Role in brief
Coinbase is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer for its Payments team. This role involves leading technical strategies and architecture for a financial platform that integrates traditional finance with crypto. Ideal candidates have extensive experience with distributed systems and backend programming.
✓ Direct apply: you message the hiring person by email. No ATS.
About the role
As a Senior Staff Software Engineer in Payments at Coinbase, you will be responsible for defining and executing the technical strategy for the Payments platform. This includes architecting high-performance systems and ensuring financial correctness across various money movement paths. You will also lead initiatives that enhance the platform's reliability and efficiency.
The Payments team operates at the forefront of Coinbase’s financial ecosystem, focusing on integrating traditional finance with cryptocurrency. Success in this role requires collaboration with multiple teams, including risk and regulatory platforms, to create cohesive architectures that balance customer experience with compliance. You will also mentor other engineers to uphold high standards of system design.
The salary range for this position is between $253,895 and $298,700, reflecting the seniority and expertise required.
Skills that matter here
- Python: This role requires deep expertise in Python for backend programming and system architecture.
- Go: Go is essential for building and operating large-scale distributed systems in the Payments platform.
- Java: Java knowledge is necessary for developing high-performance systems within the Payments architecture.
Who this role suits
- A person with over a decade of experience in building large-scale distributed systems.
- Someone who excels in leading technical initiatives and mentoring other engineers.
- An individual who is proactive in identifying and addressing scaling challenges.
- A candidate with a strong commitment to technical excellence and fostering an engineering culture.
From the employer
What you’ll be doing (ie. job duties):
- Define and drive the multi‑quarter technical strategy for Payments, spanning rails, orchestration, and transfers, to support new products, geos, and significant growth in payment volume.
- Architect and evolve the core Payments platform (rails integrations, routing, and funds-flow services) for high availability, low latency, and cost efficiency at global scale.
- Lead end‑to‑end design and rollout of large, cross‑team initiatives (e.g., new global rails, decomp/migrations, resiliency programs), breaking high ambiguity into clear milestones and measurable outcomes.
- Set and enforce technical standards for financial correctness across Payments, including idempotency, reconciliation, failure‑mode handling, and auditability for all money‑movement paths.
- Partner closely with FinHub, Payments Risk, Regulatory Platform, and Product to design cohesive architectures that balance customer experience, risk controls, compliance, and unit economics.
- Provide deep technical mentorship to senior/staff engineers across Payments pods, upleveling system design quality, review rigor, and long‑term maintainability.
- Use data and observability signals (e.g., success rates, latency, cost, incident patterns) to identify structural platform gaps and lead systematic reliability and efficiency improvements.
- Represent Payments in executive and cross‑org forums, clearly communicating tradeoffs, aligning stakeholders on strategy, and securing buy‑in for high‑impact technical bets.
What we look for in you (ie. job requirements):
- 10+ years building and operating large‑scale distributed systems in production.
- Deep money‑movement architecture experience (PSPs, ISO 20022, routing, double‑entry, high‑volume payment systems).
- Deep expertise in backend programming (e.g., Python, Go, Java) and cloud‑native architecture.
- Proven track record designing highly available, high‑performance systems.
- Ability to anticipate scaling bottlenecks before they occur and take decisive, proactive measures.
- Experience leading cross‑functional technical initiatives and mentoring senior engineers.
- Commitment to technical excellence, sharing best practices, and fostering a strong engineering culture.
- Ability to distill complex technical concepts into clear and actionable solutions.
Nice to haves:
- Experience designing and operating ledgering or trading systems at large scale.
- Strong financial acumen with experience handling accounting data and financial transactions with high precision and reliability.
- Experience collaborating closely with finance and accounting teams.
Questions about this role
Is this position remote?
Yes, this role is remote-first but requires occasional in-person meetings.
What is the seniority level for this position?
This is a senior-level position requiring significant experience.
How do I apply for this role?
Interested candidates can apply through the Coinbase website.
✓ Direct apply: you message the hiring person by email. No ATS.