Hardware Systems Engineer

The Team

Since we opened our doors in 2009, the world of commerce has evolved immensely, and so has Square. After enabling anyone to take payments and never miss a sale, we saw sellers stymied by disparate, outmoded products and tools that wouldn’t work together.

So we expanded into software and started building integrated, omnichannel solutions – to help sellers sell online, manage inventory, offer buy now, pay later functionality through Afterpay, book appointments, engage loyal buyers, and hire and pay staff. Across it all, we’ve embedded financial services tools at the point of sale, so merchants can access a business loan and manage their cash flow in one place. Afterpay furthers our goal to provide omnichannel tools that unlock meaningful value and growth, enabling sellers to capture the next generation shopper, increase order sizes, and compete at a larger scale.

Today, we are a partner to sellers of all sizes – large, enterprise-scale businesses with complex operations, sellers just starting, as well as merchants who began selling with Square and have grown larger over time. As our sellers grow, so do our solutions. There is a massive opportunity in front of us. We’re building a significant, meaningful, and lasting business, and we are helping sellers worldwide do the same.

The Role

Our hardware team builds the tangible connection to all that is Block. We started with the simple, iconic card reader that turns any phone into a mobile point of sale. Since then, we have expanded our hardware portfolio to meet the needs of more sellers. Although the technology inside our hardware is growing more and more complex, the end goal is always the same: simple, elegant hardware that our merchants are proud to show to their customers.

Systems Engineering is a relatively new team within hardware.  Our goal is to translate the fuzzy world of the customer experience (“WiFi that just works”, “premium touch experience”) to verifiable, measurable performance targets for engineering.  

We do this through:

• Building automated measurement systems to measure device performance;
• Designing and implementing experiments to evaluate new modules or device functionality;
• Working with Product Managers to calibrate these measurements to the customer experience;
• Translating our learnings into specs and validation plans for future products.
  
  

You Will

• Create Python scripts to orchestrate various instruments and the unit under test;
• Analyze large sums of data programmatically and create compelling figures;
• Use statistics to convert piles of data into meaningful product performance insights;
• Dive in to learn the trickiest cross-discipline hardware technologies (e.g. wifi, display, batteries) and help our engineers and product managers understand what matters most to our customers;
• Help develop new measurement setups for our prototype devices (fixture development, measurement specifications, test procedures);
• Pull together hardware engineers, software engineers and product managers to facilitate judgment calls that balance the product experience, cost and time;
• Help us define the future of Hardware Systems Engineering at Block.
  
  

You Have

• An investigative mindset, determination to find root cause of device behaviors and communicate insights clearly through reports;
• Proficiency in Python scripting;
• Developed hardware, software or modeling tools that someone else has used
• Created automated hardware + software setups  (e.g. robotics or instrumentation);
• Thrived in a fast-paced, fast-changing environment;
• Worked in a lab environment running tests and reviewing data;
• The ability to be in our Oakland lab 3 - 4 days per week.

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience working with embedded systems or a successful consumer electronics device
• Direct experience with one or more of these technologies:
• NFC
• WIFI
• Bluetooth
• Capacitive touch sensors
• Displays
• Batteries 
• Audio
• Performed tradeoff analysis early in the development cycle
• Working knowledge of data storage and retrieval.
• Experience with fabrication techniques (machine shop, laser cutters, 3D printers, soldering)

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 also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, and always assess candidates on an individualized basis.

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.

Block will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.