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About the Role

Venmo's identity infrastructure is foundational, underpinning trust, safety, and compliance for every transaction. This role offers a unique opportunity to own a high-stakes technical domain at scale, supported by PayPal's resources and Venmo's product velocity. As a Sr. Staff Software Engineer, you will be a subject matter expert, expected to possess high levels of technical talent, programming, and communication skills, with a strong desire to deeply understand the product and enhance system robustness and resilience.

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 and affect the company's effectiveness.
Handles multiple, multi-team initiatives simultaneously, prioritizing effectively.
Understands evolving industry capabilities & practices and applies up-to-date information for optimal results.
Competent at communicating technical issues with non-technical audiences.
Spreads behavior, principles, and knowledge to improve technical results of other employees.
Partners with product management to ideate solutions to business problems & goals.
Sets the technical direction for Venmo's identity platform, including authentication, authorization, identity verification, and fraud risk systems.
Owns complex, cross-cutting problems from initial design through production.
Partners with PayPal's platform and security teams to align on shared identity standards, reusable infrastructure, and cross-org initiatives.
Acts as a bridge between Venmo's product needs and PayPal's enterprise capabilities.
Leads architectural reviews and defines engineering standards for building, scaling, and securing systems.
Raises the bar on design quality, reliability, and security posture.
Mentors and develops senior engineers by shaping team thinking through design docs, code reviews, and technical debates.
Collaborates with Product, Legal, Compliance, and Security to translate regulatory and risk requirements into sound technical solutions.
Identifies and proactively addresses risks such as fragile authentication flows, compliance gaps, or scaling bottlenecks.
Owns the performance and availability of services.
Participates in on-call rotations and provides support during incidents.
Contributes to complex projects alongside colleagues.

Requirements

8+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
12+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time spent on identity, authentication, or security-critical systems at scale.
Proven track record of defining and shipping large-scale distributed systems, with experience leading technical strategy across multiple teams or organizations.
Hands-on comfort with backend systems at scale (Python, Java, Go, or similar) and Cloud (AWS).
Security engineering fundamentals to reason carefully about threat models, data handling, and attack surfaces.
Strong communication skills: ability to write crisp design docs, hold own in executive reviews, and explain technical tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders.

Skills

Identity and access management
OAuth 2.0
OIDC
SAML
FIDO2/WebAuthn
Backend systems at scale
Cloud (AWS)
Distributed services
Terraform
Python
Java
Go

Location

San Jose, California
Austin, Texas

Work Type

Hybrid

Experience Level

Sr. Staff
8+ years relevant experience
12+ years of software engineering experience

Education Level

Bachelor’s degree
Bachelor’s and/or Master’s in computer science, or a related field of study, or equivalent experience

Salary/Compensations

San Jose, California: ($196,500.00 - $291,500.00 Annually)
Austin, Texas: ($178,500.00 - $265,100.00 Annually)

Benefits

Comprehensive, choice-based programs to support physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing.
Flexible, balanced work culture.
Holistic approach to benefits.
Generous paid time off.
Healthcare coverage for you and your family.
Resources to create financial security.
Support for mental health.

About 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.
Operates a global, two-sided network at scale connecting hundreds of millions of merchants and consumers.
Helps merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments online or in person.
Offers proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants.
Provides customers flexibility to use accounts for purchases, receiving payments, and transferring/withdrawing funds.
Enables consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using various funding sources.
Offers merchants an end-to-end payments solution with authorization and settlement capabilities, instant access to funds and payouts.
Helps merchants connect with customers, process exchanges and returns, and manage risk.
Enables consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend global reach.
Core values: Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness.
Strives to create an environment where everyone can do their best work with a sense of purpose and belonging.
Proud to have a diverse workforce reflective of the merchants, consumers, and communities served.
Takes tangible actions to cultivate inclusivity and belonging at PayPal.

Equal Opportunity

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.
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.