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Staff Software Engineer, Financial Platform - Issuing

Block· 10414 Engineering - Fintech Platform
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Melbournefull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Staff Software Engineer for the Financial Platform Issuing team, responsible for the card issuing platform powering Cash App Card, Square Card, and future programs. Combines deep card-network expertise with hands-on software engineering to build, certify, and operate network-facing systems across issuance, fulfillment, activation, and processing.

Responsibilities

  • Be a deep technical expert on global card networks, interpreting specifications, message flows, certification requirements, mandates, and production behavior; influence network requirements and secure outcomes for Block.
  • Lead complex engineering problems at the network boundary spanning 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 hands-on: write production code, build certification and conformance tooling, analyze network messages, review designs and code, and debug down to protocol/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 to make network expertise durable and enabling 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 improvements to reliability and correctness.

Qualifications

  • A minimum of 12 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 8 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 5 years experience; or equivalent experience.
  • 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 — not only integrated through a processor.
  • Experience working directly with card networks to land concrete outcomes, such as 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.
  • A track record of leading technically complex, ambiguous work across team boundaries and influencing technical direction beyond your immediate area of ownership.
  • Experience creating durable technical leverage — frameworks, standards, tooling, architecture, or practices that other engineers and teams adopt.
  • Broad understanding of the card lifecycle, with depth in areas such as issuance and fulfillment, provisioning and activation, authorization, ledgering, clearing and settlement, reconciliation, disputes, or fraud.
  • Working knowledge of Mastercard and American Express, alongside deep expertise in at least one major network.
  • Fluency with AI-assisted engineering workflows and sound judgment in evaluating and applying AI-generated output.
  • Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation for critical financial systems.

Skills

Required:Card network expertiseNetwork certificationDirect network connectivitySoftware engineeringProject/tech leadership
Nice to have:AI in engineering

Benefits

  • Remote work, medical insurance, flexible time off, retirement savings plans, and modern family planning are among the benefits offered.
Last updated Oct 7, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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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.

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