Role Details

Location

US - Remote Zone 1 (Job Requisitions Only)

Salary (est. USD)

~$198K - $308K (est. USD)

Estimated based on role seniority, company stage (Public), and industry benchmarks. Actual compensation may vary.

How is this calculated?

Seniority band Staff / Principal

Base range $180K – $280K

Stage adjustment Public (+10%)

Adjusted range $198K – $308K

Based on Web3 & AI industry compensation data. Seniority is inferred from role title keywords. Company stage affects ranges: early-stage (−15%), late-stage/public (+10%).

Department

Engineering - Infrastructure

Type

Full-time

Vertical

Exchange

Hiring Manager

Best Guess

Job Description

Ready to be pushed beyond what you think you’re capable of?

At Coinbase, our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. It’s a massive, ambitious opportunity that demands the best of us, every day, as we build the emerging onchain platform — and with it, the future global financial system.

To achieve our mission, we’re seeking a very specific candidate. We want someone who is passionate about our mission and who believes in the power of crypto and blockchain technology to update the financial system. We want someone who is eager to leave their mark on the world, who relishes the pressure and privilege of working with high caliber colleagues, and who actively seeks feedback to keep leveling up. We want someone who will run towards, not away from, solving the company’s hardest problems.

Our work culture is intense and isn’t for everyone. But if you want to build the future alongside others who excel in their disciplines and expect the same from you, there’s no better place to be.

While many roles at Coinbase are remote-first, we are not remote-only. In-person participation is required throughout the year. Team and company-wide offsites are held multiple times annually to foster collaboration, connection, and alignment. Attendance is expected and fully supported.

At Coinbase, our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. Achieving that ambitious goal requires more than just code - it requires world-class engineering velocity, quality, and security. Coinbase is accelerating its strategic commitment to AI-driven development. We believe that the deep integration of artificial intelligence will fundamentally rewrite the laws of software engineering efficiency. The Developer Experience (DevX) organization sits at the center of this transformation, tasked with turning this conviction into reality.

We are looking for a highly visionary, and hands-on, Principal Software Engineer to lead the technical evolution of software development at Coinbase. While DevX leadership focuses on organizational scale, you will be one of the key architects and technical pioneers driving Coinbase’s advancement in AI-driven engineering.

In this role, you will determine how to leverage this technology to not just enhance workflows, but to reimagine them for the next decade. You will design and build the architecture for a powerful, intelligent ecosystem for thousands of engineers, blending resilient infrastructure fundamentals with cutting-edge AI agents. Your goal is to build the tools and systems that enable our teams to move faster and more reliably than any other engineering organization in the industry, shifting focus from routine implementation to high-value architecture and product creation.

What you’ll do (ie. job duties):

Architect an AI-First Ecosystem: Deeply embed AI agents into the development loop - automating test generation, refactoring legacy code, proactively detecting bugs, and optimizing performance before code ever hits production.
Pioneer LLM Integration: Execute on our strong thesis on how LLMs and agents will rewrite the SDLC. You will prototype, build, and deploy the next generation of autonomous engineering tools.
Bridge the Gap Between AI and Fundamentals: You understand that advanced AI tools require a stable, rigorously tested underlying architecture. You will partner closely with infrastructure counterparts to ensure AI tools scale securely and performantly.
Treat Platform as a Product : Guide the technical direction to build and scale a best-in-class Internal Developer Platform that treats internal engineers as customers. The platform must be an enabler of speed, removing friction so engineers can focus on solving crypto’s hardest problems.
Define the AI-Native Engineering Standard: As AI handles more implementation tasks, you will help define the changing workflows, technical standards, and best practices required for the next generation of engineering at Coinbase.

What we look for in you (ie. job requirements):

Deep AI Conviction & Application: ou have a strong thesis on how LLMs and agents will rewrite the SDLC. You have experience or a clear plan for practically applying AI to solve engineering bottlenecks.