Senior Platform Engineer

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
We're looking for an experienced Platform Engineer who shares our values and passion in Internal Developer Platform architecture and infrastructure management at scale.
As a Senior Platform Engineer, you'll own our Kubernetes fleet (AWS EKS) and build the self-service infrastructure platform that empowers all Block software engineers and provides them a simple, secure and reliable platform to run their services on our Kubernetes platform. You'll report to the Compute Platform Engineering Manager, drive security and reliability improvements, and architect new tooling to streamline operations.
You'll be working alongside leading platform engineers, developer experience engineers, SRE engineers, product managers and product engineering teams, to build a unified kubernetes platform that empowers all Block product engineering teams. You will be instrumental in building and scaling our infrastructure provisioning and management.
You Will

• Own and operate our cloud environments, in particular our Kubernetes clusters (security, monitoring, upgrades and automation)
• Fluency of at least one coding language (Go, Python or similar) with experience of building and deploying applications on top of Kubernetes.
• Passion for automating manual and repetitive tasks (configuration, patching, etc) using Terraform or similar
• Ability to work across the stack to troubleshoot and diagnose problems (from application logs down to TCP/IP)
• Deep knowledge of Linux and container based systems and how they work (namespaces, CNI, networking, etc)
• Collaborate with other teams to design and implement tools that help automate end-to-end processes that involve the cloud infrastructure
• Integrate existing open source software tools and participate in those open source projects in order to contribute any new features or bug fixes
• Troubleshoot cluster failures and performance issues
• Provide leadership and mentor other platform engineers on the team
• Participate in an on-call rotation

You Have

• 6+ years of hands-on experience designing and operating large scale cloud infrastructure
• 3+ years of software engineering or devops experience
• A strong understanding of Kubernetes concepts, architecture, and best practices
• Proficient in IaC (Infrastructure as Code) like Terraform and GitOps
• Knowledge of Kubernetes security best practices and tools
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools and dashboards
• The ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams
• Experience developing in at least one of Go or Python
• Experience with Cloud (AWS/GCP) services and best practices architectures
• Comfortable using the Linux/Unix command line and command line tools
• Experience with developing software for highly scalable/distributed systems
• Experience with large-scale installations of Linux/Unix

Technologies We Use and Teach

• EKS and Karpenter
• Go, Python
• Linux (CentOS)
• Terraform
• Kargo

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:
$217,800 - $326,800 USD
Zone B:
$207,000 - $310,400 USD
Zone C:
$196,100 - $294,100 USD
Zone D:
$185,200 - $277,800 USD
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.