Easy Apply
Easy Apply
Lead technical strategy and architecture for Coinbase Payments, building high-availability, low-latency payment rails and funds-flow systems. Drive cross-team initiatives, enforce financial correctness (idempotency, reconciliation, auditability), improve reliability and cost efficiency using observability data, mentor senior engineers, and align stakeholders across product, risk, and compliance to deliver scalable global payment solutions.
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.
About the team:
Payments Platform is at the front door of Coinbase’s financial ecosystem. Our mission is to move old money into crypto and power financial access and payments for the crypto economy globally. As the bridge between the traditional financial world and the crypto economy, we build and operate the fiat on- and off-ramps and payment services that let Coinbase’s customer-facing products deliver reliable, seamless payment processing and connect customer fiat funds into crypto.
We’re seeking a deep technical leader to define the engineering vision for Payments, shape architectural cohesion across our global payment rails and funds-flow systems, drive platform-level reliability and cost efficiency, and lead the next evolution of how fiat moves into and out of Coinbase.
What you’ll be doing (ie. job duties):
- Define and drive the multi‑quarter technical strategy for Payments, spanning rails, orchestration, and transfers, to support new products, geos, and significant growth in payment volume.
- Architect and evolve the core Payments platform (rails integrations, routing, and funds-flow services) for high availability, low latency, and cost efficiency at global scale.
- Lead end‑to‑end design and rollout of large, cross‑team initiatives (e.g., new global rails, decomp/migrations, resiliency programs), breaking high ambiguity into clear milestones and measurable outcomes.
- Set and enforce technical standards for financial correctness across Payments, including idempotency, reconciliation, failure‑mode handling, and auditability for all money‑movement paths.
- Partner closely with FinHub, Payments Risk, Regulatory Platform, and Product to design cohesive architectures that balance customer experience, risk controls, compliance, and unit economics.
- Provide deep technical mentorship to senior/staff engineers across Payments pods, upleveling system design quality, review rigor, and long‑term maintainability.
- Use data and observability signals (e.g., success rates, latency, cost, incident patterns) to identify structural platform gaps and lead systematic reliability and efficiency improvements.
- Represent Payments in executive and cross‑org forums, clearly communicating tradeoffs, aligning stakeholders on strategy, and securing buy‑in for high‑impact technical bets.
What we look for in you (ie. job requirements):
- 10+ years building and operating large‑scale distributed systems in production.
- Deep money‑movement architecture experience (PSPs, ISO 20022, routing, double‑entry, high‑volume payment systems)
- Deep expertise in backend programming (e.g., Python, Go, Java) and cloud‑native architecture.
- Proven track record designing highly available, high‑performance systems.
- Ability to anticipate scaling bottlenecks before they occur and take decisive, proactive measures.
- Experience leading cross‑functional technical initiatives and mentoring senior engineers.
- Commitment to technical excellence, sharing best practices, and fostering a strong engineering culture.
- Ability to distill complex technical concepts into clear and actionable solutions.
Nice to haves:
- Experience designing and operating ledgering or trading systems at large scale.
- Strong financial acumen with experience handling accounting data and financial transactions with high precision and reliability.
- Experience collaborating closely with finance and accounting teams.
Job ID#: P75554
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
- Application Limit: Candidates may submit a maximum of 4 applications per 30-day 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.
- AI Disclosure: Coinbase may use AI tools for initial screening or note-taking, reviewed by a human recruiter. AI is not used to make final hiring decisions. Email accommodations[at]coinbase.com to request an accommodation.
Similar Jobs at Coinbase
.png)
Artificial Intelligence • Blockchain • Fintech • Financial Services • Cryptocurrency • NFT • Web3
Lead end-to-end product design for Coinbase Advanced Trading across web and mobile. Drive zero-to-one and improvement initiatives for complex, data-dense trading workflows, design scalable patterns and information architecture, prototype and deliver high-quality UI, and coach/mentor junior designers while partnering with Product, Engineering, and Research.
Top Skills:
FigmaGenerative Ai Tools
Artificial Intelligence • Blockchain • Fintech • Financial Services • Cryptocurrency • NFT • Web3
Design, build, and operate core developer-infrastructure services (CI/build, deployment orchestration, test infra) at scale. Own services end-to-end including SLOs, observability, and on-call; drive measurable improvements in build/deploy/test metrics; lead cross-team technical projects and mentor engineers to improve developer productivity.
Top Skills:
AWSBazelBuckCi/CdContainersDatadogDockerGithub ActionsGoKubernetesOciRemote ExecutionTerraform
Artificial Intelligence • Blockchain • Fintech • Financial Services • Cryptocurrency • NFT • Web3
Design and implement AI systems for customer support and compliance, architect solutions, mentor team members, and manage project deliverables.
Top Skills:
AIGoLlm
What you need to know about the Colorado Tech Scene
With a business-friendly climate and research universities like CU Boulder and Colorado State, Colorado has made a name for itself as a startup ecosystem. The state boasts a skilled workforce and high quality of life thanks to its affordable housing, vibrant cultural scene and unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation. Colorado is also home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, helping cement its status as a hub for renewable energy innovation.
Key Facts About Colorado Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 260,000; 8.5% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Lockheed Martin, Century Link, Comcast, BAE Systems, Level 3
- Key Industries: Software, artificial intelligence, aerospace, e-commerce, fintech, healthtech
- Funding Landscape: $4.9 billion in VC funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Access Venture Partners, Ridgeline Ventures, Techstars, Blackhorn Ventures
- Research Centers and Universities: Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Denver, Colorado State University, Mesa Laboratory, Space Science Institute, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Gottlieb Institute
