Staff Software Engineer, Catalog Foundations

Since we opened our doors in 2009, the world of commerce has evolved immensely, and so has Square. After enabling anyone to take payments and never miss a sale, we saw sellers stymied by disparate, outmoded products and tools that wouldn't work together.
So we expanded into software and started building integrated, omnichannel solutions - to help sellers sell online, manage inventory, offer buy now, pay later functionality, book appointments, engage loyal buyers, and hire and pay staff. Across it all, we've embedded financial services tools at the point of sale, so merchants can access a business loan and manage their cash flow in one place. Afterpay furthers our goal to provide omnichannel tools that unlock meaningful value and growth, enabling sellers to capture the next generation shopper, increase order sizes, and compete at a larger scale.
Today, we are a partner to sellers of all sizes - large, enterprise-scale businesses with complex operations, sellers just starting, as well as merchants who began selling with Square and have grown larger over time. As our sellers grow, so do our solutions. There is a massive opportunity in front of us. We're building a significant, meaningful, and lasting business, and we are helping sellers worldwide do the same.
The Role
The Catalog Foundations team owns the core services that allow Square sellers to seamlessly and reliably manage their catalogs. We ensure the platform is reliable, performant and scalable, and we empower internal teams and sellers with superior service and extensibility. We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer to collaborate closely with the other back-end engineers to maintain reliability and performance of our service. We are seeking engineers who will contribute to setting our technical direction and champion best practices. Engineers on our team are expected to make thoughtful, outcome-based and data-driven investments in foundational improvements to accelerate dependent teams.
You Will

• Help design, build, and maintain Square's catalog system
• Collaborate cross-team on projects
• Deliver APIs that make it easy for developers to interact with catalog data
• Identify risks and devise solutions to performance and scalability challenges as our catalog and seller data continues to evolve and grow
• Build for the future by clearly communicating the cost-benefit of a given solution and advocating for the best path forward
• Hold your teammates and yourself to a high standard of engineering that is foundational to products that have a huge impact on sellers day to day operations.
• Mentor other engineers, helping them develop both technical and soft skills to navigate alignment challenges, manage complexity, and drive impact across teams.

You Have

• 12+ years of software development experience
• Familiarity with Go
• Experience in large-scale distributed systems
• Willingness to learn, grow, and give and receive feedback
• Ability to find and solve problems with a high degree of ambiguity
• Excellent skills with data modeling and data management
• Experience with complete development cycle from product definition to delivery

Even Better:

• Experience building a unified catalog experience within a marketplace-based business
• Experience supporting internal and external developers at large and complex organizations

Technologies We Use and Teach

• Golang
• MySQL, DynamoDB, OpenSearch, Redis
• Protocol Buffers, gRPC, Kafka, Terraform, Kubernetes, Temporal IO, Envoy
• AWS and other cloud platforms

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:
$222,900 - $334,300 CAD
Use of AI in Our Hiring Process
We may use automated AI tools to evaluate job applications for efficiency and consistency. These tools comply with local regulations, including bias audits, and we handle all personal data in accordance with state and local privacy laws.
Contact us at [email protected] with hiring practice or data usage questions.
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.