Staff Software Engineer

PayPal

Staff Software Engineer leading scalable Venmo payment services at PayPal. Designing distributed cloud systems, guiding engineers, and owning service reliability.

Posted 9/2/2026full-timeSan Jose • 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 implementing scalable 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

Project LeadershipRDBMS and NoSQL ExpertiseCloud Services (AWS, GCP, Azure)Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)Distributed Systems Design

ATS Keywords

Tailor your resume

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills

Software Design and ImplementationSDLC ProcessCaching Solutions (Redis, ElastiCache, Hazelcast)Messaging Systems (SQS, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pulsar)Fault-Tolerant Systems

Soft Skills

Technical LeadershipCollaborationMentoringRelationship Management

Tools & Technologies

TerraformAWSGCPAzureRedisElastiCacheHazelcastSQSKafkaRabbitMQ

Industry Keywords

Engineering StandardsOperational ExcellenceScalable ServicesIncident SupportTechnical Roadmap

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudGoogle Cloud PlatformKafkaNoSQLPulsarRabbitMQRDBMSRedisSDLCTerraform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Act as a project or system leader and coordinate other engineers
Determine technical tasks for engineers
Improve existing structures and processes
Reconcile competing priorities to identify optimal solutions
Collaborate with management to set and improve engineering 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 assess implementation alternatives
Provide technical leadership for a small team
Design, estimate, and implement secure, reliable, scalable software services
Deliver high-quality code on time and follow 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
Advanced skills with RDBMS and NoSQL data stores
Experience with caching solutions such as Redis, ElastiCache, and Hazelcast
Experience with messaging/queuing 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, non-technical business, and support teams
Expertise with distributed services and backend systems
Expertise building services on public cloud, preferably AWS, GCP, or Azure
Experience managing infrastructure as code using Terraform
Experience working with fault-tolerant and scalable distributed services and systems

Benefits

Comp & perks

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
Annual performance bonus
Equity
Other incentive compensation, as applicable
Reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities