Staff Database Engineer

Socket.dev; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 177,000 - 262,000; Full time

Job summary

PayPal is seeking a Staff Database Engineer for the Venmo Data Platforms team in San Jose, CA. You will partner with engineering leadership to align service operations with business goals and mentor engineers to improve availability and scalability of production data stores (Aurora MySQL, DocumentDB, Cassandra, Redis, OpenSearch, DynamoDB).

You will design and operate cloud-native database systems, driving automation and AI-driven optimization while collaborating with infrastructure and product

Qualifications

• 5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Proficient in AWS data services and cloud-native database systems.
• Experience mentoring and developing leads and engineers.

Responsibilities

• Acts as a project or system leader, coordinating the activities of other engineers on the project or within the system.
• Determines the technical tasks that other engineers will follow.
• Actions result in the achievement of customer, operational, program or service objectives.
• Proactively improves existing structures & processes.
• Exercises judgement in reconciling diverse and competing priorities to identify optimal solutions.
• Notices patterns and condenses repetition into meaningful generalized solutions.
• Collaborates with management to set/improve standards for engineering rigor.
• Trusted to represent PayPal to the outside world via interactions with partners, customers, or industry organizations.

Skills

Mentoring engineers

Strong communication

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

AWS CLI

AWS CloudFormation

Terraform

Ansible

Puppet

AWS DynamoDB

AWS DocumentDB

Cassandra

MySQL

AWS Aurora

Redis

Elasticsearch

Lambda

API Gateway

Python

Java

Bash

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:

The Venmo Data Platforms team is responsible for engineering and operating Venmo's internal and customer-facing production data stores, including Aurora MySQL, Amazon DocumentDB, Cassandra, ElastiCache, OpenSearch, and DynamoDB.

As a Staff Database Engineer on the Data Platforms team, you will partner closely with engineering leadership to prioritize initiatives that align service operations with business goals. You will be a hands‑on technical leader who leads by example, mentoring engineers and product owners to improve service availability, reliability, and scalability through best practices.

In this role, you will design, implement, automate, and operate next‑generation, cloud‑native database systems. You will drive operational excellence through automation and AI‑driven optimization, while collaborating closely with infrastructure, and product teams to support Venmo's data‑driven innovation, platform resilience, and continued growth.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

• Acts as a project or system leader, coordinating the activities of other engineers on the project or within the system
• Determines the technical tasks that other engineers will follow
• Actions result in the achievement of customer, operational, program or service objectives
• Proactively improves existing structures & processes
• Exercises judgement in reconciling diverse and competing priorities (time, quality, complexity risk) to identify optimal solutions to problems
• Notices patterns and condenses repetition into densely meaningful generalized solutions
• Collaborates with management to set/improve standards for engineering rigor
• Trusted to represent PayPal, Inc to the outside world via interactions with partners, customers, or industry organizations

Minimum Qualifications:

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

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:

• Infrastructure as code (AWS CLI, AWS CloudFormation, Terraform, Ansible, Puppet)
• Expertise with programming and scripting (Lambda, API GW, Python, Java, Bash)
• Expertise with database design for relational and non-relational data stores.
• Expertise with database operations: AWS DynamoDB, AWS DocumentDB, Cassandra, MySQL, AWS Aurora, Redis, Elasticsearch
• Experience mentoring and developing leads and engineers
• Strong communication skills with the ability to understand and explain technical issues to a non‑technical audience
• AWS Solutions Architect preferred

Subsidiary:

Venmo

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: ($176,500.00 - $262,350.00 Annually)

Additional Location(s) | Pay Range:

Austin, Texas: ($160,500.00 - $238,700.00 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. 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 [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.

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.