Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Institutional - Exchange)
Tech Stack
Tag name is followed by "@" symbol and proficiency level value.
About proficiency levels:
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
AI @ 6
API @ 4
Distributed Systems @ 6
GenAI
Generative AI @ 6
Go @ 6
Java @ 6
Kafka @ 4
Kubernetes @ 4
Observability
Performance Optimization @ 4
PostgreSQL @ 4
SRE
Security
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
Details
Coinbase is a remote-first, but not remote-only company focused on increasing economic freedom. Employees are expected to gather quarterly for in-person working sessions called “surges.”
As a Senior Software Engineer on the Coinbase Exchange team within the Institutional group, you will design, build, and operate the high-performance trading systems that power Coinbase's spot exchange. The team owns the customer-facing FIX, REST, and WebSocket APIs used by institutional and professional trading customers. You will solve complex problems at the intersection of distributed systems, real-time financial infrastructure, and customer-facing products while shaping the reliability and performance of a large crypto exchange.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and maintain high-throughput, low-latency APIs and backend services for order entry, market data, trade execution, and other real-time trading workflows on Coinbase Exchange.
- Own services throughout their lifecycle, including technical design, implementation, deployment, observability, scaling, production support, and participation in on-call rotations.
- Improve the performance, reliability, and operational readiness of distributed systems where availability, correctness, and latency are critical.
- Partner with Product, SRE, Security, and other engineering teams to translate customer and business needs into effective technical solutions.
- Drive engineering quality through design reviews, code reviews, well-tested code, and mentorship that fosters technical excellence and continuous improvement.
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience building and operating production backend or distributed systems in Java, Go, or a comparable backend language.
- Proven experience designing and scaling high-volume, performance-sensitive services, with expertise in concurrency, event-driven architecture, reliability, and performance optimization.
- Experience with real-time or financial systems, market connectivity protocols such as FIX, high-throughput messaging technologies such as Aeron or Kafka, or comparable transferable experience.
- Experience building customer-facing APIs using FIX, REST, WebSocket, or comparable protocols.
- Experience operating services in cloud and Kubernetes-based environments.
- Experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL and event-driven or streaming data systems.
- Responsible use of generative AI, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and improve workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.
Compensation
- Annual base salary: $186,065–$218,900 USD, excluding equity and bonus.
- Total compensation may also include equity, bonus eligibility, and medical, dental, vision, and 401(k) benefits.
Position ID: P78289.
Candidates may submit a maximum of three applications within a six-month period. Coinbase is an Equal Opportunity Employer. US applicants are provided with Employee Rights, Know Your Rights, and E-Verify notices. Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities. Applicants agree to the Candidate Privacy Notice and, for US applicants, the Arbitration of Disputes agreement when submitting an application.