Benjamin Ponedel

Benjamin Ponedel is currently the Director of Engineering: Applied AI at Block, a position held since 2025. Prior to this, they worked at Square from 2020 to 2022 in various roles, including Machine Learning Tech Lead and Head of Machine Learning for Square Financial Services. Benjamin earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from UC Berkeley, where they were a Graduate Student Researcher from 2012 to 2018, and holds both a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University, completed in 2012.