Principal Software Engineer, AI Automation

$297,670 - $350,200/yr

AI Automation AI Workflow Design (using GPTs / LLMs) Automation Architecture & Maintenance Business Process Automation OpenAI API Claude API Langchain LlamaIndex

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Role Overview

Join Coinbase as a Principal Software Engineer for AI Automation and help build the future of finance through cutting-edge artificial intelligence. In this visionary role, you'll serve as the technical North Star for AI automation efforts, architecting sophisticated multi-agent systems that move beyond simple chat to autonomous execution and complex reasoning.

You'll be at the forefront of Coinbase's transformation into an "AI-first" company, developing the core AI platform and primitives that will enable every team to automate their workflows. This is an opportunity to solve the hardest problems in AI while applying world-class backend engineering principles to put generative AI into production at global scale.

Working with the highest level of autonomy and reporting directly to the VP of Engineering, you'll partner with leadership to identify high-impact automation opportunities and define what a fully AI-driven financial institution looks like from the ground up.

Responsibilities

Architect and build sophisticated multi-agent AI systems for autonomous execution and complex reasoning
Design and implement reliable evaluation frameworks to eliminate hallucinations through rigorous data grounding
Develop core AI platform primitives and orchestration tools for organization-wide AI adoption
Build deep observability into LLM reasoning chains and solve reliability challenges in AI systems
Partner with leadership to identify high-impact automation opportunities across Product Foundations and Core functions
Bridge engineering and AI expertise by applying scalable backend engineering principles to generative AI
Lead the technical strategy for AI-first transition across multiple organizational domains
Mentor senior individual contributors and engineering teams to raise AI literacy across the organization

Requirements

Extensive experience working with LLMs, RAG, and Agentic frameworks
Deep understanding of prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and current limitations of frontier models
Proven backend engineering mastery with ability to build robust, scalable systems for global production
Experience operating with organizational level impact and leading technical strategy across multiple domains
Demonstrated ability to solve reliability challenges in AI: evaluation, grounding, and deterministic outcomes
Visionary mindset with ability to anticipate industry trends 18 months ahead
Strong focus on building production-ready AI systems at scale
Experience mentoring and elevating engineering teams

Nice to Have

Specific experience building or researching multi-agentic architectures where multiple AI agents collaborate
Fintech or compliance background with experience in highly regulated environments
Active contributions to AI/ML community or major LLM frameworks (LangChain, AutoGPT, etc.)
Open source contributions to the AI/ML ecosystem

Benefits & Perks

Competitive annual base salary range of $297,670—$350,200 USD
Bonus eligibility
Comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, vision and 401(k)
Team and company-wide offsites held multiple times annually

About the Company

Coinbase is a global financial institution on a mission to increase economic freedom in the world by building the emerging onchain platform and the future global financial system. The company is transforming into an "AI-first" organization, fundamentally reimagining how a global financial institution operates with AI at the center of core processes.