Senior Staff Software Engineer, Legal Automation

About the role

This role focuses on reimagining how legal work is done at scale within Coinbase. The Senior Staff Software Engineer will design and implement a platform of AI agents and automated workflows to replace manual, high-volume legal tasks. This includes building an end-to-end system for institutional client agreement automation, which will ingest markups, generate redlines, and route for human review, impacting over 220 institutional clients.

A key responsibility is to consolidate existing ad-hoc bots into a cohesive, maintainable agent platform with clear standards and observability. The engineer will also serve as a technical thought partner to the legal leadership, translating complex legal processes into engineered systems and communicating engineering constraints to non-technical stakeholders. This involves defining the make-vs-buy strategy for legal tech tools.

Success in this position means establishing a robust, AI-native system that sets a precedent for how other non-technical organizations at Coinbase can leverage AI for transformation. The role is designed as a pilot for forward-deployed engineering, creating a playbook for broader application across the company. The ideal candidate will have a platform mindset, focusing on reusability and standards rather than just point solutions.

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $253,895 to $298,700 USD, with total compensation potentially including equity, bonus eligibility, and benefits.

Skills that matter here

• backend software engineering: This role requires significant experience in backend software engineering to architect and build robust AI infrastructure and automated legal workflows.
• AI: The position centers on leveraging AI to transform legal operations, requiring a deep understanding of AI principles and application.
• LLM-based applications: Candidates must have proven experience in deploying LLM-based applications to production, including managing evaluation frameworks, grounding, and hallucination guardrails.
• multi-agent orchestration: Experience with multi-agent orchestration is essential for designing systems where multiple AI agents collaborate and escalate tasks to humans.
• distributed systems: The role involves architecting complex systems that handle document processing, routing logic, and audit trails, necessitating strong distributed systems fundamentals.

Who this role suits

• You have a strong track record of shipping production systems and thrive in environments that push past perceived limits.
• You are adept at communicating complex technical concepts to non-technical domain experts and rapidly internalizing their workflows.
• You possess a platform mindset, focusing on building reusable primitives and standards rather than just point solutions.
• You are driven to achieve ambitious goals in ambiguous, greenfield environments and are comfortable defining strategies like make-vs-buy.

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.