Software Engineer, Cash App - Controls

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. We want to redefine the world's relationship with money to make it more relatable, instantly available, and universally accessible.

Today, Cash App has thousands of employees working globally across office and remote locations, with a culture geared toward innovation, collaboration and impact. We've been a distributed team since day one, and many of our roles can be done remotely from the countries where Cash App operates. No matter the location, we tailor our experience to ensure our employees are creative, productive, and happy.


The Role


On Cash App's Controls team, we build essential platform infrastructure that protects millions of Cash App customers while ensuring fair and equitable access to financial services. We partner across engineering, product, and risk teams to build highly-available infrastructure that powers critical trust and safety decisions throughout Cash App's ecosystem. We are an AI-driven engineering team - we use agentic coding tools across our entire development lifecycle, from design exploration through implementation and review, and we expect every engineer to do the same. In this role, you'll implement scalable solutions that enable billions of safe customer interactions that create a holistic experience that fosters the trust, safety, security, and support of our customers and their assets, directly contributing to Block's mission of economic empowerment through accessible and secure financial services.


You Will

• Partner closely with product managers, designers, engineers, and business leads to scope, plan, design, build, and launch new features as well as maintain existing functionality of our product controls ecosystem
• Lead technical discussions within your team and contribute to design and product discussions with partners across the organization
• Leverage your experience and knowledge to grow your teammates' technical breadth and depth through mentoring
• Direct AI agents across the full development lifecycle - from prototyping and implementation to debugging and code review - operating as the architect and decision-maker while AI handles the building
• Expand what's possible with AI tooling - identify opportunities to automate repetitive work, improve code quality through AI-driven review, and share effective patterns with your team

You Have

• 6+ years experience building and operating highly available services
• Experience contributing to cross-functional technical efforts and coordinating across teams
• Strong collaboration skills and customer empathy
• A growth mindset and comfort navigating open-ended problems
• Well-developed curiosity and initiative to build creative solutions to complex problems
• Contributed to the growth of fellow engineers through technical leadership and mentoring
• Demonstrated fluency with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or similar agentic coding tools) in real production work - not just familiarity, but regular, effective use
• You stay current on the rapidly evolving landscape of AI tooling and actively experiment with new capabilities as they emerge

Technologies We Use and Teach

• AI-Driven Development: Claude Code, Goose (Block's open-source AI agent), Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Kotlin, Java
• JSON, gRPC, Protocol Buffers
• DynamoDB, MySQL
• Event-driven architecture (Kafka)
• DataDog, Prometheus
• AWS, Kubernetes

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:

$180,000 - $270,000 USD


Zone B:

$171,000 - $256,600 USD


Zone C:

$162,000 - $243,000 USD


Zone D:

$153,000 - $229,600 USD


Application Guidelines


Candidates may submit up to 9 active applications within a 60-day period. Reapplications to the same role are accepted 90 days after a previous application has been reviewed.


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 here 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.