Sr. Staff Product Security Engineer- AI

PayPal Inc.; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 179,000 - 265,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Balanced hybrid work model

Healthcare coverage

Paid time off

Job summary

PayPal is seeking a Senior Staff Product Security Engineer, AI Security, to lead security across AI-enabled development and tools. You will shape controls for AI systems, review models and agents, and partner with AI platform teams to embed security by design.

The role focuses on reducing risk, scaling protections, and guiding engineers through complex decisions. Based in Chicago with PayPal's hybrid model, you will mentor teams, drive security best practices, and partner with product,

Qualifications

• 8+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience with application security tools and cloud environments preferred.
• Strong programming experience in at least one language (Ruby, Java, Python, JavaScript, or Swift).
• Ability to mentor engineers and lead security initiatives across multiple teams.

Responsibilities

• Review AI security architecture and threat models to identify material risks.
• Design, prototype, or integrate AI security controls into products and engineering workflows.
• Evaluate security scanner results and runtime monitoring to drive engineering action.
• Mentor engineers and lead architectural decisions spanning multiple teams or business units.

Skills

Security architecture

Threat modeling

Mentoring engineers

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

SAST

DAST

SCA

WAF

Burp Suite

Job description

The CompanyPayPal 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 Senior Staff Product Security Engineer, AI Security at PayPal, you'll help protect 439M active accounts and $1.8T in annual payment volume by leading Product Security engineering across three areas: securing AI-assisted software development, protecting AI-enabled products and agentic systems, and applying AI to improve vulnerability detection and remediation. You'll partner with Security Architecture, engineering, product, and platform teams to translate AI security requirements into scalable controls, testing, and enforcement across PayPal's products and business units. Through hands-on technical leadership and mentorship, you'll turn emerging risks into durable capabilities and measurable risk reduction - reducing the likelihood that AI-assisted development introduces exploitable vulnerabilities or that AI-enabled systems misuse sensitive data, tools, or business actions, while improving PayPal's ability to detect, validate, and remediate vulnerabilities at scale.

Job Description

Essential Responsibilities

• Recognized as a security expert, independently resolving the most complex security challenges and providing strategic direction on problem resolution across the security domain.
• Define methods and procedures for new or special assignments, collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive security initiatives that align with business needs and objectives.
• Lead complex, high-impact security projects of diverse scope, applying an in-depth understanding of business trends and security challenges to develop innovative solutions.
• Possess a keen awareness of the broader impact of decisions, with initiatives often leading to enterprise-wide improvements that enhance security practices and operational efficiency.

Minimum Qualifications

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

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on familiarity with application security tools (SAST, DAST, SCA, WAF, Burp Suite)
• Strong programming experience in at least one language (Ruby, Java, Python, JavaScript, or Swift)
• Knowledge of Kubernetes, Terraform, and version control systems such as Git
• Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud vendor (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Strong understanding of authentication and authorization protocols (OAuth 2.0, SAML)
• Deep knowledge of application security vulnerabilities, secure software development practices, and technical controls to identify, prevent, and remediate software risk
• Hands-on experience securing AI systems
• Strong software-engineering experience building and operating production security tooling, automation, platform services, or developer-facing capabilities
• Track record of partnering with developers to implement robust security controls
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and executive audiences
• Experience designing and operating security controls across cloud environments, CI/CD systems, and diverse application and infrastructure stacks
• Experience mentoring and developing engineers

Define Product Security's technical strategy and roadmap for AI security controls and assurance, partnering with Security Architecture to translate requirements into scalable engineering capabilities.

Design, implement, and operate controls for AI-assisted software development, including security review of AI-generated code, security context and constraints for coding agents, automated testing, and risk-based enforcement.

Lead security reviews of AI-enabled applications and their models, agents, retrieval systems, data flows, and external tool integrations.

Create controls for agent identity, least privilege, tool access, execution isolation, human approval, and interruption of unsafe behavior.

Establish security controls for AI models, agents, toolsets, datasets, and pipelines.

Define runtime monitoring, auditability, detection, containment, and incident-response requirements for AI systems, including visibility into agent actions, tool calls, and sensitive-data access.

Build and scale AI-driven capabilities for vulnerability discovery, validation, prioritization, and remediation.

Partner with AI platform and cloud engineering teams to integrate security across AI infrastructure, platforms, and workloads.

Establish security criteria for evaluating, onboarding, integrating, and periodically reassessing third-party models, AI services, APIs, and developer tools.

Define methods and metrics for evaluating AI security risk, control effectiveness, remediation performance, and program adoption across PayPal.

Serve as a senior technical escalation point for complex AI security issues and lead architectural reviews following significant incidents or control failures.

Your Day-to-Day

• Reviewing an AI architecture, threat model, or agent workflow and identifying material security risks.
• Designing, prototyping, or integrating an AI security control into a product, shared platform, or engineering workflow.
• Evaluating results from AI security scanners, adversarial tests, and runtime monitoring to determine required engineering action.
• Partnering with developers and platform teams to resolve complex design or implementation issues.
• Analyzing control coverage, effectiveness, adoption, and incident findings to determine program priorities.
• Mentoring engineers and leading technical decisions that span multiple teams or business units.

Pay Range

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: Chicago, Illinois: ($178,500.00 - $265,100.00 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.

PayPal does not charge candidates any fees for courses, applications, resume reviews, interviews, background checks, or onboarding. 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

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.