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:
As Vice President of Product – Identity, you will define and lead PayPal’s identity platform as a core piece of trust infrastructure for global commerce. You will operate at the intersection of consumer experience, large-scale distributed systems, and enterprise risk—building durable identity primitives that power intuitive experiences across PayPal’s ecosystem.
This role owns the end-to-end identity stack: from user-facing authentication flows to the underlying abstractions, policies, and signals that enable safe, scalable commerce. With broad executive visibility and cross-functional sponsorship, you will shape both PayPal’s product roadmap and how identity is understood internally and externally—as a strategic platform rather than a collection of features.
Job Description:
What You Will Do
Set a Platform-Level Identity Vision
Define what identity means at PayPal and articulate a long-term vision for identity as a reusable, extensible platform. Balance product-led experience design with principled system architecture, ensuring identity solutions are composable, interoperable, and built to evolve alongside regulatory and ecosystem shifts.
Build Consumer-Grade Experiences on Deep Technical Foundations
Lead the creation of identity experiences that feel simple, fast, and trustworthy to consumers and merchants, while being powered by sophisticated authentication, authorization, and risk systems. Drive clarity on where friction is intentional and protective, and where abstraction and automation can materially improve the user experience without compromising safety.
Own Strategy Across the Identity Stack
Develop and execute a multi-year strategy spanning identity primitives, platform APIs, policy engines, and experience layers. Leverage emerging technologies and signals to reduce false positives, improve decision quality, and unlock new commerce use cases—while maintaining high availability, resilience, and performance at global scale.
Shape the Enterprise Narrative on Trust Infrastructure
Act as a senior, credible voice across the company on identity, login, and trust systems. Clearly frame the tradeoffs between friction, risk, and experience, and align executives and teams around a shared mental model for why identity investments are foundational to PayPal’s long-term success.
Drive Ecosystem and Industry Leadership
Represent PayPal externally as a leader in identity for commerce. Participate in industry forums, standards bodies, and technical working groups, helping shape best practices and influencing the future direction of identity, authentication, and digital trust at scale.
Lead Go-to-Market and Adoption
Partner with Product, Engineering, Design, Go-to-Market, Sales, and Marketing to translate platform capabilities into compelling value propositions. Ensure strong feedback loops, disciplined launches, and rapid adoption across consumer and merchant segments.
Own Business and Operating Outcomes
Carry full accountability for commercial performance, platform health, and delivery commitments. Establish operating mechanisms that emphasize clarity, rigor, and accountability—using metrics, reviews, and executive readouts to guide prioritization and investment decisions.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and scale a senior product organization, setting a high bar for consumer empathy, technical fluency, and systems thinking.
- Articulate a clear, coherent product strategy that connects long-term platform investments to near-term business impact.
- Deliver highly reliable, privacy-aware identity platforms that meet fintech-grade regulatory and risk requirements while enabling great experiences.
- Influence outcomes across a complex, matrixed organization, partnering closely with Engineering, Design, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Finance, Sales, and external partners.
- Drive data-informed decisions through experimentation, instrumentation, and continuous learning.
- Own budgets, KPIs, and operating rhythms, including product reviews, business reviews, and executive forums.
Qualifications & Experience
- 15+ years of experience building and scaling consumer-facing products and platforms, with senior leadership responsibility for large, technically complex domains.
- Deep technical fluency and credibility with engineering teams, including experience with large-scale distributed systems, platform abstractions, and API-driven architectures.
- Demonstrated contributions to identity standards and frameworks (e.g., FIDO, OpenID, OAuth, WebAuthn) strongly preferred.
- Proven ability to deliver consumer-grade experiences in high-trust, regulated environments.
- Experience operating at global scale within fintech, payments, eCommerce, or large consumer platforms.
- Track record of influencing outcomes in highly matrixed organizations and aligning senior stakeholders around shared narratives and priorities.
- Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to clearly and persuasively explain complex technical and risk concepts to executives, partners, and external audiences.
Why This Role
Identity is not a feature—it is foundational infrastructure. This role offers the opportunity to define how trust, safety, and seamless experiences coexist at global scale, and to shape PayPal’s platform and the broader identity ecosystem for years to come.
Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:
Subsidiary:
PayPal
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 | ($250,000.00 - $360,000.00 Annually)
Additional Location(s) | Pay Range:
No other locations are assigned to this requisition currently.
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 paypalglobaltalentacquisition@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.