Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Institutional -

Coinbase, Inc.; Saint Paul (MN); Hybrid; USD 218,000 - 257,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase is a remote-first company focused on increasing economic freedom. You will join the Client Lifecycle pillar within Institutional Foundations, building backend services for onboarding, provisioning, and access controls for Coinbase Prime.

We seek engineers with 5+ years in backend services, Go and gRPC/Protobuf experience, and strong testing practices in regulated environments. This role emphasizes collaboration, reliability, and scalable security for institutional clients.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building and maintaining production backend services in a service-oriented architecture.
• Production experience with Go and gRPC/Protobuf, relational stores, and observability tooling.
• Proven ability to write well-tested, production-grade code with strong review habits.
• Experience working in regulated, high-integrity domains like identity and onboarding.
• Responsible use of generative AI with human oversight to improve workflow efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Own backend services moving institutional clients from application to first trade (Onboarding, KYC Refresh, provisioning).
• Drive onboarding automation including screening, risk scoring, and auto-provisioning to minimize manual tickets.
• Lead design of Organizations Service as the source of truth for client data and data quality.
• Collaborate with Product, Compliance, Onboarding Ops, Identity, and Prime teams to ship onboarding and access controls for new products.
• Shape the access-control stack (roles, permissions, policies) for complex institutions on Prime.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, incident response, and improving operational excellence.

Skills

Backend engineering

Go

gRPC/Protobuf

Relational databases

Observability

Testing practices

KYC/AML domain

AI governance

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.

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.

*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

• *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.