Sr. Staff Technical Risk Architect, Unified Trading

Coinbase; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 254,000 - 299,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase is building the future of institutional trading as part of the Everything Exchange, powering the systems that let the world's largest financial institutions trade across markets with speed, depth, and trust.

As a Risk Architect on the Trading team, you'll design, build, and own the real-time risk engine at the heart of a unified trading platform: cross-asset user and portfolio risk evaluated in real time on the core trading system that serves our Retail, Prime, and wholesale brokerage

Qualifications

• Hands-on architect who can design, build, deploy and support 24/7 risk systems.
• Extensive backend engineering experience with distributed systems ownership.
• Developed cross-asset risk with real-time, cross-portfolio evaluation at scale.
• Proficient in low-latency Java and high-throughput messaging technologies.
• Experience with multifactor, borrow risk, margin, or clearing in regulated environments.
• Delivered end-to-end projects from scoping to monitoring and iteration.
• Balanced engineering trade-offs with end-user quality and business needs.
• Responsible use of generative AI with human oversight.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture of the real-time, cross-asset risk and margin engine.
• Design low-latency, high-throughput risk systems aligned with platform growth.
• Drive reliability, observability, and incident response for risk-critical systems.
• Set technical standards and reduce critical debt across the risk stack.
• Serve as risk-architecture anchor, mentoring engineers and reducing single points of failure.
• Partner with Product, Trading, Financing Risk, Security, and Compliance to translate vision into roadmap.

Skills

Architecting systems

Backend engineering

Cross-asset risk

Low-latency Java

Messaging systems

End-to-end delivery

Decision making

AI governance

Tools

Aeron

SBE

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

Team/ Role:

Coinbase is building the future of institutional trading as part of the Everything Exchange, powering the systems that let the world's largest financial institutions trade across markets with speed, depth, and trust. As a Risk Architect on the Trading team, you'll design, build, and own the real-time risk engine at the heart of a unified trading platform: cross-asset user and portfolio risk evaluated in real time on the core trading system that serves our Retail, Prime, and wholesale brokerage customers. It's a rare chance to architect risk infrastructure from the ground up, with the ownership of a startup and the reach of Coinbase.

What you’ll do:

• Own the architecture of the real-time, cross-asset risk and margin engine: user and portfolio modeling, multifactor and borrow risk, and cross-portfolio evaluation at scale.
• Design low-latency, high-throughput risk systems, keeping correctness and performance in step with a growing trading platform.
• Drive reliability and performance, owning SLOs, observability, and incident response for risk-critical systems.
• Set the technical bar through code, design reviews, and standards, and pay down the technical debt that matters most.
• Serve as the risk-architecture anchor for the team, mentoring engineers and reducing single-point-of-failure risk.
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Trading, Financing/Credit Risk, Security, and Compliance to turn technical vision into a roadmap.

Required skills and experience:

• Hands-on architect, able to design, build, deploy, and support 24/7 risk systems that process billions of dollars of transactions daily.
• Extensive backend engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of complex, production-grade distributed systems.
• Track record of architecting a cross-asset risk system (crypto, equities, FCM, or derivatives) with user/portfolio modeling and real-time, cross-portfolio evaluation at scale.
• Deep proficiency in low-latency Java and high-throughput messaging (Aeron, SBE, or similar), designing event-driven, high-availability systems.
• Experience with multifactor and borrow risk, margin, or clearing in a regulated or financial environment where correctness, auditability, and low-latency performance are critical.
• Experience delivering projects end-to-end: scoping, architecture, implementation, monitoring, and iteration.
• Experience making decisions that balance engineering trade-offs with end-user quality, demonstrated through shipped products.
• Responsible use of generative AI, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Position ID: P7780

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