Software Engineer, Data Layer
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.
Software Engineer, Data Layer
As a Software Engineer on the Data Layer team within the Platform group, you'll shape the API (GraphQL) platform that connects every client application to Coinbase's backend services, handling the majority of user traffic across Consumer, Base, and Institutional products. You'll own the critical systems that route and serve API requests at scale, improving reliability, performance, and developer experience for hundreds of engineers building on this foundation layer.
What you'll do:
- Own and deliver projects end to end, from scoping and system design through implementation, rollout, and production validation, driving measurable progress on the team's highest-priority initiatives.
- Design and build high-reliability, low-latency systems serving millions of users, tackling challenges like caching, upstream service optimization, and efficient connection management at scale.
- Build and improve the API framework and tooling that hundreds of engineers depend on, making it fast and easy for teams across the company to build, test, and ship independently.
- Drive operational excellence across T0 services: own SLOs, improve observability, lead incident response, and reduce operational toil so the team can invest in high-leverage work.
- Partner cross-functionally with product engineering teams to design API schemas, support service launches, and ensure the platform evolves to meet their needs.
- Set the technical bar through code and design reviews, mentor engineers across the team, and contribute to architectural direction.
Required Skills and Experience:
- 2+ years of professional engineering experience with demonstrated ownership of complex, production-grade distributed systems.
- Deep proficiency in backend languages (Go, Java, or similar) with hands-on experience designing microservices, API platforms, and high-availability systems.
- Track record of delivering projects end to end, including scoping, architecture, implementation, monitoring, and iteration, in environments where reliability and performance are non-negotiable.
- Experience decomposing complex systems into clean APIs and abstractions adopted by multiple consuming teams, with comfort owning on-call responsibilities and driving incident response across multi-service architectures.
- Demonstrated ability to align technical decisions with cross-functional stakeholders, translating platform capabilities into actionable plans with frontend engineers, product teams, and platform consumers.
- 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: The target annual base salary for this position can range as detailed below. Total compensation may also include equity and bonus eligibility and benefits (including medical, dental, and vision).
- 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.
Best personality fits for this role
You are highly reliable, ensuring systems meet SLOs and operational excellence, which is core to the role.
Read the ISTJ career guide →You naturally excel at owning complex projects from start to finish, aligning well with the end-to-end ownership required.
Read the INTJ career guide →You are a hands-on problem solver who enjoys building and fixing complex systems, perfect for the data layer.
Read the ISTP career guide →