← All roles

Staff Software Engineer, Financial Platform - Issuing

Block· 10414 Engineering - Fintech Platform
Apply on company site
Hybrid (Bay Area)$263.6k - $395.4kfull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Staff Software Engineer on the Financial Platform Issuing team, specializing in card network integration, certification, and production-grade issuing platform duties for Cash App Card, Square Card, and future programs.

Responsibilities

  • Be a deep technical expert on global card networks, interpreting network specifications, message flows, certification requirements, mandates, and production behavior; work with networks to influence requirements and outcomes for Block.
  • Lead complex, ambiguous engineering problems at the network boundary that span multiple teams, systems, or domains.
  • Partner with technical leads, program DRIs, and senior stakeholders to shape solutions where card-network requirements intersect with Block's issuing platform.
  • Stay deeply hands-on: write production code, build certification and conformance tooling, analyze network messages, review designs and code, and debug issues down to the protocol and field level.
  • Drive network certification and mandatory release cycles end to end, translating network requirements into pragmatic engineering decisions.
  • Establish shared frameworks, standards, tooling, and practices that make network expertise durable and empower teams to operate independently.
  • Raise the technical capability of engineers through design guidance, code reviews, mentorship, documentation, and clear technical judgment.
  • Apply AI-powered tools throughout the engineering lifecycle to improve velocity and quality, and establish patterns for broader team use.
  • Share operational ownership of critical financial systems through on-call, incident response, and continuous reliability improvements.

Qualifications

  • Deep, current expertise with at least one major card network (ideally Visa) including direct connectivity, ISO 8583, authorization and clearing flows, stand-in processing, specifications, certification, and mandate cycles.
  • Personally built, certified, or operated a live direct network connection.
  • Experience working directly with card networks to land concrete outcomes (rulings, exceptions, extensions, configuration changes, defect fixes, or certification outcomes).
  • Strong hands-on software engineering experience building and operating highly reliable financial or payments systems at scale.
  • Track record of leading technically complex, ambiguous work across team boundaries and influencing technical direction beyond immediate area.
  • Experience creating durable technical leverage (frameworks, standards, tooling, architecture, or practices).
  • Broad understanding of the card lifecycle (issuance, provisioning, activation, authorization, ledgering, clearing and settlement, reconciliation, disputes, or fraud).
  • Working knowledge of Mastercard and American Express, with deep expertise in at least one major network.
  • Fluency with AI-assisted engineering workflows and sound judgment in evaluating/applying AI outputs.
  • Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation for critical financial systems.

Skills

Required:Card network expertiseNetwork certificationProduction-grade software engineeringNetwork message analysisOn-call / incident response
Nice to have:AI-assisted engineering

Benefits

  • Remote work, medical insurance, flexible time off, retirement savings plans, and modern family planning are offered.
Last updated Sep 16, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
Block logo

About Block

Block builds technology to increase access to the global economy.

Made up of Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL, Bitkey, and Proto, Block, Inc. builds technology to increase access to the global economy.

technologyfinancial servicesdigital paymentsmusic streaming
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at Block