Staff Software Engineer, Backend - FinHub (Ledger)

at Coinbase

📍 United States

USD 218,000-256,500 per year

SENIOR

✅ Remote

Tech Stack
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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;

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AI @ 6 Distributed Systems @ 7 GenAI Generative AI @ 6 Go @ 4 Java @ 6 Kubernetes @ 4 PostgreSQL @ 4 Python @ 6

Details

Coinbase is a remote-first, but not remote-only company. Employees are expected to gather quarterly for intense in-person working sessions called “surges.”

As a Staff Engineer on the FinHub - Ledger team within the Platform group, you will own the architectural direction of Coinbase's core ledgering systems, which process billions of transactions. The team builds foundational infrastructure that powers financial accuracy and reliability across the company. You will make critical technical decisions, drive platform improvements, and lead high-impact cross-functional projects that define how Coinbase builds scalable, highly available systems.

Responsibilities

Architect and build foundational backend systems focused on performance, scalability, and reliability across ledgering and transaction-processing infrastructure.
Drive strategic technical direction for complex, cross-team initiatives spanning engineering, product, and finance.
Establish and evolve platform best practices, frameworks, and architectural standards that raise the quality bar across the engineering organization.
Provide deep technical mentorship, guide design decisions, and develop senior engineers across the team.
Shape the team's technical roadmap by collaborating with engineering leadership to identify high-leverage investments and anticipate scaling bottlenecks.
Embed AI into engineering and operational practices to drive system improvements and workflow efficiency.

Requirements

8+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
Deep expertise in backend programming, such as Go, Python, or Java, and cloud-native architecture.
Proven experience designing highly available, high-performance systems, including ledgering, trading systems, or high-precision transaction processing.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives, mentor engineers, and translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable solutions for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Hands-on experience with technologies such as Go, Kubernetes, and PostgreSQL.
Ability to anticipate scaling bottlenecks and drive proactive architectural improvements.
Responsible use of generative AI, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Compensation

The annual base salary range is $218,025-$256,500 USD, excluding equity and bonus. Total compensation may also include equity, bonus eligibility, and medical, dental, vision, and 401(k) benefits.

Candidates may submit a maximum of three applications within a six-month period.