Hardware ML Data Science, Intern (12-months)

Company Description

Since we opened our doors in 2009, the world of commerce has evolved immensely, and so has Square. After enabling anyone to take payments and never miss a sale, we saw sellers stymied by disparate, outmoded products and tools that wouldn’t work together.

So we expanded into software and started building integrated, omnichannel solutions – to help sellers sell online, manage inventory, offer buy now, pay later functionality through Afterpay, book appointments, engage loyal buyers, and hire and pay staff. Across it all, we’ve embedded financial services tools at the point of sale, so merchants can access a business loan and manage their cash flow in one place. Afterpay furthers our goal to provide omnichannel tools that unlock meaningful value and growth, enabling sellers to capture the next generation shopper, increase order sizes, and compete at a larger scale.

Today, we are a partner to sellers of all sizes – large, enterprise-scale businesses with complex operations, sellers just starting, as well as merchants who began selling with Square and have grown larger over time. As our sellers grow, so do our solutions. There is a massive opportunity in front of us. We’re building a significant, meaningful, and lasting business, and we are helping sellers worldwide do the same.

Job Description

Data Scientist Interns at Square leverage analytics, machine learning, and data engineering to empower data-driven decision-making in product strategy development. Your role will be a hybrid of roles in product analytics, data engineering and machine learning. You will need to summarize trends and insights through the vast amount of data captured by Square, and develop applicable strategies to grow Squares sellers and their engagement with Square products through the platform.

The Hardware team designs, builds, and delivers the tangible connection to Square to help our customers understand and engage with our products wherever they are, wherever their business takes them. We started by making the Square Reader; the simple and universal way to connect a billion credit cards to the smartphones in everyone’s pockets. Then, we extended this idea to our brick and mortar merchants with Square Stand and most recently, Square Register, our first fully integrated point of sale.

You will:

• Partner with Square’s product, engineering, marketing, and finance teams to build tools and make decisions using analytics, statistics, quantitative reasoning, and machine learning.
• Build self-service data tools that allow us to monitor the health and performance of our business and key product features.
• Independently research questions related to product experiences and produce recommendations for peers and leadership.
• Communicate analysis and decisions to peers and leadership in verbal, visual, and written media.
• Work closely with a product managers, product marketers, designers and engineers to evangelize data best practices and implement analytics solutions

Qualifications

You have:

• Pursuing a degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field with an upcoming graduation of December 2025 through August 2026
• Available for a 12-16 month (gap year) internship after your Spring 2024 semester
• Experience performing data analysis and/or building data systems using Python (pandas, numpy, scikit-learn, etc.)
• Comfortable working with statistical models in a data rich environment 
• Ability to understand complex business and data systems
• Ability to clearly communicate complex results to technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to quickly and deeply understand our product ecosystem, business, marketing strategy, metrics, and models

Bonus skills (but not necessary):

• Comfortable working with databases via SQL
• Familiarity with Unix/Linux/OS X CLI tools, version control software (git), and general software development
• Familiar with data visualization & data communication either via BI tools (Looker, Powerbi, Tableau, etc.) or libraries (Matplotlib, Holoviews, Seaborn, etc.)
• Familiarity with ETL development and best practices
• Experience applying both data-backed heuristics and machine-learning techniques to solve personalization and recommendation problems

Technologies we use and teach:

• Python
• Git
• Machine learning and statistical modeling frameworks
• SQL (Snowflake), Looker, Prefect, & Databricks

Additional Information

Block takes a market-based approach to pay, and pay may vary depending on your location. Canada locations are categorized into one of two zones based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on the candidate's work location and may be may be modified in the future.

Zone A: CAD $42.00
Zone B: CAD $42.00

To find a location’s zone designation, please refer to this resource. If a location of interest is not listed, please speak with a recruiter for additional information. 

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 

These benefits are further detailed in Block's policies. This role is also eligible to participate in Block's equity plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies, and may be eligible for a sign-on bonus. Sales roles may be eligible to participate in a commission plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.

US and Canada EEOC Statement

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, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other 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.

Additionally, we consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, and always assess candidates on an individualized basis.

Perks

We want you to be well and thrive. Our global benefits package includes:

• Healthcare coverage
• Retirement Plans
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Wellness perks
• Paid parental leave
• Paid time off
• Learning and Development resources

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.