Sr Software Engineer

Job Summary

This role is needed to deliver HelixOS Migration work for Venmo

Venmo's risk decisioning runs on a legacy stack that is costly to change and not aligned with PayPal's shared risk architecture. Helix OS is the unified risk platform. Venmo must onboard to it to keep real-time fraud, credit, and abuse controls on one consistent, scalable, auditable foundation.

This job delivers complete solutions across the SDLC for the Venmo Risk Platform, powering real-time fraud and risk decisioning for millions of Venmo users. Design and build low-latency, highly available services.Partner with Risk Strategy, Data Science, and Product to turn risk and policy into reliable, auditable platform capabilities

Essential Responsibilities

• Delivers complete solutions spanning all phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) (design, implementation, testing, delivery and operations), based on definitions from more senior roles.
• Advises immediate management on project-level issues
• Guides junior engineers
• Operates with little day-to-day supervision, making technical decisions based on knowledge of internal conventions and industry best practices
• Applies knowledge of technical best practices in making decisions

Minimum Qualifications

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

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications

Education & Professional Background

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 3+ years of professional experience building enterprise-level software, ideally in risk, fraud, or payments systems.

Core Technical Expertise

• Expert in Java, J2EE, Spring Framework, and Spring Boot, building scalable RESTful APIs and microservices in cloud environments.
• Strong grasp of RESTful API design principles and patterns, with deep experience in relational databases (Oracle, MySQL) and NoSQL stores.
• Proven experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, Harness) and deploying to major cloud platforms (GCP preferred).
• Solid understanding of distributed systems and cloud infrastructure, including Docker and Kubernetes.
• Hands-on experience integrating AI/ML into backend systems: serving and calling ML models and LLM APIs, building feature pipelines, and supporting real-time inference for risk decisioning.
• Familiarity with GenAI application patterns such as prompt design, RAG, vector stores, agent/tool-calling (e.g., MCP), and guardrails, plus an understanding of model risks (hallucination, bias, drift, prompt injection) and responsible AI practices in regulated environments.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor) to improve code quality, accelerate testing, and generate documentation. You review and validate AI output rather than accepting it blindly.
• Ability to optimize backend performance and scalability in cloud-native environments, including latency, throughput, and cost of AI-enabled services.
• Experience with observability and monitoring of AI/ML-enabled services (model performance, drift, decision auditing, explainability).
• Exceptional analytical and debugging skills: troubleshoot complex issues, find root cause, and implement durable fixes.

Professional Attributes

• Self-motivated, with strong ownership and accountability for deliverables.
• Thrives in fast-paced environments with evolving priorities, and keeps pace with fast-moving AI tooling.

Leadership & Communication

• Track record leading and collaborating with cross-functional teams in matrix organizations.
• Translates complex business and risk requirements into effective technical architectures.
• Partners with Data Scientists, Product Managers, and Architects to productionize ML models and AI capabilities.

Nice to Have

• Experience with fraud, risk, or payments platforms.
• Experience with streaming/messaging (Kafka) and feature stores.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices (model deployment, versioning, A/B and shadow testing).

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: ($143,500.00 - $212,850.00 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.

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.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

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.