Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Institutional -

Coinbase; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 218,000 - 257,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Job summary

Coinbase is seeking a senior backend engineer to own core services enabling institutional clients to move from application to first trade on Coinbase Prime. You will drive onboarding automation, design critical data services, and collaborate with Product, Compliance, and Ops teams to ship secure access controls for new products.

The role emphasizes working in regulated domains like identity and KYC, mentoring engineers, and delivering high-quality, testable backend code in a remote-first, hybrid

Qualifications

• 5+ years building production backend services in a service-oriented architecture.
• Production Go with gRPC/Protobuf, relational data stores, and observability tooling.
• Proven track record of well-tested, production-grade code with high test coverage.
• Experience in regulated domains such as identity, access control, KYC/AML, or financial onboarding.
• Responsible use of generative AI with human oversight to improve workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Responsibilities

• Own backend services moving institutional clients from application to first trade on Coinbase Prime.
• Drive onboarding automation including screening, risk scoring, and auto-provisioning.
• Lead design of Organizations Service as truth for institutional client data and Salesforce decoupling.
• Partner with Product, Compliance, Onboarding Ops, Identity, and Prime teams to ship onboarding and access controls.
• Shape the access-control stack with roles, permissions, policies, and consensus.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, incident response, and operational excellence.

Skills

Go programming

gRPC/Protobuf

Relational databases

Observability tools

Testing / test coverage

Service-oriented architecture

Job description

Ready to do the most impactful work of your career? AtCoinbase, 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.

You’ll join the Client Lifecycle pillar within Institutional Foundations, the team that takes institutional clients from application to first trade and keeps them operating independently once they're live. You’ll own core backend services spanning onboarding, provisioning, client data, and access controls, directly shaping how every institutional client gets onto Coinbase Prime.

What you’ll do:

• Own backend services that move institutional clients from application to first trade, including Unified Business Onboarding, KYC Refresh, and provisioning.
• Drive onboarding automation including automated screening, risk scoring, and auto-provisioning so low-risk clients complete onboarding without an ops ticket.
• Lead design and implementation of Organizations Service as the source of truth for institutional client data, including data quality, entity uniqueness, and Salesforce decoupling.
• Partner with Product, Compliance, Onboarding Ops, Identity, and Prime product teams to ship onboarding and access controls for new products including FCM, Hudson derivatives, and Prime Custody.
• Shape the access-control stack (roles, permissions, policies, and consensus) so complex institutions can operate on Prime without opening a ticket.
• Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar through design reviews, incident response, and operational excellence.

Required skills and experience:

• 5+ years of experience building and maintaining production backend services in a service-oriented architecture.
• Production experience with Go (or similar), gRPC/Protobuf, relational data stores, and observability tooling.
• Demonstrated practice of writing well-tested, production-grade code with high test coverage and structured code review habits.
• Comfort working in regulated, high-integrity domains such as identity, access control, KYC/AML, or financial onboarding.
• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Position ID: P78291

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 USD - $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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