Description
It all started with an idea at Block in 2013. Initially built to take the pain out of peer-to-peer payments, Cash App has gone from a simple product with a single purpose to a dynamic ecosystem, developing unique financial products, including Afterpay/Clearpay, to provide a better way to send, spend, invest, borrow and save to our 50+ million monthly active customers.
The Role At Block, we strive to build the best financial products in the world. The Financial Platform Issuing team owns the card issuing platform that serves every Block brand , powering Cash App Card, the fourth-largest debit card program in the US, alongside Square Card and the new card programs Block launches next.
As a Staff Software Engineer on the Issuing server engineering team, you will bring deep card-network expertise to some of the most complex technical work on our roadmap. You will work alongside technical leads and cross-functional teams, going deep where our platform meets the networks: specifications, protocols, certification, mandates, conformance, and production behavior.
Responsibilities:
- Be a deep technical expert on global card networks, helping Issuing teams interpret network specifications, message flows, certification requirements, mandates, and production behavior , and working directly with the networks to influence requirements, resolve ambiguity, and secure outcomes that matter 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, and translate network requirements into clear, pragmatic engineering decisions.
- Establish shared frameworks, standards, tooling, and practices that make network expertise durable and enable teams to operate independently.
- Raise the technical capability of engineers around you 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 help establish effective patterns for broader team use.
- Share operational ownership of critical financial systems through on-call, incident response, and continuous improvements to reliability and correctness.
Requirements:
- 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.