Senior Engineering Manager, AI Foundations

Coinbase, Inc.; Montpelier (VT); Hybrid; USD 254,000 - 299,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase is seeking a leader for AI Foundations engineering to drive hiring, coaching, and technical direction across its shared AI services, including LLM Gateway and MCP Gateway. You will balance rapid model innovation with reliability, security, cost, and developer experience, working with security, legal, and finance on governance and spend controls.

This remote-first, hybrid role offers the chance to grow leadership while shaping the long‑term AI foundations strategy and tooling for a

Qualifications

• Experience leading AI Foundations engineering teams.
• Ability to balance rapid model innovation with reliability, security, developer experience, and cost.
• Experience delivering LLM Gateway and MCP Gateway.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI Foundations engineering, with responsibility for hiring, coaching, technical direction, prioritization, and delivery across its shared AI services.
• Partner with Product and senior engineers to balance rapid model and agent innovation with reliability, security, developer experience, and cost.
• Own engineering-side vendor relationships and operational readiness, and partner with Security, Legal, and Finance on AI governance and spend controls.

Skills

AI Foundations leadership

Operational excellence

LLM Gateway

Model routing

Leadership development

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.

AI Foundations builds the shared infrastructure that lets teams across Coinbase use AI securely, reliably, and cost-effectively. Its scope includes the LLM Gateway and model routing, MCP Gateway for agent access to tools, knowledge and context services, evaluation infrastructure, and AI discovery and spend tooling. These building blocks power employee productivity and AI-enabled products without each team rebuilding the same infrastructure.

Lessons from launching Enterprise-grade GenAI solutions at Coinbase

What you’ll do

• Lead AI Foundations engineering, with responsibility for hiring, coaching, technical direction, prioritization, and delivery across its shared AI services.

• Partner with Product and senior engineers to balance rapid model and agent innovation with reliability, security, developer experience, and cost.

• Own engineering-side vendor relationships and operational readiness, and partner with Security, Legal, and Finance on AI governance and spend controls.

Required Skills and Experience

• Own the “Neutral Foundations” pillar of Coinbase’s AI Tooling Strategy; establish a 2027 strategy and roadmap for the team.

• Drive operational excellence of the AI primitives/services.

• Deliver LLM Gateway, MCP Gateway; pave the road for model routing, evaluations;

• Grow the next rung of leadership on AI Foundations.

*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):

$253,895—$298,700 USD

• *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.

• *US Applicants: View Employee Rights, Know Your Rights, and E-Verify Notice of Participation.

• *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.