Software Engineer, Backend at PayPal in San Jose, CA

Software Engineer, Backend Location: San Jose, California, United States of America 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 Software Engineer, you will design, build, and maintain high-throughput, fault-tolerant services that process billions of payment transactions annually. You will partner closely with product managers, architects, and peer engineers to deliver reliable, scalable features that directly impact PayPal's global payments platform. This role is ideal for engineers who have a strong foundation in Java backend development and are ready to take greater ownership of complex technical challenges, mentor junior engineers, and influence team-level technical decisions. Job Description: Essential Responsibilities: Implements tasks within the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), receiving structure and oversight from more experienced staff Follows well-established internal conventions and standard procedures Understands internal standards & processes an applies them to make technical decisions Collaborates with peers, manager, and project lead to gain understanding of tasks and review solutions May contribute to code & design reviews Minimum Qualifications: 1+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience. Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications: Key Responsibilities Design & Development Design, develop, and own microservices and RESTful APIs powering PayPal's core payment flows Write clean, testable, and maintainable Java code aligned to team standards and best practices Participate in and lead design reviews, code reviews, and architecture discussions Contribute to technical roadmap planning and sprint execution with a focus on delivery quality Reliability & Performance Ensure services meet high availability, low-latency, and scalability SLAs at global scale Instrument services with observability tooling (metrics, logging, distributed tracing) Participate in on-call rotations and drive incident response, RCA, and remediation Collaboration & Mentorship Collaborate cross-functionally with product, security, QA, and platform engineering teams Mentor and guide CL3/CL4 engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and knowledge sharing Contribute to documentation, runbooks, and internal engineering wikis Required Qualifications Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field 3–6 years of hands-on professional software engineering experience Strong proficiency in Java (Java 11+); deep understanding of JVM, concurrency, and memory management Experience building and deploying RESTful microservices in distributed systems Solid understanding of SQL and NoSQL databases (MySQL, Oracle, Cassandra, Redis) Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and DevOps practices Strong command of data structures, algorithms, and system design principles Demonstrated ability to own features end-to-end — design through production Preferred Qualifications Experience with Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, or similar enterprise Java frameworks Hands-on experience with message queues and event-driven architectures (Kafka, ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ) Knowledge of financial systems, payment processing, or fintech domain Experience with cloud platforms — AWS, GCP, or Azure Familiarity with service mesh, API gateways, and security patterns (OAuth2, JWT, TLS) Contributions to open source projects or published technical writing Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment at scale Subsidiary: PayPal 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 | ($116,500.00 - $173,250.00 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. 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 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. 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.