Senior Software Engineer, GraphQL Platform

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

Software Engineers on the GraphQL team help build and scale our GraphQL infrastructure that powers applications across Block's ecosystem. As a centralized platform team, we maintain the GraphQL infrastructure that connects and empowers product engineering teams across all of our brands including Square, Cash App, and other business units. This position is ideal for an experienced engineer passionate about API design, distributed systems, and building developer platforms that empower engineers to deliver products.

You Will

• Lead the design and implementation of core GraphQL platform features, including API gateway capabilities, schema management tools, and developer SDKs
• Drive platform architecture decisions and implement solutions that scale across Block's ecosystem
• Collaborate with product teams across Block (Square, Cash App, etc.) to understand their needs and build solutions that promote both internal and external API capabilities, and serving as a technical leader in GraphQL best practices as you mentor other engineers across the organization
• Proactively identify, design and implement performance monitoring, optimization, and reliability improvements for the GraphQL platform

You Have

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong knowledge in one of Typescript or Kotlin (or a similar language)
• Experience designing, building, and maintaining API platforms - including developer tools, developer-focused SDKs, and documentation (not strictly with GraphQL!)
• Experience driving technical decisions across an organization, mentoring engineers, and generally striving for technical excellence within your sphere of influence
• Contributed to scaling and operating distributed systems handling high traffic volumes
• Appreciation for details and helping teams collaborate more effectively and efficiently
• Kindness, maturity, and empathy for your end-users and colleagues

Onboarding Process:

You'll have a gentle yet purposeful onboarding experience that respects your expertise while giving you time to learn and grow comfortable with our systems, processes, and people. We believe that even experienced engineers deserve a supportive environment when joining a new team!

Within 1 month, you will:

• Gain familiarity with the inner workings of our GraphQL platform, exploring our Apollo-powered federated architecture and learning about the various internal teams that rely on it, while also learning how you'll contribute to scaling our platform 100M+ daily requests by the end of 2026
• Deploy your first meaningful changes to production with the right amount of guidance and support

Within 3 months, you will:

• Share your expertise and perspective in architectural discussions, as you begin mentoring team members in your areas of strength
• Take ownership of a significant component within our platform ecosystem, with continued support from teammates who help you navigate our team's unique set of challenges
• Join our on-call rotation with plenty of shadowing opportunities and a supportive escalation path

Within 6 months, you will:

• Become more comfortable operating as a GraphQL ambassador to the rest of Block engineering, identifying use-cases across the company where GraphQL can solve engineering problems for our customers
• Lead the design and implementation of new platform capabilities with the collaborative support of the team
• Drive initiatives that improve our systems and our team processes, being encouraged to bring new perspectives to our challenges
• Establish yourself as a valued voice in technical discussions as you help shape our engineering practices
• Feel like a fully integrated member of our team, with strong relationships across the organization

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.