Staff Software Engineer (Platform - Product Foundations)

Coinbase Careers Page

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Ready to be pushed beyond what you think you’re capable of?
At Coinbase, our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. It’s a massive, ambitious opportunity that demands the best of us, every day, as we build the emerging onchain platform — and with it, the future global financial system.
To achieve our mission, we’re seeking a very specific candidate. We want someone who is passionate about our mission and who believes in the power of crypto and blockchain technology to update the financial system. We want someone who is eager to leave their mark on the world, who relishes the pressure and privilege of working with high caliber colleagues, and who actively seeks feedback to keep leveling up. We want someone who will run towards, not away from, solving the company’s hardest problems.
Our work culture is intense and isn’t for everyone. But if you want to build the future alongside others who excel in their disciplines and expect the same from you, there’s no better place to be.
While many roles at Coinbase are remote-first, we are not remote-only. In-person participation is required throughout the year. Team and company-wide offsites are held multiple times annually to foster collaboration, connection, and alignment. Attendance is expected and fully supported.
About the Teams:
The teams within Platform Product Foundations build the foundational backend services that power the core of our platform from Identity to Financial Infrastructure. We architect high-reliability distributed services that serve as the company's bedrock. On any given day, our systems handle massive scale across our concurrent users and high-volume financial transactions where absolute precision is required. Whether we are scaling global authentication flows or building audit-ready ledgers for complex money movement, we focus on solving the low-latency and high-conformance challenges of a rapidly evolving ecosystem.

Requirements

• 8+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production
• Deep expertise in backend programming (e.g., Go, Python, Java) and cloud-native architecture
• Proven track record designing highly available, high-performance systems
• Ability to anticipate scaling bottlenecks and take proactive measures
• Experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives and mentoring engineers
• Ability to distill complex technical concepts into clear, actionable solutions
• Demonstrates the ability to responsibly use generative AI tools and copilots (e.g., LibreChat, Gemini, Glean) in daily workflows, continuously learn as tools evolve, and apply human-in-the-loop practices to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in efficiency, cost, and quality.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with financial data, accounting systems, or high-precision transaction processing OR
• Experience in the Auth domain
• You’ve worked with Golang, Ruby, Docker, Rails, Postgres, MongoDB or DynamoDB
• You have gone through rapid growth in your company (from startup to mid-size)

Responsibilities

• Architect and build foundational backend systems with a focus on performance, scalability, and reliability
• Drive strategic technical direction for complex, cross-team initiatives
• Establish and evolve platform best practices, frameworks, and architectural standards within the team
• Provide deep technical mentorship, guide design decisions, and raise the bar for engineering quality
• Collaborate with product, finance, and engineering leadership to shape the team's technical roadmap
• Drive system improvements by embedding AI into engineering and operational practices

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed