Software Engineer 3 at PayPal
San Jose, CA
$169,576–$243,500from the description
Jul 16, 2026
San Jose, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A mid-to-senior software engineering role focused on designing, building, and deploying scalable backend and frontend systems. Day-to-day work spans API development, distributed system architecture, database management, and contributing to CI/CD practices, with some mentoring of junior engineers. The position suits engineers with a strong background across Java, JavaScript, Node.js, Spring, and cloud platforms such as Google Cloud.
Senior level · 3+ years · Remote · Master's required · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 3,300 people nationally plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 1,950–5,900
Applicant volume Light — Few people clear these requirements, so an application that does clear them gets looked at. Worth applying to even if you miss a nice-to-have.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The job title is 'Software Engineer 3' — a level number that maps to a mid-to-senior IC band internally at PayPal, but the title carries no standard seniority label (Senior, Staff, etc.), so the title states no level. The actual requirements (Master's + 3 years, broad distributed-systems ownership, mentoring junior engineers) support a Senior classification.
The posting's primary work location is San Jose, CA, but the caller has declared this a fully-remote, national-pool role; no metro is recorded.
A Master's degree (or foreign equivalent) in CS/Engineering is explicitly required with no 'or equivalent experience' escape clause, so the degree requirement is set to Masters.
The role states candidates must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
React and Python appear in the job duties narrative and the 'etc.' framing of the Spring Boot/React mention, but are not enumerated in the numbered Special Skill Requirements section; they are treated as preferred/contextual rather than hard gates.
Oracle and MySQL are listed together as SQL-based database examples under one requirement; Oracle is named first and MySQL is captured as an alternative. Similarly, MongoDB and Cassandra are listed as NoSQL examples under the same requirement; MongoDB is named first and Cassandra is the alternative.
Redis and Memcached are listed as interchangeable caching tools under one requirement; Redis is named first and Memcached is the alternative.
Compensation may also include an annual performance bonus and equity, per the posting.
Caller marked this a fully-remote role — scored against the national candidate pool.
Read the full posting
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