Forward Deployed Engineer, Compliance [Office of the CTO]

Coinbase, Inc.; Madison (WI); Hybrid; USD 218,000 - 257,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase is seeking a founding engineer within Compliance to rapidly prototype AI-enabled workflows and embed with Compliance leadership. You will translate regulatory needs into engineering requirements and drive measurable efficiency gains across the org.

Focus areas include transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and regulatory change management, with a strong emphasis on auditability and human-in-the-loop controls.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering in production systems.
• Hands-on experience deploying LLM-based applications.
• Ability to translate workflows into engineering requirements.
• Familiarity with compliance and regulatory systems concepts.
• Experience in forward deployed/embedded roles.
• Generative AI with human oversight.

Responsibilities

• Embed with Compliance leadership and frontline teams to surface automation opportunities.
• Prototype quickly using Coinbase's AI platform as the default foundation.
• Own the Compliance automation roadmap with leadership, translating workflows into engineering needs.
• Define build-vs-buy strategy for Compliance tooling and governance.
• Ensure all automated outputs are auditable and defensible to regulators.
• Drive adoption through demonstrations and feedback loops.

Skills

Software engineering

Stakeholder embedding

LLM-based apps

Compliance domain knowledge

Education

Tools

Python

Prompt engineering

Airflow

SQL

Job description

Ready to do the most impactful work of your career? At Coinbase, we are uncompromising on our mission to increase economic freedom. The bar is high, the environment is intense, and we like it that way. This isn't a place for complacency, it's a place to be pushed past your perceived limits. If you're ready to build the future of finance alongside people who refuse to settle for "good enough," you belong here. Coinbase is a remote-first, but not remote-only company. Expect to get together quarterly for intense in-person working sessions called "surges." learn more about working at Coinbase

Coinbase's Compliance organization manages regulatory obligations across products, operations, and growth — spanning transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, regulatory change management, and exam readiness across 60+ global entities. This role sits directly inside the Office of the CTO, embedded as a founding engineer within Compliance. You'll identify high-value workflow opportunities, rapidly prototype solutions using Coinbase's existing AI platform, and drive measurable adoption of AI tooling across the Compliance org. You'll be the connective tissue between Compliance stakeholders and the engineering teams who maintain Coinbase's AI platform, acting as advocate, translator, and builder in one.

What you'll do:

• Embed with Compliance leadership and frontline teams to surface the automation opportunities with the greatest business leverage — developing ground-level understanding of workflows like transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, regulatory change management, and exam preparation.
• Prototype quickly and pragmatically using Coinbase's existing AI platform as the default foundation before recommending net-new builds.
• Own the Compliance automation roadmap in partnership with the Chief Compliance Officer and Compliance leadership, translating complex regulatory workflows — case resolution, trade surveillance, risk assessment, policy management — into engineering requirements and engineering constraints back to stakeholders clearly.
• Define the build-vs-buy strategy for Compliance tooling, evaluating what Coinbase should build internally, adopt from partner teams, procure from vendors, or retire.
• Ensure every automated compliance output is traceable, reviewable, and defensible to regulators — with auditability, approval gates, evidence retention, and human-in-the-loop controls as first-class design concerns, not afterthoughts.
• Drive adoption through brown-bags, prototype walkthroughs, and feedback loops that bring Compliance teams along on the journey and ensure tools actually get used.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with a demonstrated ability to ship production systems in ambiguous, stakeholder-heavy environments, with greenfield experience a strong plus.
• Hands-on experience deploying LLM-based applications, including prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, hallucination guardrails, and human-in-the-loop design for high-stakes compliance outputs.
• Proven ability to embed with non-technical domain experts, rapidly internalize complex workflows, and translate them into engineering requirements.
• Familiarity with compliance and regulatory systems concepts: transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, regulatory filing workflows, case management, and audit-ready data handling.
• Familiarity with multi-agent orchestration concepts including how agent systems handle handoffs, escalation, and auditability.
• Experience in a Forward Deployed Engineering, Solutions Engineering, or embedded technical advisory capacity, ideally in compliance-tech, RegTech, or financial services environments.
• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Job ID: #P77745

*Pay Transparency Notice:** *Base salary varies by location (see range below). Total compensation may also include equity and bonus eligibility, and benefits (medical, dental, vision, 401(k)).

Annual base salary range (excluding equity and bonus):

$218,025-$256,500 USD

• *Application Limit: *Candidates may submit a maximum of 3 applications within a 6-month period.
• *Equal Opportunity Employer: *Coinbase is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information. Applicants with criminal histories will be considered consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
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• *Accommodations: *If you are an individual with a disability who needs a reasonable accommodation, email us your request and contact info at accommodations[at]coinbase.com. Need screen reading technology? Click here to download a free compatible screen reader and view the tutorial.
• *Data Privacy & Arbitration: *By submitting your application, you agree to our Candidate Privacy Notice. US applicants: By submitting your application, you agree to Arbitration of Disputes.