Senior Staff Software Engineer, Institutional Exchange

Coinbase; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 263,000 - 309,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase in Charlotte, NC, seeks a Senior Staff Software Engineer for the Exchange team. You’ll set architectural direction for the matching engine, order management, market data, and trading systems that clear billions daily.

This role combines strategic influence with practical delivery on a platform used by the world’s largest institutions. You’ll own strategy across on‑prem and cloud, lead multi‑team alignment, and mentor senior engineers while contributing hands-on.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering with ownership of production trading or market-data systems.
• Expertise in low-latency distributed systems and JVM-based tuning.
• Architectural ownership of end-to-end trading platform across venues.
• Experience influencing multiple teams without direct authority.
• History operating latency-sensitive systems in on-prem and cloud, with incident command.

Responsibilities

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

Skills

Low-latency systems

Java

C++

Go

JVM performance tuning

Distributed architecture

End-to-end platform ownership

Cross-team influence

Incident command

Mentoring engineers

Crypto interest

Job description

Coinbase is building the future of institutional trading as part of the https://www.coinbase.com/careers/product-groups Everything Exchange, powering the systems that let the world's largest financial institutions trade across markets with speed, depth, and trust. As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on the Exchange team, you'll set the architectural direction for the matching engine, order management, market data, and unified trading systems that clear billions of dollars in daily volume. You'll operate as the most senior technical voice across multiple teams, making the calls on latency, correctness, and resilience that everything else depends on. It's a rare chance to shape a trading platform from the ground up, with the ownership of a startup and the reach of Coinbase.

What you'll do:

Own the technical strategy and architecture for a core Exchange domain, driving multi-quarter initiatives from ambiguity through incremental milestones to delivery.

Lead the design of ultra-low-latency, event-sourced trading systems spanning matching, risk, and market data across cloud and colocated environments.

Drive cross-team technical alignment across Exchange, Prime, and Derivatives, securing commitment from senior engineering and product leadership.

Set and inspect the quality bar across teams - deterministic testing, failover design, incident leadership, and operational standards for 24/7 markets.

Maintain significant hands-on contribution while leading execution through other senior engineers and tech leads.

Mentor L5-L6 engineers and build the next rung of technical leadership on a lean, high-leverage team.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant ownership of production trading, exchange, or market-data systems at scale.
• 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 - order management, multi-venue connectivity, and real-time risk - not a single component.
• 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 and safe production change.
• Genuine interest in crypto and institutional markets, with the ability to ramp quickly; deep crypto experience is a plus, not a requirement.
• 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):

$262,650-$309,000 USD