Lead Product Manager - Payments Data Platform & Governance

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:

PayPal is committed to building and scaling the next generation of payment integration technologies for merchants, consumers and developers globally. This team is part of the CTO’s organization and designing future-forward technologies and experiences to enable global commerce. Platform technologies built by this team will be instrumental in helping drive PayPal’s global reach through best-in-class technology solutions.

You will own the strategy and execution of the data platform and data governance ecosystem of global wallet products, ensuring secure, compliant, and high quality data for payments, compliance, and risk platforms. This role sits at the intersection of product, data, and financial regulation and is accountable for enabling safe innovation in a highly regulated environment.jobs.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

• Drives product strategy with cross-functional stakeholders consistent with the shared vision for the product or enabling platform.
• Plans and implements the architectural roadmap that balances innovative design and technical implementation, while balancing regulatory requirements, time-to-market, meeting customer needs and product profitability.
• Assesses the customer experience and customer needs in product requirements and decision making.
• Sets up data gathering mechanisms relative to the metrics that inform the success of products including usability studies, research and market analysis.
• Leads workstreams to include analytics, customer discovery, market research and competitive analysis to drive data-driven decision-making.
• Oversees product profitability measures, including budget.
• Plans operational mechanisms that drive execution and accountability including Product Reviews, Operating Reviews, and Business Reviews. Interfaces with product and technology leadership as needed.
• Partners with content strategists, data scientists, product designers and user experience researchers.
• Maximizes efficiency in a constantly evolving environment where the process is fluid and creative solutions are the standard.

Minimum Qualifications:

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

Key responsibilities

• Define a multi‑year product strategy for the enterprise data platform and governance services that power core use cases (KYC, AML, risk, fraud, ledgers, payments, regulations)

• Own the roadmap for foundational data capabilities: streaming and batch pipelines for financial events, data lake/warehouse and other data services, data catalog and lineage, access management, quality and observability, policy and consent management.

• Embed regulatory and compliance needs (KYC, AML, sanctions, GDPR/CCPA, SOX, PCI‑DSS, data residency) into platform and governance design as first‑class product requirements.

• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, InfoSec, and Privacy to translate policies into scalable controls (classification, retention, RBAC/ABAC, audit trails, segregation of duties) that are enforced via platform services rather than one‑off implementations

• Ensure data produced by product and systems (accounts, balances, transactions, underwriting decisions) is accurate, reconciled, well‑modeled, and discoverable for analytics, ML, and regulatory reporting.

• Drive adoption of platform and governance capabilities across payments, lending, fraud, growth, and operations teams, with clear documentation, onboarding paths, and SLAs tailored to financial workloads (latency, durability, correctness).

• Define and track KPIs such as data incident rate, regulatory findings tied to data, time‑to‑ship compliant features, data quality scores on critical assets, and platform NPS among internal customers.

• Lead build‑vs‑buy decisions for fintech‑specific tooling (transaction monitoring, customer 360, consent and preference management, catalog/lineage, data quality and observability) and manage vendor relationships where needed.

• Represent the data platform and governance domain in risk committees, audits, regulator interactions, and board‑level discussions as required.

• Mentor senior PMs and influence a distributed team of data and platform leaders to ensure coherence across markets, products, and regulatory regimes.

• Product leader for AI, data platforms, and agentic systems, specializing in MCP-based tool integration and autonomous data agents.
• Collaborate with data, security, and platform teams to ensure agentic data workflows comply with governance, privacy, and regulatory requirements.

  Qualifications

  • 12+ years of product management experience, with substantial time building data platforms, data infrastructure, or data governance in financial services or fintech.

  • Deep understanding of fintech business models (payments, banking, cards, wallets) and how data flows through ledgers, risk engines, and customer‑facing products.

  • Strong knowledge of modern data architectures (streaming with Kafka/Kinesis, lakehouse/warehouses, ELT/ETL, semantic layers) and how to design them for financial data integrity and reconciliation.

  • Hands‑on familiarity with data governance practices and tools: catalog and lineage, sensitive data discovery, RBAC/ABAC, data quality frameworks, policy and consent management, and audit reporting.

  • Proven experience embedding KYC/AML, privacy, and financial‑regulatory requirements into product roadmaps, and partnering effectively with Compliance, Legal, and Risk.

  • Excellent communication and storytelling skills, able to explain complex data and regulatory constraints to executives and non‑technical stakeholders.

  • Operate as the accountable owner for data platform and governance across a major fintech product portfolio or business line, with direct impact on regulatory posture and revenue growth.

  • Anticipate regulatory and market changes, proactively evolve the platform and governance capabilities, and guide other product leaders on compliant innovation.

  • BS/BA in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field; advanced degree or equivalent industry experience in fintech or financial services preferred.

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

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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 | ($196,500.00 - $291,500.00 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.