Distinguished Software Architect

Job Summary

As a Distinguished Software Architect at Pay Pal, you will drive the architectural evolution of our critical systems, ensuring our platforms are cutting-edge, resilient, and adaptable to future needs. You will engage intensively with stakeholders, translate ideas into reality, navigate complex decision‑making landscapes, and provide clarity amid ambiguity. Your impact will span system robustness, team skill development, and guidance across technical and business domains.

• Develop methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for projects, programs, and people.
• Guide the business by aligning opportunities with technical innovations.
• Determine how to achieve success for the group, leveraging corporate priorities and peer relationships.
• Deliver long‑term results that influence Pay Pal’s success.
• Navigate unprecedented situations and set new norms that integrate technology, business, and personnel factors.
• Anticipate risks, trends, and marketplace opportunities, and identify strategic solutions.
• Reconcile situations without a definitive answer, selecting compromises that best serve the business.
• Act as a leader and visionary, inspiring, steering, and driving leaders toward a compelling goal.
• Collaborate with senior leadership on strategic decisions.
• Collaborate with business and engineering leaders to define product visions and translate them into actionable technical roadmaps.
• Lead the design and review of new and existing system architecture.
• Conduct deep research into existing platforms, learning the ecosystem and identifying optimization areas.
• Write documents, draw diagrams, and give presentations that convey requirements and architectural strategies.
• Act as a mentor and coach, helping develop technical leadership across the organization.

• 12+ years of relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a significant portion in a senior technical leadership role.
• Strong communication skills (written, verbal, and visual), with a proven ability to translate technical topics for a diverse audience.
• Successful experience designing large‑scale software systems, particularly in complex, multi‑stakeholder environments, and a track record of delivering strategic outcomes via incremental, risk‑managed milestones.
• Experience mentoring engineers and fostering technical talent across an organization.
• Ideally, experience with large‑scale iOS, Android, and web applications; personalization, experimentation, and performance optimization; advertising and marketing technologies; feature engineering, ML/AI model development & operation.

• Creative, pragmatic, and empathetic, with the ability to solve puzzles at the intersection of technology and business.
• A love of technology and a growth mindset.
• Strong leadership and problem‑solving skills in ambiguous environments.
• Demonstrated success in translating product roadmaps into coherent technical strategies.
• Track record of influencing senior stakeholders and shaping long‑term architectural decisions.

Pay Pal 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, Pay Pal will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.