Engineering Manager - Lightning Network

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 You'll lead the Block Lightning Team within Bitcoin Engineering, whose mission is to accelerate Bitcoin as the open money protocol for the world. The Lightning Team is entering an exciting phase of unifying Lightning development across Block's ecosystem (Cash App, Square, and Bitkey). We're evolving to build a Lightning platform that will connect millions of existing Bitcoin users across Block's products. As Engineering Manager, you'll drive our mission of connecting the world through fast, low-cost payments, while maintaining our commitment to open source development and decentralization. You'll be fully remote and report into the Head of Lightning Engineering. You Will Lead technical architecture and strategy for Block's unified Lightning infrastructure, including node structure, shared LSP implementation, and security models. Guide the team through critical phases of development, from infrastructure standardization to product integration and eventual payment network expansion. Drive open-source initiatives and maintain collaboration with Spiral and the broader Lightning Network community. Partner with Cash App, Square, and Bitkey teams to create seamless Lightning experiences across Block's ecosystem. Oversee development of important projects in the block lightning space. Build and mentor a team of Bitcoin and Lightning engineers while promoting a culture of technical leadership and independent decision-making. Maintain high reliability standards for Lightning infrastructure serving millions of users. You Have 8+ years of software engineering experience, with 3+ years of experience leading technical teams. Expertise in Bitcoin protocol and Lightning Network. Experience with shipping production Lightning implementations and maintaining high-availability infrastructure. Experience with open-source development and community engagement in the Bitcoin/Lightning ecosystem. Experience balancing technical excellence with pragmatic product delivery. Understanding of non-custodial and self-custody solutions and commitment to bitcoin principles. Experience building secure, scalable payment systems. Passion for Bitcoin's potential as an open money protocol and commitment to accelerating its adoption. Technologies We Use and Teach Lightning Network Daemon (LND) and core Lightning protocols (including Bolt 12). Rust, Kotlin. Monitoring and observability tools for Lightning infrastructure. AWS infrastructure. 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 an equal opportunity employer evaluating all employees and job applicants without regard to identity or any legally protected class. We will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and "fair chance" ordinances. 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. #J-18808-Ljbffr

Created: 2025-03-06