Staff AI Engineer / Tech Lead

Company Description

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.

Job Description

The Data & ML Platform Engineering (DaMP) organization is looking for a Staff AI Engineer / Tech Lead to join the DaMP leadership team and report directly to the Head of DaMP.  This role will be chartered with working across groups spanning DaMP and product teams across Block to help drive our technical strategy around deep learning, reinforcement learning, generative AI with an emphasis on significant product empathy and developer experience. 

The individual must have a significant / expert level experience in the methodological nuances of these modern techniques in AI with a proven track record of working first hand on enabling these classes of models against specific challenges in production settings while also working to bring the requisite infrastructure along. 

Significant entrepreneurial experience, or equivalent, is a plus in this field or utilization of the aforementioned technologies to drive unique product/business functionality - we are looking for folks who are remarkably creative in working through the nuances of particular architectures against the needs of product functionality in the natural language processing or imagine domain.

Qualifications

Required Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in the machine learning / software engineering domain
• No formal degree experience needed
• Expert level knowledge of modern, over parameterized large language models, transformer architectures, reinforcement learning and the machine learning software development life cycle surrounding productionization of such.
• Please note this is not a research scientist role

Additional Information

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.

Zone A: USD $245,100 - USD $299,500
Zone B: USD $245,100 - USD $299,500
Zone C: USD $245,100 - USD $299,500
Zone D: USD $245,100 - USD $299,500

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. 

Benefits include the following:

• Healthcare coverage
• Retirement Plans including company match 
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Wellness programs, including access to mental health, 1:1 financial planners, and a monthly wellness allowance 
• Paid parental and caregiving leave
• Paid time off
• Learning and Development resources
• Paid Life insurance, AD&D. and disability benefits 
• Perks such as WFH reimbursements and free access to caregiving, legal, and discounted resources 

This role is also eligible to participate in Block's equity plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies, and may be eligible for a sign-on bonus. Sales roles may be eligible to participate in a commission plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.

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 a proud equal opportunity employer. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.

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 con