Senior Software Engineer, Backend - Overseer (Platform)

Coinbase, Inc.; Richmond (VA); Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 219,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase, Inc. is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Overseer team in FinHub within the Platform group. You will build and scale real-time integrity layers that enforce financial correctness across all fund flows, influencing multiple teams and systems.

You will own workstreams end-to-end—from designing correctness models with partner teams to operating detection systems in production—helping to ensure billions of transactions remain accurate and trustworthy.

Qualifications

• 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 with APIs, frameworks, or detection systems.
• Demonstrated ability to own workstreams end-to-end in ambiguous environments with high standards for system behavior.
• Experience with streaming data infrastructure (Kafka, Flink, Spark) and distributed data stores in real‑time processing contexts.
• Utilizes generative AI responsibly with human oversight to improve workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale real-time invariant enforcement systems across Coinbase's fund flows and the core detection engine.
• Own workstreams end-to-end from design to production operation, ensuring coverage for new fund flows.
• Develop AI-powered guardrails including predictive consistency models and invariant discovery.
• Partner with FinHub, Payments, and Trading teams to design and implement correctness contracts for fund flows.
• Mentor junior engineers on distributed systems design, correctness thinking, and production practices.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend programming (Go, Ruby, Python)

Streaming data (Kafka, Flink, Spark)

Production systems reliability

Generative AI usage

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.

• *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.