Staff Software Engineer

PayPal

Staff Software Engineer leading scalable backend payment services for PayPal and Venmo. Driving architecture, reliability, cloud infrastructure, and engineering team processes.

Posted 9/2/2026full-timeAustin • California, Texas • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $160,500 - $262,350 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

Use this summary to align your resume positioning with the role.

Demonstrates expertise in leading engineering projects, mentoring teams, and delivering high-quality software solutions. Proficient in managing relationships across technical and non-technical teams while ensuring operational excellence and adherence to engineering standards.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Python ProgrammingRDBMS and NoSQL ExpertiseCloud Services (AWS, GCP, Azure)Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)Distributed Services Knowledge

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Python ProgrammingRDBMSNoSQLCaching SolutionsMessaging ProtocolsDistributed ServicesCloud ServicesInfrastructure as CodeSoftware Development Life Cycle (SDLC)Incident Support

Soft Skills

Project LeadershipMentoringCollaborationRelationship ManagementProblem Solving

Tools & Technologies

RedisElastiCacheHazelcastSQSKafkaRabbitMQPulsarTerraform

Industry Keywords

Engineering Rigor StandardsOperational ExcellenceService PerformanceScalable Software ServicesTechnical Leadership

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudGoogle Cloud PlatformKafkaNoSQLPulsarPythonRabbitMQRDBMSRedisSDLCTerraform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Act as a project or system leader, coordinating activities of other engineers
Determine technical tasks for other engineers
Achieve customer, operational, program, or service objectives
Improve existing structures and processes
Reconcile competing priorities to identify optimal solutions
Generalize recurring patterns into meaningful solutions
Collaborate with management to set and improve engineering rigor standards
Represent PayPal to partners, customers, and industry organizations
Lead engineering efforts and team-level processes
Provide technical advice to senior leaders on systems, solutions, challenges, and strategy
Own design, implementation, and operational excellence of software components
Contribute to the technical engineering roadmap and recommend implementation alternatives
Provide technical leadership for a small team
Design, estimate, and implement secure, reliable, scalable software services
Deliver high-quality code on time following the SDLC process
Own service performance and availability
Participate in on-call rotations and provide incident support
Contribute to complex projects with colleagues

Requirements

What you’ll need

5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR any equivalent combination of education and experience
Bachelor’s and/or Masters in computer science, or a related field of study, or equivalent experience
8+ years’ experience with Python or equivalent high-level programming language
Advanced skills with RDBMS and NoSQL data stores
Experience with caching solutions such as Redis, ElastiCache, and Hazelcast
Experience with messaging/queuing protocols or systems such as SQS, Kafka, RabbitMQ, and Pulsar
Ability to lead projects and mentor all levels of engineering staff
Ability to manage relationships with Product, Engineering Operations, and non-technical business and support teams
Expert knowledge of distributed services and backend systems
Expertise building services on public cloud, preferably AWS or GCP, Azure
Experience managing infrastructure as code using Terraform
Experience working with fault-tolerant and scalable distributed services and systems

Benefits

Comp & perks

Annual performance bonus, equity, or other incentive compensation, as applicable
Balanced hybrid work model: 3 days in the office and 2 days at the PayPal office or home workspace
Generous paid time off
Healthcare coverage for you and your family
Resources to create financial security
Support for mental health
Reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities