Staff Software Engineer, Client Platform Engineering

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 Client Platform Engineering (CPE) team is responsible for architecting, developing, and operating a mission-critical platform used by all Blocks, which includes employee laptops, desktops, and tablets. CPE follows best practices such as using infrastructure as code and employs innovative approaches to ensure reliability and security while minimizing operational costs. The team is dedicated to a CI/CD workflow with automated testing, promotion, and deployment processes. CPE also follows a site reliability approach to service ownership, focusing on data-driven decision-making and alerting. The team supports a large fleet of clients running macOS, iOS, Windows, Chrome OS, and Linux operating systems.

We are currently seeking an experienced Software Engineer (SWE) with proficiency in DevOps practices and tools to join our team. The ideal candidate should have a strong background in Software Engineering and a deep understanding of DevOps principles. As an agile team, we promote pair-programming, continuous learning of new technologies, and pushing the boundaries of our field to foster innovation. We actively contribute to open source projects, present at conferences, and actively contribute to shaping industry discourse through our innovative approach and expertise.

Qualifications

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage the entire employee device lifecycle while collaborating with partner teams in Information Security, IT Logistics, and Service desk to ensure a seamless environment for Blocks.
• Develop strategies and code on client macOS, ChromeOS, Windows, iOS, and Linux endpoints in laptop, desktop, and virtual form.
• Utilize DevOps tools, including Terraform Cloud, to architect, develop, and operate the client platform.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for integrating changes and deploying to production in progressively tested environments.
• Automate monitoring and alerting for services using observability tools such as Datadog or LogScale (Humio) to enable data-driven decision-making and effective alerting.
• Automate the software patching and deployment process.
• Deliver configurations and maintain state using configuration management tools.
• Support data-driven policy by shipping and querying streams of fleet data.
• Implement and maintain infrastructure as code approach, leveraging best practices and innovative solutions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure a smooth CI/CD workflow for testing, promotion, and deployment of changes.
• Document new processes or update existing documentation pages.
• Support a diverse fleet of macOS, iOS, Windows, Chrome OS, and Linux clients, ensuring reliability, security, and performance.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience working in a professional IT Engineering environment.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD workflows, automation frameworks, and best practices.
• Familiarity with cloud-based technologies and best practices, particularly in Amazon Web Services and/or other cloud platforms.
• Previous experience in a DevOps role, with proficiency in Terraform Cloud and other relevant DevOps tools, is required.
• Experience with Mac administration, including installing, upgrading, and monitoring software and hardware, maintaining Mac operating systems, and MDM (Mobile Device Management) software administration.
• Experience with at least one high-level programming language such as Python, Ruby, Go, or Swift.
• Working knowledge of some of the following technologies:  Git, SaltStack, Munki, MDM, Osquery, CI/CD, Zero-Trust Networking, Docker, and Cloud Infrastructure.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced and dynamic environment with the ability to prioritize tasks and manage time effectively.
• Excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Strong communication and collaboration abilities.

 

Technologies We Use and Teach:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Salt
• Python, Swift, Go, Powershell, Bash
• Munki, Chocolatey
• macOS, Windows, Chrome OS, Linux, MDM
• Snowflake
• Apache Airflow