Sr Software Engineer

PayPal

PayPal

Software Engineering
San Jose, CA, USA
USD 143,500-212,850 / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 8, 2026

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.

We operate a global, two-sided network at scale that connects hundreds of millions of merchants and consumers. We help merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments, whether they are online or in person. PayPal is more than a connection to third-party payment networks. We provide proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on our platform on behalf of our customers.

We offer our customers the flexibility to use their accounts to purchase and receive payments for goods and services, as well as the ability to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible credit card rewards. Our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds and payouts. We also help merchants connect with their customers, process exchanges and returns, and manage risk. We enable consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend their global reach while reducing the complexity and friction involved in enabling cross-border trade.

Our beliefs are the foundation for how we conduct business every day. We live each day guided by our core values of Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness. Together, our values ensure that we work together as one global team with our customers at the center of everything we do – and they push us to ensure we take care of ourselves, each other, and our communities.

Job Summary:

Payments Risk Engineering team is responsible for fraud detection & risk management. We design, develop, enhance, and support services that get called across every money movement transaction between PayPal and its users and partners. Our solutions need to scale across millions of such interactions, integrating with various other APIs in real time and yet providing high availability and configurability to the business. We strive to keep up with advances in technology and science and tie those back to business needs. To help with this, we are looking for strong technologists who are passionate to solve large scale highly complex computer engineering problems, in a repeatable and maintainable way. Our engineers build strong competencies in software design, API, data structures and algorithms, along with a deep understanding of business processes. You will work alongside the best and the brightest engineering talent in the industry.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

  • Delivers complete solutions spanning all phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) (design, implementation, testing, delivery and operations), based on definitions from more senior roles.
  • Advises immediate management on project-level issues
  • Guides junior engineers
  • Operates with little day-to-day supervision, making technical decisions based on knowledge of internal conventions and industry best practices
  • Applies knowledge of technical best practices in making decisions

Expected Qualifications:

  • 3+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help us strengthen our world class risk prevention and mitigation systems to successfully combat cybercrime. Risk Engineering team is responsible for fraud detection, risk management and regulatory compliance services across PayPal - globally. We design, develop, enhance, and support services that get called across every interaction between Users, Partners and PayPal. To achieve this, we are always looking at advances in technology likes AI, Machine learning and data science and tying those back to business needs. In this versatile role, you will be responsible for helping shape the future of mission critical risk systems. You will be collaborating closely with engineering, product, and operations to design and develop features for our highly complex and heavily distributed risk environment. Our engineers build strong competencies in data structures and algorithms, along with a deep understanding of business processes.

You will:

  • Be driven to get results and not let anything get in your way.
  • Be proactive and anticipate/handle most issues before they escalate.
  • Exhibit a strong backbone and challenge the status quo when needed.
  • Demonstrate a high level of curiosity and keep abreast of the latest technologies.
  • Show pride of ownership and strive for excellence in everything you do.
  • Bring fresh ideas for how to continuously improve our software and your team.
  • Advocate for ways to remediate technical debt on an ongoing basis.
  • Advocate & promote clean and scalable coding principles.

Responsibilities:

  • Design, development, and testing of features/functions delivered via applications and services.
  • Collaborating with peers and seniors both within their team and across the organization.
  • Working with product managers using agile methodologies to deliver high quality solutions on time.
  • Collaborate frequently with other developers to design and implement the required solutions.
  • Work with product and design teams to develop new ideas and explore new opportunities.
  • Working with operations teams to ensure your applications and services are highly available and reliable.
  • Participate in formal and informal code reviews to ensure code quality.
  • Be a champion of high-performance, secure, and reliable software services.
  • Collaborate and communicate effectively with all non-technical stakeholders (Product, Design, Analytics, etc.)
  • Actively contribute to our automated test suite to enable speedy and reliable continuous integration.

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0 Bachelors Degree or Equivalent

-

The base pay for this role will depend on where you work and the relevant experience and expertise you bring. The expected range of pay for this role by location is:

Primary Location | Pay Range:

San Jose, California | ($143,500.00 - $212,850.00 Annually)

Additional Location(s) | Pay Range:

No other locations are assigned to this requisition currently. Additional compensation for this role may include an annual performance bonus, equity, or other incentive compensation, as applicable. This role is also eligible for a range of benefits which may include, medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, parental and family leave, 401(k) savings plan, paid time off, and other benefits. For more information visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.

PayPal does not charge candidates any fees for courses, applications, resume reviews, interviews, background checks, or onboarding. Any such request is a red flag and likely part of a scam. To learn more about how to identify and avoid recruitment fraud please visit https://careers.pypl.com/contact-us.

For the majority of employees, PayPal's balanced hybrid work model offers 3 days in the office for effective in-person collaboration and 2 days at your choice of either the PayPal office or your home workspace, ensuring that you equally have the benefits and conveniences of both locations.

Our Benefits:

At PayPal, we’re committed to building an equitable and inclusive global economy. And we can’t do this without our most important asset—you. That’s why we offer benefits to help you thrive in every stage of life. We champion your financial, physical, and mental health by offering valuable benefits and resources to help you care for the whole you.

We have great benefits including a flexible work environment, employee shares options, health and life insurance and more. To learn more about our benefits please visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.

Who We Are:

Click Here to learn more about our culture and community.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

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. In addition, 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.

Belonging at PayPal:

Our employees are central to advancing our mission, and we strive to create an environment where everyone can do their best work with a sense of purpose and belonging. Belonging at PayPal means creating a workplace with a sense of acceptance and security where all employees feel included and valued. We are proud to have a diverse workforce reflective of the merchants, consumers, and communities that we serve, and we continue to take tangible actions to cultivate inclusivity and belonging at PayPal.

Any general requests for consideration of your skills, please Join our Talent Community.

We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don’t hesitate to apply.