Tech Infra, Lead Architect

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 Description Summary:

The Tech Infra Architecture Team at PayPal is responsible for defining and executing the long-term technical vision for the company's Tech Infrastructure organization. This team ensures that PayPal’s site, infrastructure and developer platforms are scalable, reliable, and aligned with business and engineering goals. Lead Architects are the fabric connecting Enterprise Architecture, SRE, Developer Productivity Engineering (DPE), Infrastructure, and Cloud domains who partner to drive strategy, standardization, and technical leadership across the organization.

Job Description:

Key Responsibilities
 

Strategy & Planning

• Define and maintain the Long-Term Architecture (LTA) in alignment with Enterprise Architecture.
• Ensure strategic and roadmap alignment across Tech Infrastructure domains, including SRE, DPE, Infra, Cloud, and China.
• Manage technical debt and system evolution strategies, ensuring long-term sustainability and efficiency.
• Evaluate and guide technology investment decisions, favoring industry-standard solutions (COTS/open-source) over bespoke development.
• Partner with leadership to influence organizational structure and execution strategy, applying Conway’s Law to optimize system design and team alignment.

Technical Architecture

• Ensure technical representation and alignment of Tech Infrastructure domain(s) with Enterprise Architecture.
• Develop and maintain architectural blueprints, standards, and system interaction patterns.
• Design and validate scalable integration patterns between different systems.
• Lead the design and evaluation of major architectural investments, such as service mesh implementations.
• Ensure that all architectural designs prioritize reliability, scalability, maintainability, observability, monitoring, and security.
   

Technical Leadership

• Lead/contribute to the Infrastructure Architecture Forum to review and approve High-Level Designs (HLDs) and Architectural Decision Records (ADRs).
• Provide technical leadership for strategic, cross-functional programs.
• Support senior leaders in the organization in solving complex challenges process, people, technology challenges.
• Participate in post mortem Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) and ensure corrective actions are holistic, addressing actual root causes while feeding insights into the LTA.
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration across teams to drive efficiency and prevent duplicate efforts.
• Mentor teams on architectural principles and best practices, ensuring a strong engineering culture.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
   

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software development, infrastructure, or cloud architecture roles.
• Strong understanding of systems design, enterprise architecture, distributed systems, and large-scale infrastructure.
• Experience with modern cloud-native architectures, and scalable integration patterns.
• Ability to drive technical strategy, governance, and architectural decision-making.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, especially in high-availability and mission-critical environments.
• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Experience with incident management, RCA processes, and technical debt management.

This role is ideal for architects who are passionate about shaping the future of Tech Infrastructure at PayPal, driving architectural excellence, and fostering a collaborative, high-impact engineering culture.

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

-

PayPal is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices.

Actual Compensation is based on various factors including but not limited to work location, and relevant skills and experience.

The total compensation for this practice may include an annual performance bonus (or other incentive compensation, as applicable), equity, and medical, dental, vision, and other benefits. For more information, visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.

The U.S. national annual pay range for this role is

$107300 to $259600

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 benefits to help you thrive in every stage of life. We champion your financial, physical, and mental health by offering valuable benefits and resources to help you care for the whole you.

We have great benefits including a flexible work environment, employee shares options, health and life insurance and more. To learn more about our benefits please visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.

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 talentaccommodations@paypal.com.

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.