Job Summary:As a leader of the fastest growing segment at Venmo, CFS (Consumer Financial Services), this position will take primary accountability for the domain's backend platform features, capabilities and quality. As a strong partner to the Senior Director, this person makes technical decisions affecting multiple teams, establishes conventions and processes, handles multi-team initiatives, applies industry best practices, communicates technical issues, mentors others, and partners with product management.
Job Description:Essential Responsibilities: - Makes technical decisions affecting multiple teams, crossing organizational boundaries
- Establishes conventions & processes to be followed by other employees
- Actions determine the utilization of company resources (people, money, assets) and affect the effectiveness of the company
- Handles multiple, multi-team initiatives simultaneously, using judgement to prioritize among more issues than can be handled individually.
- Understands evolving industry capabilities & practices and can judiciously apply up--to-date information for optimal results
- Competent at communicating technical issues with non-technical audiences
- Spreads their behavior, principles, and knowledge as a means of improving technical results of other employees (via many means - modeling behavior, 1:1s, working sessions, quality documentation)
- Partners with product management, to ideate solutions to business problems & goals
Minimum Qualifications:- 8+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:- Bachelor's and/or Master's in computer science, or a related field of study, or equivalent experience
- 12+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time spent on backend platforms, authentication, or security-critical systems at scale.
- Deep expertise in Python and API management - including protocols like OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, FIDO2/WebAuthn - and a strong intuition for where they're applied correctly versus where they're abused.
- Proven track record of defining and shipping large-scale distributed systems, with experience leading technical strategy across multiple teams or organizations.
- Hands-on comfort with backend systems at scale (Python, Java, Go, or similar) and Cloud (AWS), along with the security engineering fundamentals to reason carefully about threat models, data handling, and attack surfaces.
- Experience working with or designing systems that meet regulatory requirements - KYC, AML, GDPR, or similar - and translating compliance constraints into implementable engineering decisions.
- Strong communication skills. You can write a crisp design doc, hold your own in an executive review, and explain a hard technical tradeoff to a non-technical stakeholder without losing precision.
- Expert with distributed services and backend systems
- Expertise with building services on public cloud - preferably AWS
- Experience in managing infrastructure as code using Terraform
Additional Responsibilities:- Set the technical direction for Venmo's CFS platform, including authentication, authorization, CFS verification, and fraud risk systems. You'll own the most complex, cross-cutting problems and drive them to resolution - from initial design through production.
- Partner with PayPal's platform and security teams to align on shared Venmo standards, reusable infrastructure, and cross-org initiatives, acting as a bridge between Venmo's product needs and PayPal's enterprise capabilities.
- Lead architectural reviews and define engineering standards for how the CFS team builds, scales, and secures its systems. You'll raise the bar on design quality, reliability, and security posture across the org.
- Mentor and develop senior engineers. You don't manage people, but you shape how the team thinks - through design docs, code reviews, technical debates, and examples.
- Collaborate with Product, Legal, Compliance, and Security to translate regulatory and risk requirements (KYC, AML, GDPR, PCI) into sound technical solutions that don't sacrifice developer experience or system performance.
- Identify and proactively address risks - whether that's a fragile authentication flow, a compliance gap, or a scaling bottleneck - before they become incidents.
- Own the performance and availability of the services, as well as participate in on-call rotations and provide support during incidents.
- Have an appetite for learning and contributing to complex projects alongside your colleagues.
Subsidiary:Venmo
Travel Percent:0
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 | ($196,500.00 - $291,500.00 Annually)
Additional Location(s) | Pay Range:Austin, Texas | ($178,500.00 - $265,100.00 Annually)
Additional compensation for this role may include an annual performance bonus, equity, or other incentive compensation, as applicable.
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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 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.
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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.
