Lead Technical Product Manager, PayPal Ads

PayPal; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 197,000 - 292,000; Full time

Job summary

PayPal Ads is building a commerce-centric advertising platform uniting PayPal, Venmo, and Honey audiences with advertisers, merchants, publishers, and technology partners. We seek a Lead Technical Product Manager to drive secure, scalable partner integrations and define reusable services, APIs, and data contracts across PayPal Ads surfaces.

You will translate opportunities into technical roadmaps, lead cross‑functional decisions with Engineering, Data Science, Privacy, Legal, Compliance, and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant product management experience.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Experience defining APIs, data platforms, or distributed services.

Responsibilities

• Build a scalable partner-integration roadmap across geographies, devices and OS.
• Define MVP requirements and plan stepwise enhancements for scale.
• Collaborate with Privacy, Legal and Compliance to meet regulatory requirements.

Skills

Product strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Architectural roadmaps

Data-driven decisions

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

APIs

Data contracts

Privacy by design

Job description

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:

PayPal Ads is building a commerce-centric advertising platform connecting PayPal, Venmo, and Honey audiences with advertisers, merchants, publishers, and technology partners. We are seeking a Lead Technical Product Manager to lead partner integrations that launch securely, reliably, and at scale.

You will define reusable services, APIs, data contracts, measurement capabilities, launch controls, and operational standards across PayPal Ads surfaces, including Onsite, Offsite, Storefront, Curated, Offers, and PayPal Ads Manager. Your work will accelerate launches, improve partner and advertiser experiences, protect consumer data, and grow measurable advertising revenue.

This builder role sits at the intersection of advertising technology, payments, identity, privacy, and data platforms. You will translate business opportunities into technical roadmaps and lead cross-functional decisions across Engineering, Data Science, Privacy, Legal, Compliance, InfoSec, and commercial teams.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

• Drives product strategy with cross-functional stakeholders consistent with the shared vision for the product or enabling platform.


• Plans and implements the architectural roadmap that balances innovative design and technical implementation, while balancing regulatory requirements, time-to-market, meeting customer needs and product profitability.


• Assesses the customer experience and customer needs in product requirements and decision making.


• Sets up data gathering mechanisms relative to the metrics that inform the success of products including usability studies, research and market analysis.


• Leads workstreams to include analytics, customer discovery, market research and competitive analysis to drive data-driven decision-making.


• Oversees product profitability measures, including budget.


• Plans operational mechanisms that drive execution and accountability including Product Reviews, Operating Reviews, and Business Reviews. Interfaces with product and technology leadership as needed.


• Partners with content strategists, data scientists, product designers and user experience researchers.


• Maximizes efficiency in a constantly evolving environment where the process is fluid and creative solutions are the standard.

Minimum Qualifications:

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

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:

What success looks like

In the first 12–18 months, you will establish a scalable partner-integration roadmap and materially improve the speed, safety, and quality of launching new advertising capabilities. Success will be measured through a combination of business, platform, and customer outcomes, including:

• Reduced partner integration and launch lead time.


• Increased number and quality of repeatable partner integrations across Ads surfaces.


• Improved adoption, availability, latency, reliability, and observability of partner-facing services


• Complete, auditable enforcement of consent, data minimization, and regional requirements.


• Improved measurement coverage, attribution quality, and experiment/incrementality readiness.


• Positive contribution to advertising revenue, partner economics, and operating margin.


• Fewer bespoke integrations through standardized APIs, event schemas, configuration, and launch controls.

Your day to day

In this role, you will:

• Build a robust strategy, developed in partnership with other key product managers, on how we scale secure ads solutions across geographies, devices, and operating systems with the goal of delivering simple, consistent, and measurable experiences for consumers and advertisers.


• Work with Ad Tech partners to determine how their solutions can intersect with PayPal Ads technology and experiences.


• Define the requirements for a MVP and then outline stepwise enhancements to bring the product experience to scale in the market.


• Implement the architectural roadmap that balances innovative design and technical implementation, while balancing regulatory requirements, time-to-market, meeting customer needs and product profitability.


• Control for the customer experience and customer needs in product requirements and as an input to decision making.


• Monitor metrics that inform the success of products including usability studies, research and market analysis.


• Manage one or more workstreams to include analytics, customer discovery, market research and competitive analysis to drive data-driven decision-making.


• Write clear technical requirements — API contracts, event schemas, SLAs, latency and fill budgets — and drive them to launch with engineering and data science.


• Partner with Privacy, Legal, and Compliance to operationalize consumer consent, data minimization, and market-specific requirements (including GDPR for UK and Germany expansion).


• Work across Ad Sales, Customer Success, Merchant Product, Venmo, Honey, and Checkout to land capabilities end to end, and with Finance on unit economics and margin.


• Participate in operational mechanisms that drive execution and accountability, including Product Reviews, Operating Reviews, and Business Reviews, and interface directly with PayPal Ads leadership.


• Mentor product managers on the team and raise the bar for technical product craft across the org.

What do you need to bring:

• Minimum of 8 years of relevant product management experience and a Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent practical experience.


• Demonstrated ownership of a technical platform or infrastructure product — APIs, data platforms, or distributed services — not only customer-facing features.


• The ability to work credibly with engineers on system design and trade-offs, and to write requirements precise enough to build from.


• Experience building high-growth B2C or consumer products with a customer-focused mindset


• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to write technical product requirement documents and to make technical trade-offs legible to commercial and executive audiences.


• Advanced problem-solving skills to build elegant solutions to thorny problems due to the complexity of the technical and regulatory environment in which our products are deployed.


• Strong data literacy — comfortable defining metrics, interrogating large datasets, and designing experiments and incrementality tests.


• Proven success shipping in ambiguity, on a new business line, with multiple senior stakeholders and a bias toward speed.


• Commitment to PayPal values of inclusion, innovation, collaboration and wellness


• Direct prior experience in Ads, eCommerce, FinTech, and/or banking ecosystems is a major plus

#paypaladsconnected

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

Primary Location | Pay Range:

San Jose, California: ($196,500.00 - $291,500.00 Annually)

Additional Location(s) | Pay Range:

Chicago, Illinois: ($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.

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 [e-mail].

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.