Staff Software Engineer (Tech Lead), TBD
Published on April 23, 2024
Fifteen years ago, not all businesses could accept credit cards. Square set out to change that – inventing the first mobile card reader of its kind. This allowed businesses to take payments anywhere and keep thriving in the economy. It also completely disrupted how the financial system thinks about small businesses. With this shift, Square’s journey took off – moving far beyond its origins as a payment processor to building new tools and solutions for the future.
Today, Square is the largest business technology platform serving all kinds of businesses. The Square operating system allows business owners to sell anywhere, work more efficiently, manage inventory, communicate with customers, book appointments, courses or meals, order online and so much more. These tools unlock endless possibilities and countless opportunities for any operation, from global chains to mom-and-pop shops.
Company Description
Founded in July 2021, TBD is one of Block's four business units, alongside Square, Cash App, and Tidal. At TBD, we believe in a decentralized future that returns ownership and control over your finances, data, and identity. Guided by this vision, TBD is building an open source platform and developer infrastructure that enables everyone to access and participate in the global economy.
TBD is inviting the world to join us in building and adopting open and decentralized technologies that solve real problems for real people — from next generation infrastructure that lowers the cost of global payments and enables frictionless commerce, to decentralized identity technologies that enable anyone to access and participate in the global economy. Our mission advances economic empowerment through the power of decentralized solutions, built open source and collaboratively.
The offerings we build will provide developers, institutions, and individuals with the capabilities needed to build the next wave of innovative apps and services, and access this decentralized future. We’re leveraging bitcoin and other decentralized technologies to reinvent the global financial system in an open and permissionless way to further Block’s mission of economic empowerment, with a global focus.
TBD is inviting the world to join us in building and adopting open and decentralized technologies that solve real problems for real people — from next generation infrastructure that lowers the cost of global payments and enables frictionless commerce, to decentralized identity technologies that enable anyone to access and participate in the global economy. Our mission advances economic empowerment through the power of decentralized solutions, built open source and collaboratively.
The offerings we build will provide developers, institutions, and individuals with the capabilities needed to build the next wave of innovative apps and services, and access this decentralized future. We’re leveraging bitcoin and other decentralized technologies to reinvent the global financial system in an open and permissionless way to further Block’s mission of economic empowerment, with a global focus.
Job Description
The product engineering team at TBD is responsible for delivery and operation of liquidity nodes, credential issuance and applications that work with the tbDEX protocol. Our offerings provide financial and identity services to customers and partners participating in the tbDEX network. tbDEX is a protocol for discovering liquidity and exchanging assets such as fiat money, real world goods, stablecoins or bitcoin. The tbDEX protocol utilizes Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs) to establish the provenance of identity in the real world.
TBD Engineering has teams focused on developer relations, compliance, decentralization, risk and infrastructure that work together with our product engineering team to deliver a seamless, secure, and compliant user experience with tbDEX.
As a Tech Lead within TBD Engineering you will be responsible for systems design, software architecture and implementation of these services. We prize a low-ego, deliver-and-iterate philosophy where everyone's ideas are heard.
Titles can vary widely across organizations, the right person for this role may be a Staff or Principal Engineer, an Engineering Manager or possibly a Director of Engineering depending on where they currently work. See the qualifications section for more details on what we mean by Staff or Tech Lead.
Due to our engineering team being primarily located in PST and AU time zones, we are prioritizing similar time zones to encourage a collaborative environment for our small engineering team.
Due to our engineering team being primarily located in PST and AU time zones, we are prioritizing similar time zones to encourage a collaborative environment for our small engineering team.
As a member of the engineering team you will collaborate with us to:
- Enable the team of Senior & Staff Engineers to achieve a path to production of a reliable and supportable financial services system.
- Partner closely with engineering leadership and cross functional teams to define our roadmap and be responsible for delivery.
- Contribute to the growth of our development capabilities through leading, mentoring and supporting fellow engineers.
- Establish practices around production delivery, on-call establishment.
- Establish secure development practices and system security alongside staff security engineers.
- Oversee the selection, implementation, and integration of appropriate technologies, focusing on efficiency, compatibility, and adaptability.
- Work within a rapidly changing startup-like, nascent business unit.
- Manage the use of fast-moving open source projects.
- Contribute to TBD's mission of addressing financial accessibility and the global south.
Qualifications
You Have:
- 15+ years of experience developing production grade systems and applications at non-trivial scale
- 10+ years of experience in cloud deployment; Kubernetes and AWS.
- Efficient programming skills in Golang
- Experience in shaping technical strategy across multiple teams or organizations. Ideal candidates will have demonstrated the ability to drive company-wide standards in software engineering practices.
- Experience leading other Staff-level Engineers with an emphasis on effective communication strategies
- Proven ability to move between IC and lead roles; you're flexible and able to wear the hat of architect, contributor, or manager, leading from the front or behind as the situation dictates
- Strong operations skills and background
Nice to have experience in/with: - Financial technology projects, cryptography, blockchain.
- Application level languages such as Javascript/Typescript, Kotlin, Rust, Ruby
Additional Information
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.
Zone A: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
Zone B: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
Zone C: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
Zone D: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
Zone A: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
Zone B: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
Zone C: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
Zone D: USD $217,800 - USD $326,800
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.
Full-time employee benefits include the following:
- Healthcare coverage (Medical, Vision and Dental insurance)
- Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account
- Retirement Plans including company match
- Employee Stock Purchase Program
- Wellness programs, including access to mental health, 1:1 financial planners, and a monthly wellness allowance
- Paid parental and caregiving leave
- Paid time off (including 12 paid holidays)
- Paid sick leave (1 hour per 26 hours worked (max 80 hours per calendar year to the extent legally permissible) for non-exempt employees and covered by our Flexible Time Off policy for exempt employees)
- Learning and Development resources
- Paid Life insurance, AD&D, and disability benefits
These benefits are further detailed in Block's policies. This role is also eligible to participate in Block's equity plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies, and may be eligible for a sign-on bonus. Sales roles may be eligible to participate in a commission plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.
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 a proud equal opportunity employer. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.
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.
Additionally, we consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.
We’ve noticed a rise in recruiting impersonations across the industry, where individuals are sending fake job offer emails. Contact from any of our recruiters or employees will always come from an email address ending with @block.xyz, @squareup.com, @tidal.com, or @afterpay.com, @clearpay.co.uk.
Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) is a global technology company with a focus on financial services. Made up of Square, Cash App, Spiral, TIDAL, and TBD, we build tools to help more people access the economy. Square helps sellers run and grow their businesses with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services. With Cash App, anyone can easily send, spend, or invest their money in stocks or Bitcoin. Spiral (formerly Square Crypto) builds and funds free, open-source Bitcoin projects. Artists use TIDAL to help them succeed as entrepreneurs and connect more deeply with fans. TBD is building an open developer platform to make it easier to access Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies without having to go through an institution.
While there is no specific deadline to apply for this role, on average, U.S. open roles are posted for 70 days before being filled by a successful candidate.