PayPal Lead Architect Developer Platforms 

United States, California, San Jose 

378870179

Strategy & Planning

• Define and maintain the Long-Term Architecture (LTA) for Developer Platforms and Experience, ensuring alignment with Enterprise Architecture.
• Develop a vision and roadmap for Developer Platforms and ensure alignment across Infrastructure, Cloud, SRE and AI/ML domains.
• Champion developer-centric practices across PayPal’s engineering organization while managing technical debt related to CI/CD, test environments, and developer portals.
• Lead decision-making processes for technology investments, focusing on industry standards (e.g. COTS, open-source solutions) for developer productivity tools and frameworks.
• Apply organizational principles like Conway’s Law to optimize team alignment and system design in ways that improve developer workflows.

Technical Architecture

• Architect scalable integration patterns for internal Developer Platforms, test environments, CI/CD pipelines, and other productivity engineering solutions.
• Develop and maintain technical standards, architectural blueprints, and design patterns for internal developer tools.
• Design and lead the implementation of developer-focused solutions such as portals, API management/gateway integrations (e.g., Kong, GraphQL), and environments for full-cycle development.
• Evaluate and guide strategic architectural investments (e.g., service mesh, staging environments' scalability, API observability).
• Prioritize reliability, scalability, traceability, monitoring, observability, and security in all design and architecture decisions.

Developer Productivity

• Drive enhancements in CI/CD environments with tools like Harness (current), Jenkins (legacy), GitHub EMU, and JFROG Artifactory.
• Build and enhance internal developer portals, consolidating workflows and orchestrating developer environments such as staging and sandbox layers.
• Advance developer automation strategies, improving iteration cycles, development speed, and usability across frameworks like UrbanCode Velocity and API Management platforms.
• Partner with teams managing messaging systems, L7 load balancers, and application environments (e.g., JVM frameworks for Java/JavaScript).
• Leverage observability tools such as Datadog to provide visibility into developer ecosystems and identify areas for optimization.
• Explore AI and ML-enabled technologies for code analysis, test automation, and developer productivity insights.

Technical Leadership

• Serve as a thought leader advocating for engineering best practices and architecting world-class Developer Platforms.
• Lead cross-functional program architecture reviews, including High-Level Designs (HLDs) and Architectural Decision Records (ADRs).
• Guide teams dealing with incident management, RCA processes, and overarching developer ecosystem strategies.
• Partner with PayPal leaders and engineers to foster collaboration, eliminate inefficiencies, and reduce duplicate efforts.
• Mentor teams on scalable development strategies and foster a culture of engineering excellence and innovation.
• Distill complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for stakeholders across technical and non-technical domains.

Qualifications:

• 12+ years of experience in development, infrastructure, or cloud architecture roles, with at least 5 years focused on Developer Platforms or Developer Productivity Engineering.
• Strong understanding of systems design, enterprise architecture principles, distributed systems, and developer-centric environments.
• Proven experience with modern CI/CD architectures, developer environment tooling, and internal developer platform solutions like Harness, Jenkins, and GitHub EMU.
• Expertise in designing and implementing scalable integration patterns (API management, GraphQL architecture, etc.).
• Familiarity with tools and frameworks such as Kong API Gateway, JFROG Artifactory, UrbanCode Velocity, JVM frameworks (Java/JavaScript), messaging systems, and Datadog for observability.
• Experience with developer environments such as test and staging systems, load balancing strategies, and monitoring systems for developer success.
• Ability to drive technical strategy, governance frameworks, and architectural decision-making with a focus on developer productivity.
• Strong problem-solving skills, particularly in high-availability and mission-critical environments.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Familiarity with AI capabilities to augment developer platforms and productivity strategies is a plus.

Who You Are

You are a visionary architect with deep expertise in Developer Platforms and Developer Productivity Engineering. You thrive on empowering developers to build faster, better, and with greater confidence. You bring a blend of technical acumen and leadership abilities, leveraging tools, processes, and collaboration to deliver best-class developer-centric solutions. If you are passionate about shaping the future of Developer Experience and building platforms that unlock the potential of engineering teams, this is the role for you.

Travel Percent:

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 .

The US national annual pay range for this role is $188,000 to $323,950

Our Benefits:

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