Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Institutional - Exchange)

Details

Ready to be pushed beyond what you think you’re capable of?

At Coinbase, our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. It’s a massive, ambitious opportunity that demands the best of us, every day, as we build the emerging onchain platform — and with it, the future global financial system.

To achieve our mission, we’re seeking a very specific candidate. We want someone who is passionate about our mission and who believes in the power of crypto and blockchain technology to update the financial system. We want someone who is eager to leave their mark on the world, who relishes the pressure and privilege of working with high caliber colleagues, and who actively seeks feedback to keep leveling up. We want someone who will run towards, not away from, solving the company’s hardest problems.

Our work culture is intense and isn’t for everyone. In-person participation is required throughout the year. Team and company-wide offsites are held multiple times annually to foster collaboration, connection, and alignment. Attendance is expected and fully supported.

The Institutional Product Group engineers create and maintain a suite of products catering to institutional customers of all sizes from Hedge Funds (Coinbase Prime) to experienced individual traders (Coinbase Advanced Trade) and everything in between. Additional products include Prime - Custody Only, Prime Web3 Wallet, Commerce and Exchange. Whether customer needs are trading, staking, governance, custody, web3 operations, or API integrations, Coinbase Institutional has them covered.

The Institutional, Derivatives Exchange team is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join a talented and growing engineering team at the forefront of solving industry-leading challenges. This is an opportunity to support and expand our crypto derivatives business, both in the US and internationally.

Responsibilities

• Join the engineering team responsible for building the mission critical, submillisecond systems underpinning our Derivatives Exchanges.
• Collaborate with engineers, designers, product managers, and other stakeholders to translate requirements into technical plans and iterate through design and implementation to deliver features and products.
• Be a thoughtful technical voice within the team, participate in architectural decisions, and foster a culture of strong ownership, high-quality code, and operational excellence.
• Collaborate with Product and Operations teams to ensure successful delivery and operation of complex, distributed systems at scale.
• Mentor junior engineers to support their career growth and help maintain top talent across the organization.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of experience in software engineering.
• Domain experience with crypto, derivatives, or other financial products.
• Experience designing, building, maintaining and scaling critical low-latency systems (submillisecond/real-time trading systems).
• Good understanding of relational databases and NoSQL databases.
• Strong craftsmanship: knowledge of what high quality code looks like and how to sustain a high quality bar.
• Execution focused with the ability to navigate ambiguity.
• Experience architecting complex distributed systems at scale.

Nice to haves

• Experience building and operating 24/7 financial trading systems (Matching Engines, Order Management Systems, Risk Engines, Market Data and Order Gateways) and understanding how they differ from traditional web architectures.
• Operating systems expertise.
• Experience working with managed infrastructure providers like AWS and/or GCP.

Pay & Additional Info

• Job #: GIBE05US
• Pay Range: $186,005 — $218,900 USD (full time offers also include target bonus, target equity, and benefits)
• Answers to crypto-related questions may be used to evaluate onchain experience.
• While many roles at Coinbase are remote-first, the company is not remote-only; in-person participation is required throughout the year.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental and Vision plans with generous employee contributions
• Health Savings Account with company contributions
• Disability and Life Insurance
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Wellness stipend, Mobile/Internet reimbursement, Connections stipend
• Volunteer Time Off, Fertility Counseling and Benefits
• Generous time off / leave policy
• Option of getting paid in digital currency

Equal Opportunity & Privacy

Coinbase is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to protected characteristics. Coinbase is committed to reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities and provides global data privacy notices for job candidates.

AI Disclosure

For select roles Coinbase pilots AI tools for initial screening interviews and interview intelligence; these are pilot programs and Coinbase will not use AI to make employment decisions. A human recruiter reviews responses and interview notes.