase