
Senior Site Reliability Engineer
Block · United States
- Hybrid
- Full-time
- $210,000 / year
- United States
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Senior Site Reliability Engineer
Block · United States
Riley Chen
Hiring Manager · h•••••@grnh.se
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Subject: Interested in the Senior Site Reliability Engineer role at Block
Hi Riley — I came across the Senior Site Reliability Engineer opening and wanted to reach out directly. I've spent the last few years doing exactly this kind of work, and Block stood out because…
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Not recommended alone — most applicants never hear back.
Job highlights
- Improve platform reliability using AI and automation.
- Build and extend distributed systems for scalability.
- Participate in oncall for critical services.
- Lead incident response and mitigation efforts.
- Design safe deployment patterns for velocity.
About the role
About Block
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 member of the SRE team, you will proactively and reactively improve the reliability of Block's platform and critical infrastructure. You are metrics-driven, systems-oriented, and focused on building distributed platforms that enable safe, scalable product development.You will leverage and continuously improve AI-driven tooling and automation to enhance observability, accelerate incident detection and response, and reduce operational toil. This includes applying AI to incident analysis, alert tuning, and operational workflows.
You will participate in primary platform oncall (12 hours per day, one week every few weeks, depending on team size), supporting Block's most critical (Tier 0) services. In this role, you will lead incident command, coordinate mitigation, and drive effective escalation during high-severity events.
You Will
- Build and extend platforms to improve system reliability
- Work on team goals that encompass reliability for the entire company
- Standardize reliability tools across multiple platforms and organizations
- Triage, coordinate, and lead stabilization of sev 0–1 incidents
- Serve as primary oncall, maintaining structured escalation paths and exercising leadership escalation
- Drive platform-wide reliability improvements, shared operational tooling, and deploy-safety patterns
- Use AI-driven systems to improve signal detection, reduce noise, and accelerate root cause analysis
- Design and implement safe deployment patterns (progressive delivery, automated rollback, guardrails)
You Have
- Drive to root cause systems with many moving parts and take the necessary steps to fix them
- Demonstrated technical initiative and leadership on previous projects, especially those with a backend/platform focus
- Familiarity with AI-driven tooling for observability, incident analysis, or automation
- A mindset that naturally reaches for AI to accelerate problem-solving and reduce toil
- Experience running production oncall for high-availability systems
- Strong incident management skills — structured triage, mitigation under pressure, blameless postmortems
- Fluency with CI/CD pipelines, progressive rollout strategies, and rollback automation
- Monitoring & observability expertise — building/tuning alerts for uptime, error rates, latency regression, and resource exhaustion
- Ability to create and maintain evidence-based maturity assessments using trailing 90-day data windows.
- Comfort with vendor/dependency management — maintaining validated escalation contacts reachable within ≤ 5 minutes.
- Boundless curiosity, autonomy, and a strong sense of accountability
- A strong desire to perform and grow as an engineer
- 5+ years of software development experience
Technologies We Use and Teach
- Kotlin, Modern Java (11+)
- HTTP, JSON, gRPC, and Protocol Buffers
- MySQL / Vitess / DynamoDB
- Event driven architectures
- DataDog
- LaunchDarkly
- Terraform, Kubernetes, Istio/Envoy
- Amazon Web Services
About the Program
This program shifts Block from reactive incident handling to repeatable, system-wide reliability gains — fewer customer-visible incidents, faster response, higher product velocity, and lower burnout across the organization. We're working to build an 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, based solely on the core competencies required of the role at hand, and without regard to any 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 confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we're doing to build an inclusive workplace? Check out our Inclusion & Diversity pageBenefits
Full-time employee benefits include the following:- Healthcare coverage (Medical, Vision and Dental insurance)
- Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account
- 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 (including 12 paid holidays)
- Paid sick leave (1 hour per 26 hours worked (max 80 hours per calendar year to the extent legally permissible) for non-exempt employees and covered by our Flexible Time Off policy for exempt employees)
- Learning and Development resources
- Paid Life insurance, AD&D, and disability benefits
Zone A: USD $189,000 - USD $283,600
Zone B: USD $179,600 - USD $269,400
Zone C: USD $170,100 - USD $255,100
Zone D: USD $160,700 - USD $241,100
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.
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Key skills/competency
- Site Reliability Engineering
- Platform Engineering
- AI-driven Automation
- Incident Management
- Observability
- CI/CD
- Kubernetes
- AWS
- System Reliability
- Backend Development
Skills & topics
- Site Reliability Engineer
- SRE
- Reliability Engineering
- Platform Engineering
- AI
- Automation
- Incident Management
- Observability
- Kubernetes
- AWS
- Kotlin
- Java
- DataDog
- Terraform
- High Availability
- System Design
- Backend Development
- Production Support
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight experience with AI tooling, incident management, and CI/CD pipelines, aligning with the Senior Site Reliability Engineer role at Block.
- Showcase initiative: Emphasize technical leadership and experience with backend/platform projects in your application.
- Demonstrate AI familiarity: Clearly articulate your experience using AI for observability, incident analysis, or automation to reduce toil.
- Prepare for technical interviews: Be ready to discuss root cause analysis, high-availability systems, and your approach to on-call duties.
- Understand Block's mission: Connect your passion for economic empowerment and inclusive economy to Block's values.
Technical preparation
Master Kubernetes, Istio, and Terraform for infrastructure.,Deep dive into AI/ML for observability and automation.,Practice incident command and structured triage.,Sharpen CI/CD, progressive rollout, and rollback skills.
Behavioral questions
Describe a complex system you improved.,How do you handle high-pressure incidents?,Share an example of technical initiative.,How do you reduce operational toil?
Prefer to apply the usual way?
Not recommended alone — most applicants never hear back. Email the hiring manager first.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the work arrangement for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer role at Block?
- While the job description does not explicitly state the work arrangement, Block often offers flexible work options. It is recommended to clarify if the Senior Site Reliability Engineer position is remote, hybrid, or on-site during the application or interview process.
- What are the key responsibilities of a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Block?
- The Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Block will focus on improving platform and critical infrastructure reliability. This involves leveraging AI-driven tooling for automation, observability, and incident response, as well as participating in on-call duties and leading incident command for high-severity events.
- What technologies are used by the Site Reliability Engineering team at Block?
- Block utilizes a range of technologies for its SRE team, including Kotlin, Modern Java, gRPC, Protocol Buffers, MySQL/Vitess/DynamoDB, DataDog, LaunchDarkly, Terraform, Kubernetes, Istio/Envoy, and Amazon Web Services.
- How does Block use AI in its Site Reliability Engineering practice?
- Block leverages AI-driven systems to enhance observability, accelerate incident detection and response, and reduce operational toil. This includes applying AI to incident analysis, alert tuning, and optimizing operational workflows for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer.
- What is the expected experience level for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer position at Block?
- Candidates for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer role at Block should have at least 5 years of software development experience, with a strong focus on backend/platform development, production on-call experience, and robust incident management skills.
- What are the benefits of working as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Block?
- Block offers comprehensive benefits including healthcare, retirement plans with company match, employee stock purchase program, wellness programs, generous paid time off, parental leave, and learning & development resources for its employees.
- How can I highlight my suitability for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer role at Block?
- To stand out for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer role at Block, emphasize your proactive approach to reliability, experience with AI-driven tooling, strong incident management capabilities, and a proven track record of technical initiative and leadership.
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