Staff Site Reliability Engineer

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
As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Block, you will be a key player in maintaining and improving the reliability of our systems. Your primary focus will be on designing, building, and maintaining scalable, reliable infrastructure and services. You will work closely with development and operations teams to ensure high availability, performance, and capacity of our services. As an early hire of this newly formed team, you will have a significant role in building the foundation that will keep Block's infrastructure reliable for years to come.
Work from anywhere: This role can be performed from any location in North America.
You Will

• Develop and implement strategies for improving system reliability and performance.
• Design, build, and maintain scalable and reliable infrastructure using AWS and Kubernetes.
• Troubleshoot and debug complex issues in a distributed environment.
• Collaborate with development teams to promote best practices for reliability, scalability, and performance.
• Conduct root cause analysis of incidents and implement preventive measures.
• Monitor system performance and capacity, proactively identifying and addressing potential issues.
• Mentor and provide guidance to junior SREs and other team members.
• Participate in on-call rotations to provide 24/7 support for critical systems.
• Continuously improve processes and tools to enhance system reliability and operational efficiency.

You Have

• 12+ years of experience in site reliability engineering or a related field.
• Extensive experience with AWS, including services such as EC2, S3, RDS, and Lambda.
• Strong expertise in Kubernetes and container orchestration.
• Proven experience in designing, building, and maintaining highly available and scalable systems.
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills, with a focus on root cause analysis.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Go, or Java.
• Experience with infrastructure as code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Solid understanding of monitoring and observability tools, such as Datadog.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to mentor and lead junior team members.

Nice to Have

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools such as Jenkins, GitLab, or BuildKite.
• Knowledge of security best practices and tools.
• Experience with database management and optimization.
• Familiarity with service mesh architectures, such as Istio or Linkerd.
• Understanding of networking concepts and protocols.

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.
Block takes a market-based approach to pay, and pay may vary depending on your location. U.S. locations are categorized into one of four 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.
To find a location's zone designation, please refer to this resource . If a location of interest is not listed, please speak with a recruiter for additional information.
Zone A:
$263,600 - $395,400 USD
Zone B:
$263,600 - $395,400 USD
Zone C:
$263,600 - $395,400 USD
Zone D:
$263,600 - $395,400 USD
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. Remote work, medical insurance, flexible time off, retirement savings plans, and modern family planning are just some of our offering. Check out our other benefits at Block.
Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ) builds technology to increase access to the global economy. Each of our brands unlocks different aspects of the economy for more people. Square makes commerce and financial services accessible to sellers. Cash App is the easy way to spend, send, and store money. Afterpay is transforming the way customers manage their spending over time. TIDAL is a music platform that empowers artists to thrive as entrepreneurs. Bitkey is a simple self-custody wallet built for bitcoin. Proto is a suite of bitcoin mining products and services. Together, we're helping build a financial system that is open to everyone.