Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, AI Engineering Tools

Block is a company united by the purpose of economic empowerment. They are seeking a Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer to advance AI-assisted development by building and optimizing coding agents that empower engineers across the organization.

Responsibilities:

• Design and build AI-driven developer tools that integrate seamlessly into the software development lifecycle (e.g., intelligent code assistance, inline reviews, or automated refactoring systems)
• Partner with vendors and internal teams to evaluate, integrate, and optimize AI engineering tools
• Collaborate with engineering leaders across Block to identify opportunities for AI integration that improve developer velocity and code quality
• Mentor engineers, contribute to design and code reviews, and help establish best practices for building reliable AI systems at scale

Requirements:

• 12+ years of experience building and shipping production systems
• Strong software engineering background, with fluency in designing scalable backend systems
• Deep understanding of LLMs, prompt engineering, and applied ML workflows from experimentation and evaluation to deployment and monitoring
• Experience integrating third-party AI models (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, or custom fine-tuned models) into real-world tools or services
• A pragmatic approach to experimentation and iteration, balancing innovation with reliability and security
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills, especially with engineers, product managers, and leadership
• Familiarity with developer ecosystems, IDEs, or productivity platforms is a plus (e.g., VS Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, etc.)