Staff Software Engineer, Payment Pricing & Cost Platform

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, 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

Square processes billions of dollars worth of transactions every year. At that scale, even small optimizations can lead to huge business impact. Payment Pricing & Cost Platform makes data-driven improvements to core payment profitability by focusing on pricing and cost of a payment. This work has a direct impact on Square’s profitability and financial success. The team's engineers work together closely with data scientists and analysts. It offers competitive pricing optionality that serves all Square sellers, provides understandable and predictable pricing and supports reliable and transparent costs.

You Will

• Play a crucial role in strategic technical direction setting that supports our mission by influencing roadmaps, architectural considerations and platform cohesion.
• Raise the engineering excellence bar as it pertains to engineering practices, operational practices, and architecture/design reviews
• Drill in where there are problems (operations, SEVs, unblocking stuck teams, technical challenges) and foster a culture of improvement
• Oversee the delivery of strategic or complex initiatives by leading across teams and disciplines
• Lead by example and foster a culture of positivity, psychological safety, and inclusivity within the team
• Provide mentorship and share technical expertise with other engineers
• Help maintain and improve the processes we use to manage our work
• Participate in an escalated ONCALL rotation for high impact SEV

You Have

• 12+ years of industry experience designing and building backend systems using Java or an equivalent language
• A high degree of comfort and a track record of success in high-ambiguity problem spaces
• A track record showing the design, execution, and successful long-term maintenance of complex distributed systems that require high throughput and reliability
• Experience with ETL services and data modeling
• Experience leading complex technical projects, e.g. cross-team programs
• A strong sense of customer empathy and an interest in influencing the direction of a platform
• Excellent software engineering knowledge and the ability to provide technical mentorship and guidance.

Technologies We Use and Teach

• Java, Python, Ruby
• Guice, Guava, gRPC, Protocol Buffers
• Aurora, Dynamo, Airflow, Tensorflow, Kafka, Google Cloud Platform, AWS

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.