Staff Software Engineer (Tech Lead, Backend - Platform) - Coinbase

Ready to do the most impactful work of your career? At Coinbase, we are uncompromising on our mission to increase economic freedom. The bar is high, the environment is intense, and we like it that way. This isn't a place for complacency, it’s a place to be pushed past your perceived limits. If you're ready to build the future of finance alongside people who refuse to settle for "good enough," you belong here. Coinbase is a remote-first, but not remote-only company. Expect to get together quarterly for intense in-person working sessions called “surges.” learn more about working at Coinbase.

Overseer is Coinbase's business integrity layer, making the financial contracts between systems explicit and detecting violations before they become incidents. As a Staff Software Engineer on the Overseer team within the Platform product group, you'll define the long-term technical vision for the platform that enforces correctness across every fund flow Coinbase processes. The gap between "each service works" and "the system is correct" compounds with every product shipped, every market entered, and every settlement mechanism built - you'll ensure Coinbase's correctness infrastructure scales years ahead of that growth.

What you'll do:

• Own the multi-quarter technical strategy, architecture, and roadmap for the Overseer platform, including the invariant definition framework, real-time detection engine, and partner-facing APIs.
• Lead the design and execution of company P0 initiatives end-to-end, serving as the senior DRI accountable for delivery, trade-offs, and organizational alignment across product groups.
• Drive an architecture where every new product shipped accelerates the correctness layer rather than adding complexity, setting precedents that influence platform design across FinHub.
• Shape engineering standards and technical culture across the team and broader FinHub organization through design reviews, architectural RFCs, and raising the bar on code quality and system reliability.
• Partner with senior engineering and product leadership across product groups to align correctness requirements, resolve cross-team technical dependencies, and define shared platform contracts.
• Build next-generation AI-powered guardrails and real-time invariant enforcement capabilities, identifying opportunities to apply AI-first approaches that scale correctness across Coinbase's expanding fund movement infrastructure.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 8+ years of experience designing, building, and operating fault-tolerant, high-reliability distributed systems at scale, with a track record of influencing technical direction beyond your immediate team.
• Demonstrated experience as a technical lead owning architecture decisions, multi-quarter roadmaps, and cross-team initiatives that impacted organization-level outcomes.
• Platform-builder mindset - proven history of building infrastructure other teams depend on, defining platform contracts, and scaling systems that support multiple product areas simultaneously.
• Deep expertise in backend programming (e.g., Go, Python, Java) and designing systems for correctness, performance, and scalability in financial or high-stakes distributed environments.
• Track record of elevating team and org-level technical quality through mentorship, architectural standards, engineering process improvements, and senior hiring contributions.
• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Job #:P76359

Pay Transparency Notice: Base salary varies by location (see range below). Total compensation may also include equity and bonus eligibility, and benefits (medical, dental, vision, 401(k)).

Annual base salary range (excluding equity and bonus):

$218,025—$256,500 USD

Please be advised that each candidate may submit a maximum of four applications within any 30-day period. We encourage you to carefully evaluate how your skills and interests align with Coinbase's roles before applying.

Commitment to Equal Opportunity

Coinbase is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by applicable law. Coinbase will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. For US applicants, you may view the Employee Rights and the Know Your Rights notices by clicking on their corresponding links. Additionally, Coinbase participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law.

Coinbase is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please contact us at accommodations[at]coinbase.com to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. For quick access to screen reading technology compatible with this site click here to download a free compatible screen reader (free step by step tutorial can be found here).

Global Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates and Applicants

Depending on your location, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) may regulate the way we manage the data of job applicants. Our full notice outlining how data will be processed as part of the application procedure for applicable locations is available here. By submitting your application, you are agreeing to our use and processing of your data as required. For US applicants only, by submitting your application you are agreeing to arbitration of disputes as outlined here.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, Coinbase is piloting an AI tool based on machine learning technologies to conduct initial screening interviews to qualified applicants. The tool simulates realistic interview scenarios and engages in dynamic conversation. A human recruiter will review your interview responses, provided in the form of a voice recording and/or transcript, to assess them against the qualifications and characteristics outlined in the job description.

For select roles, Coinbase is also piloting an AI interview intelligence platform to transcribe and summarize interview notes, allowing our interviewers to fully focus on you as the candidate.

The above pilots are for testing purposes and Coinbase will not use AI to make decisions impacting employment. To request a reasonable accommodation due to disability, please contact accommodations[at]coinbase.com