Staff Software Enginer, Backend - Payments Platform

Coinbase; Oregon; Hybrid; USD 218,000 - 257,000; Full time

Job summary

Coinbase, Inc. is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join the Payments team. You will own the multi-year technical strategy and architecture for the Payments platform, defining roadmaps for scaling integrations, routing, and funds-flow systems across global markets.

Build fault-tolerant distributed systems with high-volume traffic and measurable reliability. You will drive engineering quality, partner with cross-functional teams, and mentor engineers while advancing security and regulatory

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with payments, financial infrastructure, or high-volume transaction platforms.
• Architecting fault-tolerant, highly reliable distributed systems at scale with billions in transaction volume.
• Led platform-building efforts (shared frameworks, unified APIs, multi-tenant architectures).
• Proven production reliability ownership and incident response across multiple teams or domains.
• Ability to influence technical direction without direct authority and represent your area in architecture forums.
• Responsible use of generative AI with human oversight to improve workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.

Responsibilities

• Own multi-year technical strategy and architecture for the Payments platform and roadmap for scaling integrations.
• Build and evolve distributed systems handling high-volume payment traffic with observability and SLOs.
• Drive engineering quality through shared frameworks, paved roads, and coding standards.
• Partner with Product, Risk, Compliance, and Operations to translate requirements into technical solutions balancing speed and safety.
• Lead scaling and reliability initiatives, anticipate bottlenecks, and guide postmortems.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews and architectural guidance.

Skills

Payments systems

Distributed systems

Reliability engineering

Cross-team leadership

AI governance

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.We're hiring a Staff Software Engineer to join the Payments team within the Platform organization.

What You'll Do:

• Own the multi-year technical strategy and architecture for the Payments platform, defining the roadmap for scaling integrations, routing, and funds-flow systems across global markets.
• Build and evolve distributed systems that process high-volume payment traffic, designing for fault isolation, graceful degradation, observability, and clear SLOs for Tier-0/Tier-1 services.
• Drive engineering quality by establishing paved roads, shared frameworks, and coding standards that elevate the technical bar across the Payments team and adjacent orgs.
• Partner cross‑functionally with Product, Risk, Compliance, and Operations to translate ambiguous business requirements into well‑scoped technical solutions that balance speed, safety, and regulatory needs.
• Lead high‑stakes scaling and reliability initiatives, anticipating bottlenecks before they occur and driving systematic improvements from incident postmortems.
• Strengthen team capabilities through hands‑on mentorship, design reviews, and architectural guidance that accelerate the growth of engineers across the team.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, including hands‑on experience building payment systems, financial infrastructure, or high‑volume transactional platforms.
• Demonstrated track record of architecting and delivering fault‑tolerant, highly reliable distributed systems at scale, with experience processing billions of dollars in transaction volume.
• Led platform‑building efforts that transformed fragmented services into coherent, reusable systems (e.g., shared frameworks, unified APIs, multi‑tenant architectures).
• Proven experience owning production reliability, leading high‑severity incident response, and driving systemic improvements across multiple teams or domains.
• History of influencing technical direction across teams and organizations without direct authority, including representing your area in org‑level architecture and strategy forums.
• 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 thetutorial.
• 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.