Senior Software Engineer, Data Enablement

Block; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 217,800 - 326,800; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Medical insurance

Flexible time off

Retirement savings plans

Job summary

Block is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to design and lead the data projection and event-streaming platform. You will define standards for low-latency, production-grade data products built on streaming data, collaborating across Risk, Compliance, Data Engineering, and Data Science.

You will own the technical direction for real-time data systems, mentor engineers, and partner with multiple teams to mature streaming pipelines while expanding the team’s domain knowledge across the data platform.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience or Block-equivalent.
• Deep experience designing and operating distributed, high-throughput backend systems in production.
• Hands-on experience with event-driven architecture and streaming platforms such as Kafka.
• Experience building streaming or real-time data systems; Spark Structured Streaming or Flink preferred.
• Proficiency in a JVM language such as Kotlin or similar backend background.
• Experience building on cloud infrastructure, ideally AWS.
• Track record of leading technical projects and mentoring engineers.
• Bonus points for data engineering background (pipelines, lakehouse, batch/streaming).

Responsibilities

• Become the subject-matter expert for Block's online data projections and event-streaming capabilities—designing the platform, frameworks, and standards others build on.
• Lead the technical direction for real-time, event-driven data systems used by business units across Block.
• Build and operate streaming pipelines and projection frameworks on high-volume event data.
• Partner with engineering teams across Block to turn Kafka event streams into reliable, low-latency data products.
• Improve the reliability, observability, and data quality of streaming systems in production.
• Mentor engineers and shape platform architecture and standards.
• Contribute to and grow familiar with other domains like the third-party data proxy backend and graph data store.

Skills

8+ years experience

Event-driven design

Mentoring engineers

Kotlin

Education

Tools

Kafka

Spark

Iceberg

Databricks

Snowflake

dbt

Prefect

DataHub

Kotlin

AWS

CloudEvents

Job description

Block is one company built from many blocks, all united by the same purpose of economic empowerment. The blocks that form our foundational teams — People, Finance, Counsel, Hardware, Information Security, Platform Infrastructure Engineering, and more — provide support and guidance at the corporate level. They work across business groups and around the globe, spanning time zones and disciplines to develop inclusive People policies, forecast finances, give legal counsel, safeguard systems, nurture new initiatives, and more. Every challenge creates possibilities, and we need different perspectives to see them all. Bring yours to Block.

The Role

The Data Enablement team builds the platforms and frameworks that move and serve data across Block. We support four core capabilities — online and offline data projections, a third-party data proxy, and graph data stores — for customers across the company, including Risk, Compliance, Data Engineering, and Data Science. As a Staff Software Engineer on the team, you will become the subject-matter expert and a significant contributor to our online data projections and event-streaming capabilities — designing the platform, frameworks, and standards that turn Block's event streams into low-latency, production-grade data products. Your work sets the technical direction for how teams across the company build on streaming data.

You Will

• Become the subject-matter expert for Block's online data projections and event-streaming capabilities — designing the platform, frameworks, and standards others build on
• Lead the technical direction for real-time, event-driven data systems used by business units across Block
• Build and operate streaming pipelines and projection frameworks on high-volume event data
• Partner with engineering teams across Block to turn Kafka event streams into reliable, low-latency data products
• Improve the reliability, observability, and data quality of streaming systems running in production
• Mentor engineers on the team and shape platform architecture and standards
• Contribute to and grow familiar with the team's other domains over time — supporting our third-party data proxy backend applications, graph data store capabilities, and offline batch data projections

You Have

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience (or Block equivalent, as referenced in go/levels)
• Deep experience designing and operating distributed, high-throughput backend systems in production
• Hands-on experience with event-driven architecture and streaming platforms such as Kafka
• Experience building streaming or real-time data systems; hands-on experience with Spark Structured Streaming or Flink is strongly preferred
• Proficiency in a JVM language such as Kotlin, or a comparable backend or systems programming background
• Experience building on cloud infrastructure, ideally AWS
• A track record of leading technical projects and mentoring other engineers
• Bonus points for a data engineering background (building data pipelines, lakehouse or warehouse modeling, or large-scale batch and streaming systems)

Technologies We Use and Teach

• Kafka, Spark, Spark Structured Streaming, Iceberg, Databricks, Snowflake, dbt, Prefect, block-forge, DataHub, Kotlin, AWS, CloudEvents

We're working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is an equal opportunity employer evaluating all employees and job applicants without regard to identity or any legally protected class. We will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and "fair chance" ordinances.

We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we're doing to build a workplace that is fair and square? Check out our I+D page.

While there is no specific deadline to apply for this role, U.S. roles are typically open for an average of 55 days before being filled by a successful candidate. Please refer to the date listed at the top of this job page for when this role was first posted.

Block takes a market-based approach to pay, and pay may vary depending on your location. U.S. locations are categorized into one of four zones based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future.

To find a location’s zone designation, please refer to this resource. If a location of interest is not listed, please speak with a recruiter for additional information.

Zone A: $217,800-$326,800 USD

Zone B: $207,000-$310,400 USD

Zone C: $196,100-$294,100 USD

Zone D: $185,200-$277,800 USD

Use of AI in Our Hiring Process

We may use automated AI tools to evaluate job applications for efficiency and consistency. These tools comply with local regulations, including bias audits, and we handle all personal data in accordance with state and local privacy laws.

Contact us here with hiring practice or data usage questions.

Every benefit we offer is designed with one goal: empowering you to do the best work of your career while building the life you want. Remote work, medical insurance, flexible time off, retirement savings plans, and modern family planning are just some of our offering.

Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ) builds technology to increase access to the global economy. Each of our brands unlocks different aspects of the economy for more people. Square makes commerce and financial services accessible to sellers. Cash App is the easy way to spend, send, and store money. Afterpay is transforming the way customers manage their spending over time. TIDAL is a music platform that empowers artists to thrive as entrepreneurs. Bitkey is a simple self‑custody wallet built for bitcoin. Proto is a suite of bitcoin mining products and services. Together, we’re helping build a financial system that is open to everyone.

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