Senior Database Engineer

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

This job ensures the reliability, scalability, and performance of PayPal’s global data platforms. This role leads infrastructure transformations, architects petabyte-scale operational systems, and optimizes mission-critical OLTP and analytics environments. The engineer designs, implements, automates, and manages next-generation cloud-native database systems across multi-cloud platforms while driving operational excellence, automation, and AI-driven optimization. Collaboration with cross-functional data and product teams is essential to support PayPal’s data-driven innovation and platform resilience.

Job Description

Essential Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and manage high-performance database clusters (BigTable, Oracle, MySQL, Cloud SQL).
• Architect multi-cloud database solutions across AWS, GCP, and Azure.
• Build Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) frameworks using Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, and Packer.
• Optimize databases through indexing, partitioning, tuning, and query improvements.
• Automate schema deployment and management using GitOps and CI/CD workflows.
• Lead incident response and implement self-healing and failover strategies.
• Develop observability and alerting systems using Grafana, Datadog, and Prometheus.
• Create Python-based automation and AI-driven optimization tools for database operations.
• Ensure database security, compliance, and documentation best practices.
• Collaborate with engineers, data scientists, and ML teams to support analytics and platform goals.

Minimum Qualifications

• 3+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Proficiency in BigTable, Oracle, MySQL/MariaDB, Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, BigQuery, and Kubernetes.
• Expertise with Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, and GitOps automation frameworks.
• Strong programming in Python and SQL; familiarity with Bash, Java, or Scala.
• Experience with AWS, GCP, and Azure environments.
• Linux system administration and distributed systems troubleshooting skills.
• Deep understanding of observability tools (Grafana, Datadog, ELK).
• Strong focus on system reliability, performance tuning, and automation.

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and automation technologies such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CLI, Ansible, or Puppet.
• Strong programming and scripting skills using technologies such as Python, Java, Bash, AWS Lambda, and API Gateway.
• Strong knowledge of relational and non-relational database architecture, design, performance, availability, and operations.
• Hands‑on experience with technologies such as AWS Aurora MySQL, MySQL, DynamoDB, DocumentDB, Cassandra, Redis/ElastiCache, or Elasticsearch/OpenSearch.
• Experience operating databases in large‑scale, highly available AWS production environments.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with the ability to explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• AWS Solutions Architect or equivalent AWS certification preferred.

Subsidiary

Venmo

Travel Percent

0

Primary Location : Pay Range

San Jose, California: ($129,500.00 - $191,950.00 Annually)

Additional Location(s) : Pay Range

Austin, Texas: ($117,500.00 - $174,350.00 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

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 View email address on click.appcast.io.

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.