Senior Staff Software Architect - Ultra-Low Latency Trading

Coinbase; Salem (OR); Hybrid; USD 263,000 - 309,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to shape the architectural direction for the Exchange team, including the matching engine, order management, market data, and risk systems. You will own multi-quarter initiatives, drive latency-sensitive design decisions, and balance cloud and on-prem deployments with hands-on leadership.

You will mentor senior engineers, drive cross-team alignment with Exchange, Prime, and Derivatives, and uphold high standards for testing, failover, and 24/7

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience in production trading, exchange, or market-data systems.
• Deep expertise in low-latency distributed systems and a backend language such as Java, C++, or Go, with fluency in JVM/Linux performance tuning.
• Demonstrated architectural ownership of an end-to-end trading platform including order management, multi-venue connectivity, and real-time risk.
• Proven track record influencing technical direction across multiple teams without direct authority.
• Experience operating latency-sensitive systems in on-prem/colocated and cloud environments, including incident command.
• Genuine interest in crypto and institutional markets; deep crypto experience is a plus.
• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, with human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical strategy and architecture for a core Exchange domain, driving multi-quarter initiatives from ambiguity to delivery.
• Lead the design of ultra-low-latency, event-sourced trading systems across matching, risk, and market data in cloud and colocated environments.
• Drive cross-team technical alignment across Exchange, Prime, and Derivatives, securing buy-in from senior leadership.
• Set and inspect the quality bar across teams - deterministic testing, failover design, incident leadership, and 24/7 operations.
• Maintain significant hands-on contribution while guiding execution through other senior engineers.
• Mentor L5-L6 engineers and build the next rung of technical leadership on a lean, high-leverage team.

Skills

Java

C++

Go

Low-latency

Distributed systems

Job description

Coinbase is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to shape the architectural direction for the Exchange team, including the matching engine, order management, market data, and risk systems. You will own multi-quarter initiatives, drive latency-sensitive design decisions, and balance cloud and on-prem deployments with hands-on leadership.

You will mentor senior engineers, drive cross-team alignment with Exchange, Prime, and Derivatives, and uphold high standards for testing, failover, and 24/7