Staff Software Engineer (Tech Lead, Backend - Platform (Overseer)
CoinbaseAbout the role
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.
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)).
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 empl
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