Senior Software Engineer, Product Platform

Block; Oakland (CA); On-site; USD 196,000 - 327,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Medical insurance

Flexible time off

Retirement savings plans

Job summary

Block is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for the Data Stores team within Product Platform Engineering. You will design and operate database and storage platform software, building APIs and tools to automate provisioning, migrations, and upgrades.

The role covers backend services, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and developer tooling. You will work across database behavior, application code, distributed systems, and networking to deliver pragmatic solutions, collaborating with

Qualifications

• 5+ years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree or 3 years with a Master’s degree.
• Experience building and operating backend, infrastructure, or distributed systems with production relational databases.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals across unfamiliar systems and domains.
• Understanding of transactions, indexing, replication, schema evolution, and query performance.
• Experience in database infrastructure, distributed storage, migrations, cloud services, or developer tooling.
• Ability to turn ambiguous problems into clear plans and solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate database and storage platform software for Block engineers.
• Build services, APIs, and tooling for provisioning, migrations, upgrades, and lifecycle ops.
• Solve database scaling and performance while preserving data correctness and availability.
• Collaborate across database behavior, application code, and cloud infra to deliver pragmatic solutions.
• Partner with teams on schema design, query patterns, and platform adoption.
• Unify and modernize data store platforms to reduce toil and enforce safe practices.
• Lead technical projects from framing to rollout, including on-call ownership.
• Balance performance, reliability, cost, maintainability, and developer experience.
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate development with careful review and testing.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, ownership, and shipping reliable software.

Skills

Database design

Distributed systems

Go programming

Cloud infrastructure

AI tooling

Debugging production

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree

Tools

MySQL

AWS Aurora

Vitess

DynamoDB

Redis

OpenSearch

Kubernetes

Go

Java

Ruby

Job description

Block builds simple, powerful tools that make progress towards an economy that’s truly open to all.

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. Join us.

The Role

Product Platform Engineering builds and unifies the foundational systems Block engineers use to create, ship, and operate products. Within Product Platform Engineering, the Data Stores team builds the database and storage platforms that help engineering teams manage data safely, reliably, and efficiently.

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer with experience in databases and a generalist mindset. You will build new database platform capabilities, improve the systems engineers depend on every day, and work across backend services, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and developer tooling. This is a software engineering role for someone who enjoys going deep on database problems without being limited to one technical domain. You will ask good questions, make sound technical bets, and use AI as a native part of how you explore, build, test, and learn

You Will

• Design, build, and operate database and storage platform software that helps Block engineers build reliable products.
• Build services, APIs, and developer tools that automate database provisioning, schema changes, data migrations, upgrades, and other lifecycle operations.
• Solve database scaling and performance problems while protecting data correctness, durability, and availability.
• Work across database behavior, application code, distributed systems, networking, and cloud infrastructure to understand problems and deliver pragmatic solutions.
• Partner with engineering teams on schema design, query patterns, and platform adoption, turning recurring challenges into reusable capabilities.
• Help unify and modernize existing data store platforms, reducing operational toil and making safe practices the default.
• Lead technical projects from problem framing through implementation, testing, rollout, and operational ownership, including on-call participation and incident response.
• Make thoughtful tradeoffs between performance, reliability, cost, maintainability, and developer experience.
• Use AI tools to accelerate development and system understanding, while applying careful review, testing, and engineering judgment.
• Contribute to a culture that values curiosity, direct communication, early ownership, and learning through shipping.

You Have

• A minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or equivalent work experience.
• Experience building and operating backend, infrastructure, or distributed systems, with meaningful experience working with relational databases in production.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and the ability to work across unfamiliar systems, codebases, and technical domains.
• A practical understanding of database concepts such as transactions, indexing, replication, schema evolution, and query performance.
• Experience in one or more areas such as database infrastructure, distributed storage, online migrations, cloud services, Kubernetes, observability, or developer tooling. You do not need prior experience with every technology we use.
• A track record of turning ambiguous technical problems into clear plans and working solutions.
• Comfort debugging production systems, explaining technical tradeoffs, and partnering with engineers and technical leaders across teams.
• Interest in using AI as part of your engineering workflow and helping others apply it thoughtfully.
• Curiosity, judgment, and a willingness to ask questions early, go deep when needed, and take ownership beyond a single component.

Technologies We Use and Teach

• MySQL, AWS Aurora, Vitess, DynamoDB, Redis and ElastiCache, OpenSearch, AWS infrastructure, Kubernetes, backend services and APIs, observability tooling, Go, Java, Ruby, and AI-assisted engineering tools.

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.__Check out our other benefits at Block.

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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