Staff Data Engineer

PayPal • San Jose, CA

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

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: This job will design and implement data systems to support business needs. You will work with stakeholders to understand requirements and deliver solutions. Your role involves driving best practices in data engineering, ensuring data quality, and mentoring junior engineers. Job Description: Essential Responsibilities: Lead and manage data engineering projects, ensuring timely delivery and alignment with business goals. Develop and maintain data architectures and pipelines to support data analysis and decision-making. Analyze complex datasets to identify trends, patterns, and insights that drive strategic initiatives. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand data needs and provide actionable insights. Ensure data quality and integrity through regular audits and validation processes. Mentor and guide junior data engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Minimum Qualifications: 5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience. Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications: Job Summary: PayPal is executing a strategic multi-year Marketing Transformation, building an integrated MarTech Platform that enables consistent, personalized digital experiences across PayPal brands. This role is at the heart of building this platform end-to-end - designing and developing the complete data infrastructure, pipelines, and systems that power our next-generation CDP-based Marketing Automation Platform. This is a deeply hands-on technical leadership role requiring demonstrated mastery in building enterprise-class data platforms and pipelines at massive scale. You will architect and develop data systems processing billions of records with expertise in both batch and real-time architectures that solve low-latency business problems. The role demands expert-level complex SQL skills, advanced data analysis capabilities, and the ability to determine new technical approaches that impact the broader team. In MarTech, Agentic AI is part of our first principles - you will be expected to be savvy with Agentic AI and bring innovative thinking to conceptualize next-generation data solutions. You will lead functional projects, mentor engineers, and drive engineering excellence. We need someone who can ramp up quickly and lead by example through hands-on contribution. Job Description: Essential Responsibilities: • Architect and hands-on develop enterprise-class data platforms capable of processing billions of records with high reliability and performance • Lead technical design and implementation of complex data systems spanning batch and real-time/streaming architectures • Write and optimize advanced complex SQL for data transformation, analysis, and performance tuning at petabyte scale • Build low-latency data solutions that solve time-critical business problems with sub-second response requirements • Drive innovation through Agentic AI - conceptualize and design data solutions that leverage Agentic AI capabilities • Provide technical leadership through hands-on coding, design reviews, and establishing engineering best practices • Drive architectural decisions for data pipeline solutions, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability • Troubleshoot the most complex data pipeline issues, guiding the team through root cause analysis and resolution • Mentor junior and senior engineers through pairing, code reviews, and technical guidance Expected Qualifications: • 8+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications: Position Responsibilities: • Ramp up quickly on systems and business context to start leading and delivering immediately • Lead by example - be the engineer others look to for technical excellence and hands-on problem solving • Own end-to-end delivery of complex data engineering projects from architecture through production • Build data solutions at PayPal scale - systems that process billions of events and transactions daily • Champion Agentic AI adoption - explore, prototype, and implement Agentic AI approaches for data engineering • Identify and implement process improvements that enhance data engineering efficiency and quality across the team • Proactively remove technical obstacles to ensure timely delivery of products and goals • Enforce engineering excellence through code quality standards, testing practices, and operational rigor • Collaborate with Product, Architecture, and Program Management to translate requirements into technical solutions Technical Leadership Qualities: • Lead through hands-on technical contribution and demonstrated expertise • Strong collaboration skills and ability to influence across teams through technical credibility • Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders • Drive results through a combination of individual contribution and team enablement • Operate with transparency and honesty in all interactions

Requirements

• 5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 8+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience
• Demonstrated deep hands-on mastery building enterprise-class data platforms and pipelines at massive scale
• Expert-level SQL skills - proven ability to write, optimize, and troubleshoot complex queries across billions of records
• Extensive experience with both batch processing (Spark, Dataproc) and real-time/streaming systems (Kafka, Pub/Sub, Dataflow)
• Proven track record building low-latency data systems that solve time-sensitive business problems
• Deep hands-on proficiency with Cloud data services. Preferably - BigQuery, Bigtable, Dataproc, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub
• Strong Python programming skills with focus on performance and scalability
• Experience with workflow orchestration at scale (Airflow, UC4, or similar)
• Strong understanding of data modeling, schema design, data warehouse architecture, and data lake patterns
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and DevOps practices
• Excellent debugging and troubleshooting skills for complex distributed data systems
• Demonstrated ability to ramp up quickly and deliver in fast-paced environments

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Agentic AI - ability to be savvy with Agentic AI and conceptualize innovative data solutions with outside-the-box thinking
• Experience in Marketing Technology (MarTech) or Advertising Technology (AdTech) domain
• Experience building Customer Data Platforms (CDP)
• Experience with Customer Segmentation and Activation across owned and paid channels
• Experience with real-time integration with third-party AdTech platforms
• Experience with Attribution and Analytics systems
• Experience with AI/ML pipelines or AI-enhanced data systems

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage data engineering projects, ensuring timely delivery and alignment with business goals.
• Develop and maintain data architectures and pipelines to support data analysis and decision-making.
• Analyze complex datasets to identify trends, patterns, and insights that drive strategic initiatives.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand data needs and provide actionable insights.
• Ensure data quality and integrity through regular audits and validation processes.
• Mentor and guide junior data engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Architect and hands-on develop enterprise-class data platforms capable of processing billions of records with high reliability and performance
• Lead technical design and implementation of complex data systems spanning batch and real-time/streaming architectures
• Write and optimize advanced complex SQL for data transformation, analysis, and performance tuning at petabyte scale
• Build low-latency data solutions that solve time-critical business problems with sub-second response requirements
• Drive innovation through Agentic AI - conceptualize and design data solutions that leverage Agentic AI capabilities
• Provide technical leadership through hands-on coding, design reviews, and establishing engineering best practices
• Drive architectural decisions for data pipeline solutions, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability
• Troubleshoot the most complex data pipeline issues, guiding the team through root cause analysis and resolution
• Mentor junior and senior engineers through pairing, code reviews, and technical guidance
• Ramp up quickly on systems and business context to start leading and delivering immediately
• Lead by example - be the engineer others look to for technical excellence and hands-on problem solving
• Own end-to-end delivery of complex data engineering projects from architecture through production
• Build data solutions at PayPal scale - systems that process billions of events and transactions daily
• Champion Agentic AI adoption - explore, prototype, and implement Agentic AI approaches for data engineering
• Identify and implement process improvements that enhance data engineering efficiency and quality across the team
• Proactively remove technical obstacles to ensure timely delivery of products and goals
• Enforce engineering excellence through code quality standards, testing practices, and operational rigor
• Collaborate with Product, Architecture, and Program Management to translate requirements into technical solutions

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 comprehensive, choice-based programs, to support all aspects of personal wellbeing—physical, emotional, and financial—delivering meaningful value where it matters most. We strive to create a flexible, balanced work culture with a holistic approach to benefits, including generous paid time off, healthcare coverage for you and your family, and resources to create financial security and support your mental health.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level