Y Combinator Senior Software Engineer
Summary
Senior backend engineer on Coinbase's Advanced Trading team, owning the design and delivery of social, asset discovery, and real-time notification services for crypto trading products. Day to day: building high-performance Golang/gRPC services on AWS/Kubernetes with event-driven (Kafka) architecture.
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.
Join the Advanced Trading team within the Consumer & Business group as a Senior Software Engineer, Backend helping scale Coinbase Advanced trading products for customers around the globe. You'll own the design and delivery of social, asset discovery, and real-time notification experiences that drive awareness and engagement across a wide range of asset classes, taking complex projects from concept to production with minimal oversight.
What you'll do:
- Own the end-to-end design, development, and reliability of high-performance backend services using Golang and gRPC, enabling seamless trading experiences for customers worldwide.
- Lead rapid experimentation and optimization of conversion funnels for key trading journeys, using data to prioritize high-impact opportunities.
- Drive accelerated time to market for new features by making system design trade-offs across performance, scalability, and maintainability.
- Champion software engineering best practices in design, coding, testing, documentation, monitoring, and alerting, raising the bar for the team.
- Partner cross-functionally with engineers, product managers, and designers across multiple time zones to translate product vision into quarterly roadmaps and high-impact outcomes.
Required Skills and Experience:
- 5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience designing, building, scaling, and maintaining production systems, with significant experience in Golang and gRPC.
- Proven track record designing scalable service architectures and making system design trade-offs across performance, reliability, and maintainability in high-throughput environments.
- Hands-on experience with AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, Datadog, or similar cloud infrastructure tools, and working knowledge of event-driven architectures (Kafka, MQ, or similar).
- Experience with SQL or NoSQL databases, third-party API integrations, and modern development practices including GraphQL and ETL pipelines.
- Demonstrated ability to take ambiguous, multi-quarter projects from concept to production with minimal guidance and sound technical judgment.
- 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)).
- 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.
Skills
As published by greenhouse · 13 questions
Basics
First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Resume/CV, Cover Letter, Location
Short answers (1)
- Linkedin Profile URL
Pick from a list (12)
- Are you at least 18 years of age?
- Have you previously been employed by Coinbase in any capacity?
- How did you hear about this job?
- Please confirm receipt of the above linked Global Data Privacy Notice and US Arbitration Agreement.
- I understand that Coinbase may use AI tools to assist in the application and interview process.
- Which of the following best describes how you use AI tools today?
- Are you legally authorized to work in the country where this position is located?
- Will you require sponsorship for employment visa status now or in the future?
- Are you a current government official or were you a government official in the last five years (e.g., employee of a government agency or a government owned/controlled company, holder of public office or a civil service position)?
- Are you a close relative of a government official (i.e., child/step-child, spouse/partner, parent/guardian, aunt/uncle, first cousin, in-law)?
- To your knowledge, do you or a close relative currently hold a role, have a significant financial interest in, or maintain a close personal relationship with a senior leader at a company connected to Coinbase that could create an actual or perceived conflict of interest?
- To your knowledge, were you referred to this position by a senior leader or decision‑maker at a current or prospective institutional client, business partner, or vendor of Coinbase?