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:

As a Senior Staff Product Security Engineer at PayPal, you’ll drive secure design practices that safeguard 434M accounts and $1.6T in annual payment volume. You’ll lead the Security Design Reviews Program and Security Champions Program, partner with engineering and product leaders to scale consistent security processes, and serve as the escalation point for complex design assessments. Through technical leadership and mentorship, you’ll influence product architecture decisions across PayPal’s global ecosystem.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

• Recognized as a security expert, independently resolving the most complex security challenges and providing strategic direction on problem resolution across the security domain.
• Define methods and procedures for new or special assignments, collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive security initiatives that align with business needs and objectives.
• Lead complex, high-impact security projects of diverse scope, applying an in-depth understanding of business trends and security challenges to develop innovative solutions.
• Possess a keen awareness of the broader impact of decisions, with initiatives often leading to enterprise-wide improvements that enhance security practices and operational efficiency.

Expected Qualifications:

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

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:

Responsibilities

• Lead and evolve PayPal’s Security Design Reviews and Security Champions programs, defining processes, tooling, and automation to enable scalable, high-quality reviews across all business units.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex product design and architecture reviews, guiding resolution of nuanced or high-risk issues.
• Define product architecture security strategy and drive the integration of security design practices into global engineering workflows.
• Determine methods and procedures for evaluating, prioritizing, and remediating security risks at scale.
• Deliver targeted training and coaching that empowers teams to build securely at scale.
• Partner with senior engineering and product leadership to influence technology direction, ensuring security is embedded in platform and product architecture decisions.
• Drive cross-functional, global initiatives that improve security posture and engineering efficiency, focusing on systemic risk reduction and process modernization.
• Lead the secure design and integration of AI and large language models (LLMs) in PayPal products and internal tooling.
• Develop and scale self-service security tooling, automation, and metrics for consistent program performance and visibility.
• Mentor and develop engineers across Product Security and the wider organization, fostering a culture of secure-by-design thinking.
• Stay ahead of emerging security technologies and threats, adapting program strategy to evolving risks and business priorities.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software development, application security, or cybersecurity, with proven ability to influence architecture and design decisions.
• Expertise in application security vulnerabilities (e.g., OWASP Top 10) and secure design practices.
• Proven experience driving global or enterprise-wide security initiatives or programs.
• Track record of partnering with developers to remediate vulnerabilities and implement robust security controls.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience architecting and operating security review programs or equivalent governance initiatives.
• Hands-on familiarity with application security tools (SAST, DAST, SCA, WAF, Burp Suite).
• Strong programming experience in at least one language such as Ruby, Java, Python, JavaScript, or Swift.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes, Terraform, and version control systems such as Git.
• Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud vendor (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Strong understanding of authentication and authorization protocols (OAuth 2.0, SAML).
• Experience with AI or ML security, including model security and data protection considerations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence both technical and executive audiences.
• Experience mentoring and developing engineers.

What you need to know about the role

This role provides a unique opportunity to define and lead one of the most critical pillars of PayPal’s product security strategy. You’ll have broad scope to shape the company’s approach to secure design, mentor technical leaders, and influence decisions that affect the security of PayPal’s global ecosystem.

Meet our team

Our mission is to embed security into every phase of the product development lifecycle, recognizing that security promotes quality engineering. We strive to create a culture of security by empowering teams to take responsibility for securing their own code and environments. We do this by providing leaders and engineers with the visibility, tools, guidance, training, and support needed to create secure products and systems. We prevent, identify, and respond to critical vulnerabilities within our ecosystem, driving response to limit potential impact to the business.

Your way to impact

Your work will directly influence the security architecture of products that serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide. You’ll lead initiatives that improve PayPal’s ability to identify, assess, and manage security risks early in the product lifecycle while empowering engineering teams to innovate safely and efficiently.

Your day-to-day

Responsibilities can be tailored based on business need, experience, and interest. In your day-to-day role, here are some activities you may be involved in:

• Setting strategic direction for the Security Design Reviews Program and ensuring consistent adoption across global product lines.
• Partnering with business unit leaders to scale the Security Champions Program, aligning outcomes with engineering productivity and security maturity goals.
• Reviewing and advising on high-impact architecture and product designs, providing deep technical expertise in secure systems engineering.
• Identifying systemic security gaps and driving multi-quarter initiatives to address root causes across teams and platforms.
• Overseeing development of automation and tooling that improves efficiency and quality of security assessments.
• Collaborating with senior leadership to define long-term product security strategy and metrics for success.
• Mentoring and coaching engineers to expand their technical and leadership capabilities.
• Representing Product Security in company-wide technical discussions, architectural councils, and global security initiatives.
• Leading post-incident architectural reviews and influencing design patterns that prevent recurrence.
• Anticipating emerging risks and evolving program focus to proactively address new threat vectors.

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

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

5

PayPal is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices.

Actual Compensation is based on various factors including but not limited to work location, and relevant skills and experience.

The total compensation for this practice may include an annual performance bonus (or other incentive compensation, as applicable), equity, and medical, dental, vision, and other benefits. For more information, visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com

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The US national annual pay range for this role is $169,500 to $291,500

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

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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

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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

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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

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