Sr Manager, Technical Programs

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 is responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, and evaluation of complex engineering operational programs. This role involves providing technical oversight and ensuring program success through effective management of engineering, technical, and procurement activities.
Job Description:
Essential Responsibilities:
Scope: The project & program responsibilities are focused on the delivery of a product or computer-based system from design to release for customers.
Plan and manage a portfolio of engineering operational programs.
Provide technical guidance and support to program teams.
Establish and maintain program management processes and standards.
Monitor program progress and performance against objectives.
Communicate program status and issues to senior leadership.
Manage program budgets and resources.
Foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.
Minimum Qualifications:
8+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
Experience with program management methodologies and tools within an engineering environment.
Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are looking for a Senior Technical Program Manager (IC8) to lead a multi-year AWS cloud transformation program focused on building disaster recovery (DR) resiliency — evolving our environments from single-region operation to full multi-region, active/active or active/passive high-availability architectures. This role owns the program end-to-end: technical strategy alignment, cross-team execution, DR testing cadence, and the audit and regulatory evidence required to demonstrate compliance to internal risk teams, external auditors, and the Board.
This is a senior IC role for someone who can operate as a program manager with credible technical experience to pressure-test architecture decisions, sequence dependencies correctly, and know when a plan is at risk, without escalations from engineering as well as technical thought partner to engineering leadership, and a credible voice in front of C-suite and audit stakeholders.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Program Leadership & Delivery
Own the multi-year roadmap for the cloud transformation and DR program, translating a board-level commitment (e.g., multi-region HA by a target date) into phased milestones, dependencies, and staffing plans.
Build and maintain the master program plan across infrastructure, application, data, and network workstreams, identifying critical path and cross-team dependencies.
Drive a regular program governance cadence (steering committee, working groups, status reporting) with clear RAG status, risk registers, and decision logs.
Manage vendor/professional-services engagements tied to the transformation.
AWS Cloud Transformation & DR Architecture
Partner with engineering and cloud architecture teams to define the target-state multi-region topology, including data replication strategy, failover/failback mechanisms, and RTO/RPO targets per service tier.
Coordinate migration and re-architecture waves across service teams, sequencing work to minimize risk to production availability.
Track technical debt and single points of failure that block multi-region readiness, and drive remediation plans with accountable owners.
Maintain a working understanding of AWS services relevant to DR (e.g., cross-region replication, Route 53 failover, multi-region data stores) sufficient to evaluate trade-offs with architects.
DR Testing, Audit & Compliance
Own the DR testing program: tabletop exercises, partial failover tests, and full regional failover/failback tests, on a defined recurring cadence.
Define and track DR test success criteria, capture findings, and drive closure of gaps identified during each test cycle.
Serve as the primary point of contact for internal audit, risk, and compliance teams on DR readiness, producing evidence packages that satisfy audit and regulatory review (e.g., SOC 2, PCI, or equivalent framework requirements).
Maintain DR runbooks, escalation procedures, and compliance documentation in a state that is always audit-ready, not just ahead of a scheduled review.
Stakeholder & Executive Communication
Prepare and deliver concise, BLUF-style executive updates to SVP/C-suite stakeholders and steering committees, distinguishing sourced fact from analysis and clearly flagging risk.
Act as the connective tissue between engineering execution teams, architecture, security, legal/compliance, and finance/procurement.
Represent the program in cross-functional planning cycles (e.g., annual/3-year planning, budget submissions) and translate technical scope into business-case language.
Risk, Vendor & Headcount Management
Identify, log, and actively manage program risks, including single points of failure in staffing (e.g., key-person dependencies) as well as technical risk.
Manage relationships with AWS and any third-party implementation partners, including contract deliverables, SOWs, and milestone-based credits or commitments.
Support hiring and onboarding for program roles as nee