Senior Software Engineer, Data Ingestion Platform

Block is a company that builds simple, powerful tools aimed at creating an open economy for all. They are seeking a Senior Software Engineer for their Data Ingestion team, which is responsible for developing and operating platforms that ingest data into Block's Lakehouse, ensuring reliable data availability for analytics and machine learning initiatives.

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and operate scalable data replication and ingestion pipelines that move data from production databases, event streams, and third-party sources into Block's Lakehouse
• Develop and enhance Kafka Iceberg connectors and data loading frameworks, enabling reliable, low-latency data delivery to Snowflake and Databricks
• Drive the modernization of Block's CDC platform — evaluating and implementing next-generation approaches for database replication, including cloud-native alternatives, and Iceberg-based ingestion patterns
• Build self-service tooling and observability features that empower internal teams to onboard, monitor, and troubleshoot their own data pipelines with minimal support
• Collaborate with data engineering, platform infrastructure, and product teams to define data contracts, improve service encapsulation, and reduce tight coupling between operational databases and analytics consumers
• Contribute to the unification of Block's data ingestion architecture by identifying opportunities to consolidate overlapping systems and reduce infrastructure complexity
• Design and implement solutions for PII detection, masking, and privacy-compliant data handling within ingestion pipelines, ensuring sensitive data is properly classified, protected, and governed in accordance with Block's privacy policies and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA)
• Establish and promote best practices for data pipeline reliability, cost optimization, schema management, and compliance across the ingestion platform

Requirements:

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering or data platform development, with a focus on building scalable data systems or distributed infrastructure
• Strong programming proficiency in languages such as Java, Python, Scala, or Go, with experience developing data frameworks, libraries, or services
• Hands-on experience with streaming data systems and technologies such as Apache Kafka, Kafka Connect, or similar distributed messaging platforms
• Solid understanding of Change Data Capture (CDC), database replication patterns, and data lake or Lakehouse architectures
• Experience with modern data storage formats and table formats such as Apache Iceberg or Delta Lake
• Experience with cloud-based data ecosystems (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and infrastructure-as-code tools