Staff Software Engineer - Tax Engineering at Coinbase

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. We're hiring a Staff Software Engineer to technically lead the Tax Engineering team within the Consumer Product Group. Tax Engineering sits at the intersection of every trade, every payment, and every product Coinbase ships on the hot path. When a user buys Bitcoin, sells an equity, earns staking rewards, or redeems an Advisor-managed strategy, our systems calculate cost basis, track gain/loss, determine withholding obligations, and produce the reporting that keeps Coinbase compliant across every product line and legal entity globally. As the Staff Software Engineer on the team you'll define multi-quarter technical strategies, build systems with stringent correctness and scalability requirements, and set the technical direction for how Coinbase handles one of the most complex domains in financial services. Ownership & impact In this role, you will: • Own the architecture and evolution of real-time and offline systems that calculate, track, and report taxes for crypto transactions at scale — ensuring correctness, low latency, and 24x7 availability. • Define multi-quarter technical strategies for the Tax Platform, identifying opportunities to simplify complexity, improve reliability, and expand capabilities as Coinbase launches new asset types and products. • Architect and build distributed systems that power tax calculation engines, cost basis tracking, and tax reporting APIs — serving millions of customers with strict accuracy requirements. • Lead technical design and code reviews, setting standards for quality, performance, and maintainability across the team. Mentor engineers and elevate the technical bar. • Partner cross-functionally with product, data, compliance, and frontend teams to deliver tax features that meet regulatory requirements and delight customers — from annual tax reports to real-time gain/loss calculations. • Drive operational excellence by owning system reliability, incident response, and performance optimization for critical tax infrastructure that operates at the scale and speed of crypto markets. Minimum qualifications • 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant experience architecting and developing solutions to ambiguous, high-impact problems. • Proven track record designing, building, scaling, and maintaining production-level distributed systems with stringent correctness and availability requirements. • Strong experience with backend languages (e.g., Go, Python, or similar) and modern infrastructure patterns including microservices, event-driven architectures, and REST/GraphQL API design. • Deep expertise in data-intensive systems — experience with Kafka, Clickhouse, or similar tools for real-time and batch processing at scale. • Demonstrated technical leadership: leading large projects with long-term impact, mentoring engineers, and driving alignment across teams on technical strategy. • Excellent judgment on prioritization and the ability to break down ambiguous problems into actionable technical plans. • Demonstrates the ability to responsibly use generative AI tools and copilots (e.g., LibreChat, Gemini, Glean) in daily workflows, continuously learn as tools evolve, and apply human-in-the-loop practices to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in efficiency, cost, and quality. Nice to haves • Experience with tax systems, cost basis engines, 1099 reporting, or financial compliance infrastructure. • Familiarity with equities, options, or margin trading or strong interest in learning trading/brokerage domains. • Background at a tech-focused company (fintech, crypto, high-growth startup) rather than traditional finance. 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). Annual base salary range (excluding equity and bonus):$217,900—$217,900 CADPlease be advised that each candidate may submit a maximum of four applications within any 30-day period. We encourage you to carefully evaluate how your skills and interests align with Coinbase's roles before applying. Commitment to Equal Opportunity Coinbase is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by applicable law. Coinbase will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. For US applicants, you may view the Employee Rights and the Know Your Rights notices by clicking on their corresponding links. Additionally, Coinbase participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. Coinbase is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please contact us at accommodations[at]coinbase.com to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. For quick access to screen reading technology compatible with this site click here to download a free compatible screen reader (free step by step tutorial can be found here). Global Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates and Applicants Depending on your location, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) may regulate the way we manage the data of job applicants. Our full notice outlining how data will be processed as part of the application procedure for applicable locations is available here. By submitting your application, you are agreeing to our use and processing of your data as required. For US applicants only, by submitting your application you are agreeing to arbitration of disputes as outlined here. AI Disclosure For select roles, Coinbase is piloting an AI tool based on machine learning technologies to conduct initial screening interviews to qualified applicants. The tool simulates realistic interview scenarios and engages in dynamic conversation. A human recruiter will review your interview responses, provided in the form of a voice recording and/or transcript, to assess them against the qualifications and characteristics outlined in the job description. For select roles, Coinbase is also piloting an AI interview intelligence platform to transcribe and summarize interview notes, allowing our interviewers to fully focus on you as the candidate. The above pilots are for testing purposes and Coinbase will not use AI to make decisions impacting employment. To request a reasonable accommodation due to disability, please contact accommodations[at]coinbase.com