Senior Staff Software Engineer, Legal Automation

About the role

In this position, you will architect and implement a platform that automates legal workflows, replacing traditional high-volume processes with AI-driven solutions. You will be responsible for building an institutional client agreement automation system and consolidating various legal agents into a cohesive platform.

The team operates in a fast-paced environment that combines the agility of a startup with the compliance standards of a public financial institution. Success in this role means effectively bridging the gap between technical and legal domains, ensuring that complex workflows are translated into efficient engineered systems.

The annual base salary ranges from $253,895 to $298,700, depending on location.

Skills that matter here

• backend software engineering: This role requires extensive experience in backend engineering to build scalable production systems.
• AI: You will leverage AI technologies to create automated legal workflows and improve operational efficiency.
• LLM-based applications: Experience with LLM applications is crucial for developing effective legal automation solutions.
• multi-agent orchestration: Designing systems where multiple AI agents collaborate is a key responsibility.
• distributed systems: You will need a solid understanding of distributed systems for architecting the agreement automation system.

Who this role suits

• You have a strong background in backend software engineering and have successfully shipped production systems.
• You thrive in dynamic environments and are driven to achieve ambitious goals despite ambiguity.
• You possess excellent communication skills, enabling you to work effectively with non-technical stakeholders.
• You demonstrate a platform mindset, focusing on reusability and standards rather than just isolated solutions.

From the employer

What You'll Do:

• Architect and build Legal AI infrastructure — Design and ship a platform of AI agents and automated workflows that replace high-volume, templated legal work including institutional client agreement redlining, SEC filing support, subsidiary governance workflows, and commercial deal processing.
• Own the institutional client agreement automation system — Our highest-priority use case: build an end-to-end agentic workflow that ingests counterparty markups, evaluates them against a structured playbook, generates a first-pass redline with comments, routes for human review, and tracks outcomes. This is a production-grade system affecting 220+ institutional clients in pipeline.
• Build a cohesive agent platform and governance layer — Consolidate a fragmented set of ad-hoc bots and agents into a consistent, documented, maintainable platform with naming conventions, personas, observability, and standards for how Legal agents are built and deployed.
• Act as the technical thought partner to the VP and the broader Legal leadership team — Translate complex legal workflows into engineered systems, and translate engineering constraints back to non-technical stakeholders. The ability to bridge these worlds is as important as the engineering itself.
• Define the make-vs-buy strategy — Evaluate and retire third-party legal tech tools (Harvey, etc.) in favor of purpose-built internal solutions where Coinbase's engineering strength gives us a structural advantage.
• Be the case study — This role is explicitly designed to be a pilot for forward-deployed engineering in non-technical organizations at Coinbase. Success here creates the playbook for how other functions (Finance, HR, Operations) can undergo the same transformation.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 12+ years of backend software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping production systems at scale.
• Proven experience getting LLM-based applications to production — including evaluation frameworks, grounding, guardrails against hallucination, and human-in-the-loop design.
• Multi-agent orchestration experience — you've designed and operated systems where multiple AI agents collaborate, hand off work, and escalate to humans appropriately.
• Exceptional ability to communicate with and learn from non-technical domain experts — you don't need to know legal terminology on day one, but you need to rapidly internalize complex workflows and translate them into engineered systems.
• Platform mindset — you think in primitives, reusability, and standards, not just point solutions.
• Distributed systems fundamentals — the agreement automation system will touch document processing, structured playbook evaluation, routing logic, and audit trails; you need to architect this correctly from day one.
• Relentless drive to set and achieve ambitious goals in ambiguous, greenfield environments.
• 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.

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): $253,895—$298,700 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](https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/eppac.pdf), [Know Your Rights](https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12.pdf), and [E-Verify](https://static-assets.coinbase.com/e-verify.pdf) 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](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/screen-reader/kgejglhpjiefppelpmljglcjbhoiplfn) to download a free compatible screen reader and view the [tutorial](http://www.chromevox.com/tutorial/).
• Data Privacy & Arbitration: By submitting your application, you agree to our [Candidate Privacy Notice](https://www.coinbase.com/legal/applicant_privacy_notice). US applicants: By submitting your application, you agree to [Arbitration of Disputes](https://www.coinbase.com/legal/application-arbitration-agreement).
• 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.