Description

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Essential Responsibilities:

- Leverage specialized security expertise to identify and resolve complex security issues, recommending best practices and determining new approaches that have an impact on broader security operations, while aligning security strategies with business priorities
- Partner across teams and key stakeholders to drive security initiatives, leading and solutioning complex projects and programs to strengthen overall security posture.
- Apply advanced analytical skills and sound judgment to solve security challenges, considering diverse perspectives and innovative solutions. Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies, understanding their security implications to the company’s context.
- Directly contribute to improvements within the security domain and occasionally beyond, ensuring decisions lead to meaningful enhancements in security practices.
- Leverage relationships across teams, both within and outside of security, to influence initiatives and integrate feedback into security processes.

Minimum Qualifications:

- 5+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:

In your day-to-day role you will be responsible for:

- Build the end-state API security capability plane: Consolidate today's separate API security lint, gateway traffic visibility, shadow-API detection, and schema (GraphQL/AsyncAPI) security checks into a single, coherent capability that plugs into the org's shared policy-as-code enforcement architecture - the same engine already governing container, static-analysis, and software-composition findings. Design the end state first - this is not a request to bolt on another point tool.
- Take the pre-release API security gate from draft architecture decision to a shipped control, working with the Staff Engineer who owns enforcement architecture to get the gateway-level hard-block policy enforced end to end. This person unblocks stalled decisions - they do not wait for consensus to form on its own.
- Own the dynamic application security testing (DAST) tooling strategy end to end: complete the current tool evaluation into a production migration decision, and execute it.
- Extend API security capability into two domains identified as organizational blind spots - pipeline access & execution control, and systemic artifact consumption verification - treating API security as one instance of the broader supply-chain security problem, not a silo, and enabling them through the shared enforcement architecture rather than a parallel one.
- Be a force multiplier: mentor engineers across the merged team, unblock stuck initiatives, and drive delivery and innovation without waiting to be told what's next.



Standard staff-engineer responsibilities and day-to-day routines apply in full - technical leadership, design review, on-call/escalation, sustaining engineering, and maintenance are shared responsibilities like any other staff engineer, not exceptions carved out for this role.
- Shape the Roadmap: Work with the engineering manager and tech leads to shape and prioritize the team's backlog, identify emerging business problems before they become fire drills, and think beyond the current scope of the role rather than just executing what's already been defined.

What do you need to bring:

- Software Engineering: 5+ years building production software with demonstrated staff-level ownership of a platform or system end-to-end, with hands-on coding experience in Python or Go - not just contributing features inside someone else's architecture.
- API Security Engineering: Deep, hands-on expertise in API architecture (REST, GraphQL, AsyncAPI), authZ/authN (OAuth2 scopes, token/session models), and API gateway or service-mesh internals (Envoy-class systems or equivalent).
- AI Knowledge: Working knowledge of how AI and agentic traffic is changing the API threat model - AI-driven API abuse patterns, agent-to-API authentication, and the security implications of agentic commerce - enough to reason about it directly, not just defer to the AI security team.
- Working fluency in policy-as-code approaches to security enforcement and CI/CD security gating - you can write enforcement policy, not just consume someone else's.
- Practical understanding of DAST/SAST tooling internals, deep enough to evaluate and replace an underperforming tool rather than just operate whatever is already in place.
- Security fundamentals across product, cloud, and vulnerability management that go a bit deeper than most - you know why a control exists, not just that it exists.
- Deep knowledge of the OWASP API Security Top 10 and common API abuse patterns (broken object-level authorization, excessive data exposure, resource/rate-limit abuse), and how to design controls that close them - not just cite the list.
- Hands-on experience with API traffic-protection mechanisms - rate limiting, bot/abuse mitigation, WAF/API gateway policy, and mutual TLS for service-to-service authentication.
- Working knowledge of API discovery and inventory practices, deep enough to stand up shadow-API detection rather than just consume a vendor's dashboard.

Subsidiary:

Pay Pal

Travel Percent:

0

Pay Pal 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 Pay Pal 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, Pay Pal'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 Pay Pal office or your home workspace, ensuring that you equally have the benefits and conveniences of both locations.

Our Benefits:

At Pay Pal, 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 versatile, 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:

to learn more about our culture and community.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

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. If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at .

Belonging at Pay Pal:

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 Pay Pal 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 Pay Pal.

Any general requests for consideration of your skills, please .

We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don’t hesitate to apply.

📌 Staff Security Engineer, API Security (India)
🏢 Paypal
📍 India