Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Underwriting

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
The Underwriting, Fraud, and Credit MLE organization is on a mission to redefine credit and liquidity through simple, fair, and accessible credit solutions that build financial health and resilience. We are responsible for all credit decisions where Block advances funds or provides liquidity to consumers through Cash App and Afterpay. Our team builds the engineering systems and integrates ML solutions for evaluating customer cash flow risk - including risk of default on credit obligations, fraud & abuse of loans, and other scenarios where funds are advanced. Our products serve tens of millions of active customers monthly through offerings such as Cash App Borrow, Cash App Overdraft Protection, Afterpay on Cash Card, and Afterpay Buy Now Pay Later, and we are looking to expand to the 45 million consumers in the US who don't have access to traditional credit products. You can learn more about our work in the Q3 2024 Shareholder Letter .
This staff-level role offers a unique opportunity for organization-wide impact across multiple teams and dozens of engineers as we unify our platforms, incorporate generative AI into our workflows and further scale our products. The ideal candidate will have a strong software development background with experience in large-scale migrations or monolith decompositions, coupled with a focus on simplification and overcoming obstacles to ship software. They will be familiar with ML infrastructure such as feature stores, decision engines, and workflow orchestration tools to help inform and guide our long-term architectural evolution. They have an up-to-date understanding of GenAI tools and capabilities and can help develop the organization into being highly productive, cohesive and impactful. This is an exciting opportunity to make a tangible impact on our product and work on projects that are critical to the business's success. You'll be reporting to the head of the organization and working on a distributed team with members in the USA, Canada, and Australia.
You Will

• Shape the Technical Vision & Contribute Hands-On: Provide overall architectural and technical direction across our credit and underwriting platform, while still diving into the code to solve complex problems and lead by example.
• Champion Engineering Excellence: Promote reliability, correctness, testing, and maintainability standards, ensuring our systems are robust, secure, and future-proof.
• Mentor and Grow Teams: Coach engineers of varying experience levels, fostering learning and adopting emerging practices - particularly generative AI coding tools - to boost productivity and innovation.
• Scale and Refine Systems: Develop and evolve our distributed infrastructure to handle growing customer demands across multiple large-scale credit products.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with product managers, data scientists, ML modelers, and other stakeholders to align on goals, deliver impactful features, and continuously improve our engineering systems.

You Have

• 10+ years of backend software development experience in building and maintaining applications, including 3+ years of experience leading large scale features - planning, managing and implementing projects manner while maintaining a high quality bar.
• 3+ years of experience with ML Infrastructure such as data pipelines, feature development, decisioning, etc.
• Experience identifying globally optimal solutions in a system with many moving parts
• Possess a strong ownership and execution mindset and experience working with cross-functional teams that are globally distributed
• A strong track record in helping other engineers grow
• Passion about continuously learning new technologies, frameworks, and services, with a particular focus on generative AI.
• A keen interest in advancing Cash App's vision of building for economic empowerment

Technologies We Use and Teach

• Kotlin, Java, Python
• Onnx/PyTorch, LightGBM/XGBoost
• Kubernetes, AWS, DataDog, Kafka
• Hibernate, MySQL, Cassandra DB, DynamoDB
• HTTP, JSON, gRPC, Protocol Buffers

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 also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, and always assess candidates on an individualized basis. We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require an accommodation, let your recruiter know. Want to learn more about what we're doing to build an inclusive workplace? Check out our Inclusion & Diversity page .
Block takes a market-based approach to pay, and pay may vary depending on your location. Canada locations are categorized into one of two 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:
$222,900 - $334,300 CAD
Zone B:
$215,300 - $322,900 CAD
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. Check out benefits at Block.
Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) is a global technology company with a focus on financial services. Made up of Square, Cash App, Spiral, and TIDAL, 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.