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

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 and market entered - 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 framework, 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 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, applying AI-first approaches that scale correctness across Coinbase's 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 across multiple product areas.

• 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

• Application Limit: Candidates may submit a maximum of 3 applications within a 6-month period.

• Equal Opportunity Employer: Coinbase is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information. Applicants with criminal histories will be considered consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

• US Applicants: View Employee Rights, Know Your Rights, and E-Verify Notice of Participation.

• Accommodations: If you are an individual with a disability who needs a reasonable accommodation, email us your request and contact info at accommodations[at]coinbase.com. Need screen reading technology? Click here to download a free compatible screen reader and view the tutorial.

• Data Privacy & Arbitration: By submitting your application, you agree to our Candidate Privacy Notice. US applicants: By submitting your application, you agree to Arbitration of Disputes.

• AI Disclosure: 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. 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. Coinbase will not use AI to make decisions impacting employment.