Staff Software Engineer

Company: Coinbase

Location: IL (Remote)

Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

As a Staff Software Engineer within the Security Platform Engineering group, you'll serve as the primary execution anchor for Coinbase's most critical regulatory and cryptographic initiatives. This team owns Coinbase's Tier-0 Multi-Party Computation (MPC) engine, which secures 99% of assets under custody. You'll lead the development of high-availability services that directly protect customer assets and ensure global regulatory compliance.

Coinbase is a remote-first, but not remote-only company. Expect to get together quarterly for intense in-person working sessions called "surges."

What You'll Do

• Lead the architecture and execution of critical cryptographic infrastructure, including services required for global regulatory compliance
• Define technical strategies with a multi-quarter horizon, bringing clarity to highly ambiguous requirements for novel cryptographic solutions
• Own risky and ambitious initiatives, implementing secure and resilient cryptographic protocols in a high-stakes, zero-trust environment
• Shape engineering quality practices as a technical anchor and mentor within a team of senior engineers, driving rigorous code reviews and eliminating single points of failure
• Build alignment and secure commitment from cross-functional partners across Security, Product, and Policy to drive flawless execution

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering with demonstrated success building highly available, distributed systems
• Deep domain expertise in applied cryptography, Key Management Systems (KMS), or Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), with proven experience safely implementing cryptographic protocols (Multi-Party Computation experience strongly preferred)
• Extensive programming experience in systems languages such as Golang, Java, C++, or Rust, with ability to operate in a Golang-heavy environment
• Proven track record operating Tier-0 or highly critical infrastructure where system resilience, security, and low latency are absolute prerequisites
• Demonstrated experience leading a team's technical strategy, architecture, and deliverables for large-scale projects, including navigating complex regulatory requirements and translating them into robust engineering solutions
• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality