Senior Software Engineer, Backend - Overseer (Platform)

Coinbase, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 219,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus eligibility

Medical, dental, vision

401(k)

Job summary

Coinbase, a remote-first company with quarterly in-person surges, seeks a Senior Software Engineer for the Overseer team in FinHub within the Platform group. You will build and scale the real-time integrity layer that enforces financial correctness across all fund flows.

You'll own workstreams end-to-end, design correctness models with partner teams, and operate detection systems in production, contributing to a platform that ensures billions in transactions stay accurate and trustworthy.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production, with focus on financial systems, payments, reconciliation, or high-reliability infrastructure.
• Proficiency in backend programming (Go, Ruby, Python) with experience building platform-level infrastructure including APIs, frameworks, or detection systems.
• Ability to own workstreams end-to-end in ambiguous environments, designing correctness models and operating them through production.
• Experience with streaming data infrastructure (Kafka, Flink, Spark) and distributed data stores (Postgres, DynamoDB) in real-time processing contexts.
• Ability to use generative AI responsibly, with human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and improve workflow efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale real-time invariant enforcement systems across Coinbase's fund flows and contribute to core detection engine and tooling.
• Own workstreams end-to-end from design to production operation, ensuring new fund flows are covered by Overseer's guarantees.
• Develop AI-powered guardrails and predictive consistency models to flag deviations early and surface coverage gaps before incidents.
• Collaborate with FinHub, Payments, and Trading teams to translate financial rules into enforceable invariants.
• Mentor junior engineers on distributed systems design, correctness thinking, and production reliability.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend programming (Go/Python/Ruby)

End-to-end ownership

Streaming data (Kafka/Flink)

Generative AI responsibly

Tools

Kafka

PostgreSQL

DynamoDB

Flink

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.

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Overseer team within FinHub in the Platform group, you'll build and scale the real-time integrity layer that enforces financial correctness across every Coinbase fund flow. Overseer makes the rules that must always hold between systems explicit, detects violations in seconds rather than quarterly reconciliations, and works with every team at Coinbase that moves money. You'll own workstreams end-to-end, from designing correctness models with partner teams to operating detection systems in production, contributing directly to the platform that keeps billions of transactions accurate and trustworthy.

What You'll Do:

• Build and scale real-time invariant enforcement systems across Coinbase's fund flows, contributing to the core detection engine, invariant framework, and onboarding tooling that partner teams rely on
• Own workstreams end-to-end, from designing correctness models with partner teams through production operation, ensuring new fund flows are covered by Overseer's integrity guarantees
• Develop AI-powered guardrails including predictive consistency models that flag deviations at initiation and proactive invariant discovery that surfaces coverage gaps before incidents occur
• Partner with teams across FinHub, Payments, and Trading to design and implement correctness contracts for new and existing fund flows, translating financial rules into enforceable system invariants
• Mentor junior engineers on distributed systems design, correctness thinking, and production operational practices

Required Skills and Experience:

• 5+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production, with experience in financial systems, payments, reconciliation, or high-reliability transactional infrastructure
• Proficiency in backend programming (e.g., Go, Ruby, Python) with experience building platform-level infrastructure consumed by multiple teams, including APIs, frameworks, or detection systems
• Demonstrated ability to own workstreams end-to-end in ambiguous environments, designing correctness models and operating them through production with high standards for system-level behavior
• Experience with streaming data infrastructure (Kafka, Flink, Spark, or similar) and distributed data stores (Postgres, DynamoDB, or equivalent) in real-time or near-real-time processing contexts
• 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):

$186,065 — $218,900 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.
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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.
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