Design build and operate high-throughput fault-tolerant ledger and settlement systems of record. Develop durable ledgering APIs settlement orchestration and treasury automation. Ensure data contract integrity for downstream finance run production systems to SLOs debug multi-layer issues lead and mentor engineers and use AI tooling to reduce operational toil.

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
Ledgering is the accounting core that other teams at Block build on. We keep the authoritative records of balances for Square and Cash App along with the transactions and settlement that move that money. As a Senior Software Engineer on the team you will build and operate the systems of record for balances and transactions the settlement orchestration that decides how sellers and customers get paid and the automated treasury systems that position Block's own cash. At Block's transaction volume this work has direct measurable impact on financial accuracy and on the trust merchants and customers place in us.
You Will

• Design build and operate the balance and transaction systems of record that serve as the financial source of truth for millions of merchants and customers.
• Build settlement orchestration that determines how account holders get paid: schedules amounts deposit methods and withholdings.
• Develop self-serve ledgering APIs with durable semantics and clear contracts so partner teams can stand up a new balance or transaction type in about a day instead of waiting weeks on custom integration work.
• Emit balance and settlement data that downstream finance reconciliation and reporting teams can trust against agreed data contracts.
• Design and implement reliable high-volume distributed transaction-processing systems making thoughtful tradeoffs between consistency and availability when both are not possible.
• Drive convergence across a large portfolio of financial services: consistent transaction and balance models shared workflow tooling and predictable integration patterns.
• Operate tier-0 and tier-1 financial systems against published SLOs and debug production issues across services and multiple levels of the stack in a high-reliability environment.
• Work AI-natively: use AI agents throughout the development lifecycle and build agents and automation that reduce operational toil across our services.
• Lead complex projects end to end breaking the work into components and milestones that other engineers can pick up.
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to the technical direction of the team.
• Work with engineers product managers and finance and treasury stakeholders across the company to ship new capabilities at scale.

You Have

• A minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 3 years experience; or equivalent experience.
• Experience designing and operating distributed high-throughput fault-tolerant services with a strong understanding of consistency idempotency and failure handling.
• Experience building money-movement systems such as ledgers double-entry accounting settlement or treasury or the curiosity and drive to build deep expertise in the domain.
• Proficiency in at least one major programming language (for example Java Kotlin or Go) and strong SQL.
• Experience leading complex ambiguous projects across multiple engineering teams and driving clear next steps in areas without clear ownership.
• High standards for software architecture and engineering practices including maintainable and testable code CI/CD and observability in a complex high-stakes financial environment.
• Proficiency in using AI tools throughout the software development lifecycle to improve engineering productivity problem solving and software delivery.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Technologies We Use and Teach

• Java Kotlin Python
• AI agents and tooling across the development lifecycle including AMP Codex Claude Goose and MCP
• Temporal Protocol Buffers jOOQ GraphQL
• MySQL Aurora Vitess Databricks Snowflake
• AWS Kubernetes Terraform Datadog

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:
$217800 - $326800 USD
Zone B:
$207000 - $310400 USD
Zone C:
$196100 - $294100 USD
Zone D:
$185200 - $277800 USD
Application Guidelines
Candidates may submit up to 9 active applications within a 60-day period. Reapplications to the same role are accepted 90 days after a previous application has been reviewed.
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.