Principal Machine Learning 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:

What you need to know about the role

This job will drive the strategic vision and development of cutting-edge machine learning models and algorithms to solve complex problems. You will work closely with data scientists, software engineers, and product teams to enhance services through innovative AI/ML solutions. Your role will involve building scalable ML pipelines, ensuring data quality, and deploying models into production environments to drive business insights and improve customer experiences.

Your Way to Impact

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer, you’ll lead mission-critical initiatives that define PayPal’s AI edge from large-scale model fine-tuning to the architecture of foundational AI systems. Your leadership will enable AI-native capabilities across personalization, fraud detection, customer experience, and internal productivity. You will shape how PayPal delivers trust, speed, and intelligence in every user interaction.

Meet Our Team
You’ll work within the core Applied Intelligence team, a cross-functional hub driving AI-first innovation across PayPal’s product and platform landscape. Your team’s work powers smarter workflows and more seamless experiences for our global customer base. This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll help align strategy, technology, and business outcomes.

Job Description:

Your Day to Day

• Define and drive strategic vision for model development and ML applications across business domains.

• Lead architecture and experimentation for foundational model pipelines.

• Manage end-to-end lifecycle from data prep and training to deployment and monitoring.

• Collaborate with product, infra, and engineering leaders to ship impactful solutions.

• Guide model evaluation frameworks, bias detection, and performance monitoring practices.

• Mentor technical leads and contribute to thought leadership internally and externally.

What You Need to Bring

• Minimum of 15 years of relevant experience with a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.

• Deep expertise in building and fine-tuning advanced ML models at scale.

• Strong experience with cloud-native ML solutions (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI).

• Proven success in leading multi-functional ML projects from research to production.

• Strong communication and strategic planning abilities to align tech with business.

Preferred Qualification:

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

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.