Jake Silver

Dec 2025 - Present

Promoted to Sr. Staff for org-wide impact; led Visual Core team roadmap for 120+ Venmo mobile engineers, driving a 24-month strategic vision for modularization and design system unification across Android and iOS.
Built Venmo’s first Design System documentation site and established a screenshot testing framework — the first at PayPal — both adopted as organization-wide engineering best practices.
Transformed mobile onboarding from one month to 5 days for 50+ engineers (adopted company-wide); mentored engineers toward Staff-level promotions and led Android office hours to raise the technical bar across teams.
Championing Declarative UI adoption across Venmo mobile, driving migration to Jetpack Compose on Android and SwiftUI on iOS to modernize the UI layer and improve developer experience at scale.

Feb 2024 - Dec 2025

Android lead on a team of 60+ full-time and contract engineers — a team that grew 3x during my tenure — working on the Venmo application used by millions of customers.
Led Debit Card push provisioning integration for Android and iOS on a tight timeline, enabling millions in revenue recognized by PayPal CEO Alex Chriss.
Tech lead for the native Android and iOS Visual Core team within Venmo Mobile Platform Engineering, owning the design system and shared UI component library used across all Venmo mobile applications.
Accessibility engineering lead for Venmo; pushed for WCAG 2.1 compliance across teams, led workshops for 75+ engineers and designers, and was selected as one of four speakers across PayPal for Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
Directly mentored engineers toward promotions and led bi-weekly Android tech discussions for 60+ engineers; championed Jetpack Compose / SwiftUI and dark mode adoption including CI/CD infrastructure.
Conducted technical interviews, promoted a culture of document and domain-driven design, and encouraged thoughtful technical discussion and code review.

Jul 2020 - Feb 2024

Mobile architect for native Android and iOS leading Venmo Teen Account project, resulting in 1M+ new teen accounts. Led a team of 20 mobile engineers from estimation and planning through delivery, managing epics, stories, sprint ceremonies, and stakeholder communication up to executive level.
Established Venmo’s accessibility practice as accessibility lead; drove WCAG 2.1 adoption across the Android and iOS codebase, documented engineering best practices, and began leading workshops to raise awareness across teams.
Contributed to technical excellence projects and platform team including CI/CD pipeline migration from Jenkins to GitHub Actions and modularization of the Android project structure.

May 2019 - Jul 2020

Joined Venmo team of fourteen Android engineers to bring features from conception to launch.
Hired as the first Android engineer in the new Chicago office; helped grow the team from 7 to 30+ engineers through interviewing and onboarding, and was promoted to Staff after one year.
Led Android development on Venmo Debit Card Rewards, Holler sticker integration, Cash a Check, and Venmo Credit Card Servicing.

Aug 2017 - May 2019

Maintained the higi Data API and Middleware for partners who consumed higi biometric data.
Presented at the Epic App Orchard Conference in 2019 on our proof of concept for a biometric data sharing platform using higi data and SMART on FHIR.
Designed and developed REST APIs and event-driven web services using WebAPI, .NET Framework, and Azure.
Learned React to assist with web application development for the higi kiosk station.
Co-owned development of the higi Android application and supported iOS development.
Led integration with third-party devices and SDKs, such as Fitbit and Garmin, using OAuth.
Advocated for the usage of Kotlin, Android Architecture Components, unit testing, and other improvements to the Android ecosystem.

Jan 2014 - June 2017

Hired as an intern in 2014, returned full-time to the MyChart Bedside mobile developer team, and was promoted to Team Lead after one year.
Developed improvements and new features for MyChart’s iOS and Android applications, used by millions of patients around the world.
Led development on a new feature within the MyChart Bedside application to allow users to electronically sign legal documents.
Managed a small team of mobile developers, coordinating architecture discussions, code solutioning, and releases.

June 2014

Assisted with guiding the guests, spectators, and delegates to their area of seating as well as assisted organizers with any other support they would require.
Supported the overall security plan for the competition.
Greeted all those spectators and participants visiting the Stadium, Fan Parks, Public Viewing venues or any other official venues in a friendly and kind manner.
Provided the guests, spectators, and delegates with relative information to make the person’s experience more enjoyable.

May 2015

Worked in the Computer Science lab as a consultant and in Catering services as a server and data entry assistant. Volunteered as an Admissions tour guide and helped found a mentoring program in Lafayette Village, a nearby housing community.

Languages: C#, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Objective-C, PHP, Python, Swift, SQL
Mobile: Android SDK, Jetpack Compose, iOS, SwiftUI, Google Jetpack Libraries
Backend & Web: GraphQL, SQLite, React (Native), Django, .NET Core/Framework, WebAPI, AWS, Azure, Redis, OAuth
Tooling: CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Harness), Figma, WCAG 2.1
AI Tools: Claude Code, Cursor, MCP Server Development, Agentic Workflows, AI Enablement & Documentation