Principal Software Engineer

Role details

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: The Principal Software Engineer is a senior individual contributor role who will help transform PayPal's Compliance technology landscape. This role combines hands-on software engineering, architecture leadership, cloud modernization, and practical adoption of AI. The successful candidate will shape technology direction while remaining accountable for the design, development, and delivery of critical Compliance programs. Job Description: Essential 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 Minimum Qualifications: 10+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience. Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications : Lead the architecture, design, and delivery of complex, high-impact Compliance programs across multiple engineering teams. Remain hands-on through technical design, prototyping, code reviews, troubleshooting, and delivery of production-quality solutions. Define and execute cloud modernization strategies for Compliance platforms, including scalable services, APIs, data platforms, automation, observability, security, and resilience. Identify and deliver practical applications of AI, generative AI, and intelligent automation across Compliance products, operations, and engineering workflows. Establish sound architecture principles and make pragmatic decisions across build-versus-buy, modernization, scalability, reliability, and time-to-market. Translate ambiguous business and regulatory needs into clear technical solutions and executable delivery plans, moving quickly from problem definition to production outcomes. Partner with senior executives and technical leaders to influence technology strategy, investment decisions, and transformation priorities. Identify opportunities to simplify platforms, increase reuse, and improve engineering effectiveness across the Compliance domain. Mentor engineers while raising engineering, architecture, and operational standards. Subsidiary: PayPal Travel Percent: 0 PayPal does not charge candidates any fees for courses, applications, resume reviews, interviews, background checks, or onboarding. When making an application directly, we will never ask you to share passwords, one-time passcodes (OTP), or verification codes. Any such request is a red flag and likely part of a scam. All communication regarding your application will come from official PayPal email domains. If you suspect fraudulent activity, please report it immediately. 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