Senior Staff Software Engineer, Payments

Coinbase; Annapolis (MD); Hybrid; USD 254,000 - 299,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer on the Platform Payments team to define the engineering vision for fiat in 50+ countries and payment rails. You will own multi-quarter strategy, architect the core Payments platform for high availability, low latency, and cost efficiency, and mentor engineers across multiple pods to raise design quality and reliability.

Expect to drive end-to-end large initiatives, collaborate with risk, regulatory, and product sides, and ensure robust

Qualifications

• 10+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
• Backend programming in Go, Java, Python and cloud-native architecture.
• Money-movement architecture including PSPs, ISO 20022, routing, double-entry ledgering, high-volume payments.
• Experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives and mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

• Define multi-quarter technical strategy for Payments across rails, orchestration and transfers.
• Architect core Payments platform for high availability, low latency, global scale, and cost efficiency.
• Lead end-to-end design and rollout of large cross-team initiatives with clear milestones.
• Set and enforce technical standards for financial correctness across Payments (idempotency, reconciliation, auditability).
• Partner with FinHub, Payments Risk, Regulatory Platform, and Product to balance UX, risk controls and unit economics.
• Provide deep technical mentorship to senior engineers across Payments pods.

Skills

Go

Java

Python

Distributed systems

Cloud-native

Mentoring

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 Staff Software Engineer on thePlatform Payments team, you'll define the engineering vision for how fiat moves into and out of Coinbase across 50+ countries and payment rails. This team builds and operates the fiat on- and off-ramps, routing, orchestration, and funds-flow services that power every customer-facing payment experience. You'll own the multi-quarter technical strategy, architect for global scale and reliability, and drive platform-level improvements that directly impact payment success rates, latency, and cost efficiency.

What you'll do:

• Define and drive the multi-quarter technical strategy for Payments spanning rails, orchestration, and transfers to support new products, geos, and significant growth in payment volume.

• Architect and evolve the core Payments platform (rails integrations, routing, and funds-flow services) for high availability, low latency, and cost efficiency at global scale.

• Lead end-to-end design and rollout of large, cross-team initiatives (e.g., new global rails, decomp/migrations, resiliency programs), breaking ambiguity into clear milestones and measurable outcomes.

• Set and enforce technical standards for financial correctness across Payments, including idempotency, reconciliation, failure-mode handling, and auditability for all money-movement paths.

• Partner with FinHub, Payments Risk, Regulatory Platform, and Product to design cohesive architectures that balance customer experience, risk controls, compliance, and unit economics.

• Provide deep technical mentorship to senior and staff engineers across Payments pods, upleveling system design quality, review rigor, and long-term maintainability.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 10+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production, with deep expertise in backend programming (e.g., Go, Java, Python) and cloud-native architecture.

• Deep money-movement architecture experience including PSPs, ISO 20022, routing, double-entry ledgering, and high-volume payment systems.

• Proven track record designing highly available, high-performance systems with the ability to anticipate scaling bottlenecks and address them proactively.

• Experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives across multiple engineering teams and mentoring senior engineers in system design and long‑term maintainability.

• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical tradeoffs clearly to executive and cross‑org stakeholders and secure alignment on high-impact technical decisions.

• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Job ID: P77633

*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):

$253,895—$298,700 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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