Senior Software Engineer

Block Renovation Senior Software Engineer 

ABOUT US

Block is a renovation platform transforming the $450 billion renovation industry. Block democratizes access to high-end design, while combining design, construction, and materials into a streamlined experience. Block simplifies a complex and convoluted process and gives homeowners certainty on outcomes, quality, price, and time. 

Our mission is to give homeowners a better way to improve the spaces they live in, and to give contractors a better way to work. We are building an ambitious, tenacious, and creative team who is unafraid of tackling new challenges. The founders are former leaders at Casper, HuffPost, and Rent the Runway. Investors include Softbank, New Enterprise Associates, Lerer Hippeau, Giant Ventures, Obvious Ventures, MorningSide Ventures and more.

Employees come to Block for the opportunity to work in a rapidly scaling tech start-up that remains steadfastly dedicated to its employees, its culture, and constant iteration and improvement.

Learn more about the platform we’re building here.

ROLE

We are building an ambitious technical organization and looking for software engineers across backend, frontend, and full-stack to contribute to our mission. 

You will work with our engineering and product teams in a low-debt, high-velocity environment to develop our home renovation and contractor platform. 

As an early contributor, you will help contribute to key decisions about the technologies, tools, and best practices we adopt into our engineering culture. You will deliver the best experience possible for our clients while ensuring high standards of code quality. Your work will make a tangible impact on the lives of design and construction professionals along with people and their homes. 

Learn more about our tech stack here.

We have three cross functional product development squads: Growth, Scope and FX.

The Growth Squad focuses on the initial experience homeowners have with our platform - from helping them visualize their new spaces to scheduling their initial calls with Block Project Planners.

The Scope Squad focuses on the interdependencies between labor, materials and costs. They help our platform get smarter and better understand the complexities and intricacies of a renovation to keep things simple for homeowners and contractors. They also build tools to help with supply chain and logistics challenges to ensure the right materials arrive on the jobs sites at the right time.

The Efficiency and Experience Squad - FX for short - focuses on the lead-up to construction, schedule and task management, and communication between homeowners and contractors.

Some products you could work on:

• Visual Planner - a responsive web app for playing with different finish materials and visualizing them in real-time renders.
• Digital Scope Engine - an intelligence rule engine for managing the labor scope and materials for a renovation project, as well as the associate pricing model. 
• Builder App - the core of the technology experience for our network of General Contractors. From the app, GCs accept new projects, manage timelines, communicate with homeowners and keep track of the success of their business on the Block platform. 
• Customer Dashboard - the platform where homeowners see progress on their renovation project and take action to drive it forward. Starting with the planning stage of their project, through preparing to break ground, and finally while the finishing touches are put on their space, the dashboard gives our customers a real-time view into everything happening in their space. 

Some challenges you can help us solve:

• How can we learn a homeowner’s tastes in a fun way and use that knowledge to significantly reduce the time spent designing a space?
• How can we leverage experience from hundreds of past projects to solve construction challenges that pop up during design and in the field?
• How can we help GCs build their businesses and spend less time dealing with administrative work?
• How can we reliably and quickly get compatible building materials to job sites?

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Architect and build innovative, user friendly web applications for the renovation process
• Help set and uphold high standards for code quality, test coverage, and platform stability
• Collaborate on new ideas to rapidly create and test prototypes
• Work alongside engineering, product, design, and business counterparts
• Ensure our digital client experience is the best it can be
• Continually improve the engineering team as a whole through thoughtful code review and design doc feedback
• Make good, informed decisions around technical dept, 3rd party tools, and tradeoffs rather than reinventing the wheel 
• Iterate on internal process to help the team achieve more with less 

QUALIFICATIONS

• Generally, 5+ years experience developing and maintaining web applications
• Expert knowledge of modern ES6 Javascript/Typescript programming, testing, troubleshooting and automation techniques
• Advanced knowledge of at least one modern web UI framework such as React, Vue, or Angular. React preferred.
• Proficiency in designing and building GraphQL APIs, and optimizing their performance. We use Apollo.
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL (or other comparable RDBMS)
• Experience working with AWS technologies preferred
• Passion for developing and understanding best practices for software engineering
• Personal interest in solving complex problems that tangibly impact people

BENEFITS

• Earn equity in an early stage high-growth company
• 100% subsidized health insurance, dental coverage, vision coverage
• 12 weeks universal fully paid family leave
• PTO and company holidays
• 3 weeks a year where you can work anywhere  
• 401k retirement savings plan with matching employer contribution
• Employee discount on renovation services
• Budgeted learning and development stipends
• Working alongside an ambitious, kind, no-drama team

COMPANY VALUES

• Force simplicity
• Problems are our fuel
• Collaborate with tenacity and humility
• Save money where we should
• Speed is our advantage

Block is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in all its forms, and we encourage our employees to participate as their authentic selves in our work environment. We strive to build better for all, towards a more open, inclusive space. Come as you are.