Staff Software Engineer, Backend - Platform (Overseer)
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.
The gap between "each service works" and "the system is correct" compounds with every product Coinbase ships, every market it enters, every settlement mechanism it builds. Overseer is the platform that closes it — making cross-service financial correctness a designed property of the infrastructure, not a coordination problem between teams. At staff-level, you’ll define what that platform becomes.
What you’ll be doing (ie. job duties):
- Define and drive the architecture of the correctness layer across Coinbase’s fund flows — from real-time invariant enforcement to AI-powered guardrails.
- Own the core platform: the invariant definition framework, real-time detection engine, and the APIs and tooling that partner teams use to onboard and monitor their fund flows.
- Lead the AI guardrails workstream: predictive consistency models that catch deviations before settlement, and proactive invariant discovery so coverage keeps pace with AI-accelerated development. The same AI that speeds up shipping should speed up the correctness layer around it.
- Set technical direction for the team, make high-stakes architecture decisions, and raise the engineering bar.
- Partner cross-functionally with Transfer Service, Ledger, Payments, Risk, and Compliance to define correctness requirements and drive adoption.
- Mentor engineers and translate platform vision into executable roadmap.
What we look for in you (ie. job requirements):
- 8+ years of software engineering experience.
- You’ve built fault-tolerant, high-reliability distributed systems at scale.
- Platform-builder mindset — you build infrastructure other teams depend on, not features for a single product.
- Experience leading cross-functional technical work with significant company-wide impact.
- Strong judgment on where to invest: you can distinguish the load-bearing correctness problem from the interesting-but-optional one.
- 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 systems, reconciliation, or ledgering at scale.
- Streaming data infrastructure (Kafka, Flink, or similar).
- You’ve worked with Golang, Ruby, Docker, Postgres, MongoDB or DynamoDB.
- AI applied to predictive consistency or proactive gap discovery in financial or distributed systems.
- Crypto-forward experience, including familiarity with onchain activity such as interacting with Ethereum addresses, using ENS, and engaging with dApps or blockchain-based services.
- You have gone through a rapid growth in your company (from 10 to 100s of engineers)
Job #: P76375
Pay Transparency Notice: Depending on your work location, the target annual base salary for this position can range as detailed below. Total compensation may also include equity and bonus eligibility and benefits (including medical, dental, vision and 401(k)).
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
- Medical Plan, Dental and Vision Plan with generous employee contributions
- Health Savings Account with company contributions each pay period
- Disability and Life Insurance
- 401(k) plan with company match
- Wellness Stipend
- Mobile/Internet Reimbursement
- Volunteer Time Off
- Fertility Counseling and Benefits
- Generous Time off/Leave Policy
- The option of getting paid in digital currency