Staff Software Engineer, Solana Staking Protocol

Coinbase; Montpelier (VT); Hybrid; USD 218,000 - 257,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus eligibility

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

401(k)

Job summary

Coinbase is seeking a senior Solana engineer to own the multi-year staking strategy, connecting engineering decisions to yield optimization, cost efficiency, and customer growth. You will lead the effort to achieve industry-leading APY through validator optimization, participate in protocol governance, and partner across product and engineering teams to scale staking integrations.

This role requires deep Solana runtime knowledge, Rust/Go proficiency, and a track record in distributed

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering with Solana protocol experience.
• Proficiency in Rust and/or Go for building and operating distributed infrastructure.
• Established presence in the Solana ecosystem with governance participation or core contributor roles.
• Ability to define multi-quarter technical strategies and align cross-functional teams.
• Familiarity with Solana staking landscape or other PoS protocols (Ethereum, Cosmos).
• Uses generative AI responsibly with human oversight to drive measurable gains.

Responsibilities

• Own Coinbase's multi-year Solana staking strategy and align engineering decisions with yield optimization and customer growth.
• Lead engineering to achieve industry-leading APY through validator optimization and staking tooling.
• Evaluate protocol upgrades and position Coinbase for changes before they land.
• Architect scalable staking integrations across Coinbase products with cross-functional teams.
• Represent Coinbase in the Solana ecosystem and engage with the Solana Foundation and validators.
• Build production infrastructure for validator operations and mentor engineers on Solana domain knowledge.

Skills

Solana protocol experience

Rust

Go

Distributed systems

Validator operations

Public speaking / governance

AI responsibly use

Tools

Observability

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

What you'll do:

• Own Coinbase's multi-year technical strategy for Solana staking across validator performance, protocol participation, and product integration, connecting engineering decisions to yield optimization, cost efficiency, and customer growth.

• Lead the engineering effort to achieve industry-leading APY through validator optimization, including vote accuracy, block production, MEV strategies, commission tuning, and stake distribution tooling.

• Serve as Coinbase's foremost authority on the Solana runtime, consensus mechanism, staking economics, and validator client landscape (Agave, Firedancer), evaluating protocol upgrades (e.g., SIMD proposals) and proactively positioning Coinbase for changes before they land.

• Partner with Retail and Institutional Staking product and engineering teams to architect scalable staking integrations across Coinbase's product surface, while advising on non-staking Solana initiatives requiring deep protocol knowledge.

• Represent Coinbase in the Solana ecosystem by maintaining relationships with the Solana Foundation, core development teams, and major validators, contributing to protocol governance, and speaking at conferences.

• Build production infrastructure for validator operations, monitoring, automation, and reliability while mentoring IC4-IC5 engineers on Solana-specific domain expertise.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 10+ years of software engineering with extensive hands-on Solana protocol experience, including deep familiarity with the runtime, validator mechanics, staking economics, consensus (Tower BFT), and the validator client ecosystem at the source-code level.

• Production-level proficiency in Rust and/or Go, with deep experience building and operating complex distributed infrastructure at scale (bare metal, cloud, networking, observability).

• Established presence in the Solana ecosystem with existing relationships across the Solana Foundation, core contributor teams, or major validators, and a track record of public speaking or protocol governance participation.

• Demonstrated ability to define multi-quarter technical strategies, break ambiguous large-scope problems into executable plans, and drive cross-functional alignment with product, business, and executive stakeholders.

• Familiarity with Solana's evolving staking landscape (liquid staking, stake pools, restaking protocols) or comparative PoS protocol experience (Ethereum, Cosmos).

• 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):

$218,025-$256,500 USD

• *Application Limit: *Candidates may submit a maximum of 3 applications within a 6-month period.

• *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.