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 Technical Project Manager position sits within Block's Proto team. Proto is accelerating the world's transition to an open economy with products that increase access and independence for everyone. We're building Bitkey, a simple and safe self-custody bitcoin wallet that will put customers in control, as well as hardware and software that will help decentralize bitcoin mining and enable new and innovative use cases for bitcoin mining. We're developing these products in the open - you can read more about them at bitkey.build and mining.build.  Within Proto, our Bitcoin Products team delivers the product and go-to-market strategy, software, firmware, and custom silicon needed to make Bitkey and our ambitious mining initiatives a reality. Come build the future of money with us!

About the role

We are looking for an experienced Technical Program Manager to join Block’s Proto Operations team. We are a small but growing team building bitcoin related hardware. This role will be the operation team’s first hire in Asia and you will be expected to wear multiple hats that in bigger companies may be separate roles. In any given month, you could be developing manufacturing processes, proposing equipment and fixture improvements, reviewing supplier quality data, reviewing testing results, helping to visit and qualify our suppliers, or acting as a liaison between our team and our CMs. You will be involved in both the new production introduction (NPI) stage and support the product for its entire life while in production.

You Will:

• Evaluate and qualify suppliers and assess their capabilities/quality management systems in collaboration with our Global Supply Management teams. 

• Collaborate with suppliers to address and resolve quality issues and drive continuous improvements. Even going as far as acting as a bridge between suppliers and engineering teams and proposing design changes that will improve quality, cost and yield.

• Define quality standards for raw material, components, or products received from suppliers at our Contract Manufacturing (CM) sites in order to ensure that they meet our high quality bar. This includes developing IQC (Incoming Quality Control) plans and setting AQL (Acceptable Quality Limits) inspection targets.

• Collaborate with our CM partners to develop, define, debug, and optimize manufacturing processes at both sub-assembly and final assembly levels. This can include defining SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), developing assembly equipment, and designing or refining fixtures. 

• Collaborate with our CM partners to qualify and monitor our production line and ensure that the final products meet and exceed our outbound quality standards. This can include defining procedures for operator training, line qualification, reliability and validation testing, ORT (ongoing reliability testing), IPQC (In-Process Quality Control), and any other best practices. 

You Have: 

• 7+ years of Hardware Development experience in a technical capacity. An engineering background is a plus but not required. 

• Hands on experience solving technical problems and working with GSM, Quality, Engineering (MTE, EE, PD), and Operations

• Desire to do great work and maintain a high standard of product quality

• Willingness to dive into technical problems and help in any way possible often. No job is too small. 

• Ability to travel to our Asia-based suppliers and CMs between 20-40% of the time. This requirement is crucial to ensure we have someone on the ground where the activities are happening.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with experience working with teammates in different time zones (PST, EST, APAC).

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 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 a workplace that is fair and square? Check out our I+D page.

We’ve noticed a rise in recruiting impersonations across the industry, where individuals are sending fake job offer emails. Contact from any of our recruiters or employees will always come from an email address ending with @block.xyz, @squareup.com, @tidal.com, or @afterpay.com, @clearpay.co.uk.

Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) is a global technology company with a focus on financial services. Made up of Square, Cash App, Spiral, TIDAL, and TBD, we build tools to help more people access the economy. Square helps sellers run and grow their businesses with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services. With Cash App, anyone can easily send, spend, or invest their money in stocks or Bitcoin. Spiral (formerly Square Crypto) builds and funds free, open-source Bitcoin projects. Artists use TIDAL to help them succeed as entrepreneurs and connect more deeply with fans. TBD is building an open developer platform to make it easier to access Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies without having to go through an institution.