Staff Development Engineer in Test - Android

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:

This job acts as a project leader, coordinating the activities of other engineers, determining technical tasks, and improving existing structures and processes. It involves making technical decisions, collaborating with management to set standards, and representing the company to external partners.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

• Acts as a project or system leader, coordinating the activities of other engineers on the project or within the system
• Determines the technical tasks that other engineers will follow
• Actions result in the achievement of customer, operational, program or service objectives
• Proactively improves existing structures & processes
• Exercises judgement in reconciling diverse and competing priorities (time, quality, complexity risk) to identify optimal solutions to problems
• Notices patterns and condenses repetition into densely meaningful generalized solutions
• Collaborates with management to set/improve standards for engineering rigor
• Trusted to represent PayPal, Inc to the outside world via interactions with partners, customers, or industry organizations

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience and a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

AI-Native Android Automation Infrastructure

• Architect and implement a robust test automation framework for native Android (Espresso or alternative)—prioritizing reliability, maintainability, and deep integration points for AI-powered testing agents.
• Collaborate with ML engineers and platform peers to co-design execution hooks and test data management systems enabling generative-AI-based test creation, triage, and bug analysis.
• Instrument test frameworks to capture rich, actionable data and signals, supporting both standard automation and AI-driven agents across the SDLC.
• Work closely with the Testing Platform Engineer to connect test execution, reporting, and dynamic selection to Harness CI/CD pipelines.

Developer Productivity

• Build, maintain, and scale tooling to enable fast, reliable, repeatable Android Functional, Integration, and end-to-end testing at every commit and release.
• Establish practices and utilities to enable dynamic/AI-based test selection and prioritization as part of continuous testing.
• Guide and promote best practices to reduce late bug detection, increase confidence in test results while ensuring that results and coverage enable safe releases.
• Collaborate with iOS SDET and cross-functional teams to align testing and automation strategies across platforms.

Advanced Testing Automation:
 

• Enable dynamic, AI-driven test selection, prioritization, and adaptive regression by integrating AI-generated test cases and selection logic into automation infrastructure.
• Automate non-functional testing including performance benchmarking, memory profiling, and security vulnerability scanning for Android.
• Develop screenshot/video comparison and log capture systems for fast identification of UI regressions and functional breakages.
• Instrument test frameworks and capture high-fidelity signals to power both standard and AI/agent-based testing throughout the SDLC.

Leadership, Collaboration, and Impact

• Collaborate with iOS SDET, Testing Platform Engineer, and cross-functional teams to align automation and AI agent integration across mobile platforms.
• Provide thought leadership and mentorship in automation, best practices, and the transition to AI-native quality engineering.
• Contribute to documentation, org-wide playbooks, and enablement programs that promote scaling of AI-enabled Android test strategies across teams.

Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years software engineering experience, focused on building and scaling mobile test automation and developer productivity tooling—at least 2 years in architecting greenfield test infra.
• Deep expertise in native Android automation frameworks (e.g. Espresso, UI Automator) and hands-on experience with device farm integrations.
• Strong skills in the design and extension of test frameworks for high signal fidelity and observability.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with ML/AI engineers or integrating with generative-AI systems (test generation, triage, or analytics).
• Proficiency in CI/CD tooling (preferably Harness), including designing and supporting automated pipelines for test execution and release gating.
• Track record of technical leadership at staff level: solving cross-functional problems, mentoring engineers, and influencing org-level testing practices.

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 | ($176,500.00 - $262,350.00 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