Senior Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform

About Coinbase

At Coinbase, our mission is to foster economic freedom globally. This daunting task requires us to push our limits daily as we construct a pioneering on-chain platform and, consequently, the financial system of the future.

We are on the lookout for a unique individual who is not only passionate about our vision but also recognizes the transformative potential of crypto and blockchain technology in modernizing the financial landscape. We desire someone eager to make a meaningful impact, thrives under pressure, and actively seeks feedback for continuous growth. If you are someone who embraces challenges head-on, this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

Our work environment is dynamic and may not suit everyone, but for those who wish to create the future alongside top-tier professionals, there is no better place than here.

While many roles at Coinbase are primarily remote, we emphasize the importance of in-person collaboration throughout the year. Team and company-wide offsites occur several times annually to enhance connection and alignment, and your participation is crucial and fully supported.

Our mission at Coinbase to increase economic freedom demands not just exceptional products but a robust and sophisticated data foundation. The Data Platform team is the backbone that ensures Coinbase's data is reliable, quick, and accessible at scale—fueling essential operations from fraud detection to financial reporting, to powering AI and ML systems that will shape Coinbase's future.

The Role

We are seeking a visionary and hands-on Senior Staff Software Engineer to guide and shape the technical strategy for Coinbase's Data Platform. In this vital role intersecting distributed systems, data engineering, and AI readiness, you will have a rare chance to develop foundational infrastructure for one of the most significant companies in crypto.

As the top technical authority in your domain, reporting to the Senior Director of Engineering, Data Platform, you will set architectural direction, mentor engineering talent, drive multi-quarter roadmaps, and play a crucial role in transforming Coinbase from a collection of managed data services into a truly scalable data platform. This role provides substantial autonomy and influences multiple cross-functional teams within the broader Infrastructure organization.

Your Responsibilities

• Define and Drive Technical Strategy: Own the technical strategy and architecture for Data Platform, guiding the direction across data ingestion, transformation, warehousing, streaming, and serving systems.
• Develop and Execute: Create a multi-quarter roadmap transitioning the team from a focus on operational cost-saving to engineering-driven cost reduction—revisiting how cost scales with infrastructure.
• Architect for the AI-Native Future: Redesign data infrastructure to intrinsically support AI and ML workloads, ensuring data pipelines and compute systems power fraud detection and advanced AI models.
• Drive Near-Real-Time Data Availability: Enable downstream teams to leverage fresher data for decision-making across the company.
• Spearhead a Builder Mindset: Encourage the team to develop data infrastructure that generates compounding leverage.
• Drive Cross-Functional Alignment: Build consensus and secure commitment from senior leadership and cross-functional partners—including product, infrastructure, data engineering, analytics, ML, privacy, security, and compliance—on technical priorities.
• Primary Technical Voice: Represent Data Platform in organizational forums such as OKR planning, architecture reviews, and long-term infrastructure strategy discussions.

What We Seek

• Extensive experience in building and maintaining large-scale distributed data infrastructure—streaming platforms, data lakes, batch and real-time processing engines, and query/serving layers.
• Strong systems thinker with an understanding of the entire data lifecycle, capable of assessing performance, reliability, cost, security, and privacy across layers.
• Proven experience in transitioning teams from managed-service dependencies towards self-built, platform-grade infrastructure.
• A product-minded approach to data infrastructure, empathetic to developer needs, focused on reducing friction, and dedicated to maximizing leverage.
• Experience in designing data systems that facilitate ML training pipelines, feature stores, and AI workloads at scale.
• A successful history of directing the technical strategy and architecture for a domain across multiple teams.
• Ability to leverage generative AI tools in daily workflows, adapt as technology evolves, and implement human-in-the-loop practices for enhanced efficiency and quality.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in high-scale, tech-forward fintech, crypto, or financial services sectors.
• Familiarity with compliance, data governance, or regulatory data needs.
• Background with change data capture (CDC), Kafka Connect, or real-time ETL processes.
• Experience with Databricks and/or Snowflake.
• Proven track record managing large-scale data platforms on public cloud infrastructure.
• Involvement in open-source data infrastructure projects.

Compensation

Pay Transparency Notice: Depending on your work location, the target annual base salary for this position can range as detailed below. Total compensation may also include bonus eligibility and benefits.

Annual base salary range (excluding bonus):

$253,895-$298,700 USD

Application Information

We encourage candidates to assess how their skills align with Coinbase's roles before applying. Note that candidates may submit a maximum of four applications within any 30-day period.

Commitment to Equal Opportunity

Coinbase proudly maintains an Equal Opportunity Employer status. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other protected status under applicable law. We also consider employment for qualified applicants with criminal histories in accordance with applicable law.

Coinbase is dedicated to providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities throughout the employment process. If you require assistance due to a disability, please contact us to discuss your needs.

Global Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates and Applicants

In compliance with regulations like the GDPR and CCPA, we protect the data of job applicants. Full details on how we manage applicant data are available upon request.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, Coinbase is piloting AI tools for initial screening discussions with qualified applicants. Human recruiters will review candidacy responses against the job description criteria.

Please reach out for accommodations related to disability if needed.