Sr Lead Product Manager - Risk Decisioning Platform

PayPal; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 196,500 - 291,500; Full time

Job summary

PayPal in San Jose seeks a Lead Product Manager to own the strategy, roadmap, and execution for a core risk decisioning platform pillar. You will collaborate with engineering, data science, risk strategy, and UX to build scalable, real-time solutions that drive measurable outcomes.

You will focus on loss reduction, customer experience, efficiency, and revenue, while leading product reviews, steering committee updates, and ensuring alignment with organizational goals.

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

• Inputs to product strategy with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Implements the architectural roadmap balancing design, implementation, regulatory requirements, time-to-market, and profitability.
• Monitors metrics informing product success and usability.
• Manages workstreams including analytics, discovery, market research, and competitive analysis.

Skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Data-driven decisions

Strategic product planning

Agile delivery

Real-time platforms

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Tools

Feature stores

Real-time inference pipelines

Rule engines

A/B testing frameworks

Job description

Job Summary

At PayPal, real-time decision-making powers customer protection and global commerce. Our Risk Decisioning Platform drives fraud, credit, and compliance decisions, processing massive signal volumes in milliseconds. We’re looking for a Lead Product Manager to own the strategy, roadmap, and execution for a core platform pillar. The role focuses on measurable outcomes — loss reduction, customer experience, efficiency, and revenue — translating them into grounded specifications. The candidate will collaborate with engineering, data science, risk strategy, and UX to build scalable solutions, track platform health metrics, drive legacy migration, and enable real-time experimentation and rule governance. They will lead product reviews and steering committee updates. The ideal candidate brings strong technical foundation in scaled platforms such as recommendation engines, real-time inference systems, or ML/AI infrastructure, with broad impact across fraud, credit, and compliance.

Essential Responsibilities

• Inputs to product strategy with cross-functional stakeholders consistent with the shared vision for the product or enabling platform.
• Implements the architectural roadmap that balances innovative design and technical implementation, while balancing regulatory requirements, time-to-market, meeting customer needs and product profitability.
• Controls for the customer experience and customer needs in product requirements and as an input to decision making.
• Monitors metrics that inform the success of products including usability studies, research and market analysis.
• Manages one or more workstreams to include analytics, customer discovery, market research and competitive analysis to drive data‑driven decision‑making.
• Monitors product profitability measures, including budget.
• Participates in 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 developers, data scientists, product designers and user experience researchers.

Minimum Qualifications

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

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building or managing products in the decisioning, recommendation engine, or real-time scoring space (e.g., fraud scoring, credit underwriting, personalization platforms).
• Familiarity with feature stores, real-time inference pipelines, rule engines, or A/B experimentation frameworks.
• Track record of driving platform adoption across multiple internal customer teams.
• Strong data intuition: ability to define and interpret platform metrics, run analyses, and translate findings into product decisions.
• Experience with agile delivery at scale, including cross‑team dependency management and milestone‑driven roadmap execution.

Compensation

Base pay will depend on location and experience. Pay range: San Jose, California: $196,500.00–$291,500.00 annually; Chicago, Illinois: $178,500.00–$265,100.00 annually; Austin, Texas: $178,500.00–$265,100.00 annually. Additional compensation may include annual performance bonus, equity, or other incentive compensation, as applicable.

Benefits

PayPal offers comprehensive, choice‑based programs to support all aspects of personal well‑being—physical, emotional, and financial—delivering meaningful value where it matters most. The company strives to create a flexible, balanced work culture with generous paid time off, healthcare coverage for employees and their families, and resources to create financial security and mental‑health support.

Travel and Work Location

Travel: 5% of the time. Works in a hybrid model with 3 days in the office and 2 days at either the PayPal office or your home workspace.

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].

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

PayPal is an EEO employer that does not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic. This statement is provided as part of PayPal’s compliance with applicable laws and regulations. This remains an essential component warranting inclusion regardless of any other automation adjustments.