Forward Deployed Engineer, Legal [Office of the CTO]

Coinbase Careers Page • $186K — $218K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Legal & Accounting
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of backend software engineering experience, shipping production systems at scale.
  • Proven experience with LLM-based applications in production, including evaluation frameworks and human-in-the-loop design.
  • Experience in multi-agent orchestration and collaborative AI systems.
  • Ability to effectively communicate with non-technical domain experts and translate complex workflows.
  • Platform-oriented mindset focusing on reusability and standards.
  • Strong understanding of distributed systems.
  • Demonstrated ability to achieve ambitious goals in ambiguous environments.
  • Proficiency in utilizing generative AI tools and implementing human-in-the-loop methods.

Responsibilities

  • Architect and build Legal AI infrastructure for high-volume legal work.
  • Own development of an automated institutional client agreement system.
  • Build a cohesive agent platform and establish governance for legal AI tools.
  • Act as a technical thought partner to Legal leadership, bridging legal workflows and engineering.
  • Define make-vs-buy strategies for legal tech tools favoring internal solutions.
  • Serve as a model for how non-technical teams can harness engineering and AI transformation.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
  • 401(k) retirement plan with matching contributions.
Full Job Description
Coinbase's Legal organization manages corporate governance across 60+ global subsidiaries, public company reporting, institutional client agreements, and product counsel for every product group. This role sits directly inside the Office of the CTO, embedded as a founding engineer within Legal. You'll identify high-value workflow opportunities, rapidly prototype solutions using Coinbase's existing AI platform, and drive measurable adoption of AI tooling across the Legal org. You'll be the connective tissue between Legal stakeholders and the engineering teams who maintain Coinbase's AI platform, acting as advocate, translator, and builder in one.

What you'll do:
  • Embed with Legal leadership to surface the automation opportunities with the greatest business leverage - developing ground-level understanding of workflows like contract review, regulatory filing drafts, and subsidiary governance.
  • Prototype quickly and pragmatically using Coinbase's existing AI platform as the default foundation before recommending net-new builds.
  • Own the Legal automation roadmap in partnership with the VP of Legal and CCO, translating complex legal workflows - entity management, litigation tracking, product counsel reviews, compliance reporting - into engineering requirements and engineering constraints back to stakeholders clearly.
  • Define the build-vs-buy strategy for Legal tooling, evaluating what Coinbase should build internally, adopt from partner teams, procure from vendors, or retire.
  • Ensure every automated legal output is traceable, reviewable, and defensible - with privilege boundaries, auditability, and human-in-the-loop controls as first-class design concerns.
  • Drive adoption through brown-bags, prototype walkthroughs, and feedback loops that bring Legal teams along on the journey and ensure tools actually get used.

Required Skills and Experience:
  • 5+ years of software engineering experience with a demonstrated ability to ship production systems in ambiguous, stakeholder-heavy environments, with greenfield experience a strong plus.
  • Hands-on experience deploying LLM-based applications, including prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, hallucination guardrails, and human-in-the-loop design for high-stakes legal outputs.
  • Proven ability to embed with non-technical domain experts, rapidly internalize complex workflows, and translate them into engineering requirements.
  • Familiarity with legal and compliance systems concepts: contract lifecycle management, regulatory filing workflows, entity governance, and privilege-sensitive data handling
    • Does not need to be an attorney, but should be open to learning.
  • Familiarity with multi-agent orchestration concepts including how agent systems handle handoffs, escalation, and auditability.
  • Experience in a Forward Deployed Engineering, Solutions Engineering, or embedded technical advisory capacity, ideally in legal-tech, compliance-tech, or RegTech environments.
  • 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: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):

$186,065-$218,900 USD

  • Application Limit: Candidates may submit a maximum of 3 applications within a 6-month period.

About Coinbase Careers Page

Coinbase Careers Page

There has never been a better time to join the global team of Coinbase professionals, a leading force in the cryptocurrency industry and a hub for innovation and growth.

Work You’ll Do

Join Coinbase's market-leading team to assist some of the most innovative companies and individuals in mastering the digital currency landscape. Transform financial transactions and systems with the best minds at Coinbase, where leadership in technology and consulting converges to drive digital innovation. Lead from a unique position in the marketplace, at the intersection of technology, financial expertise, and digital innovation. Work with a global team of business and technology advisors to help clients and the company navigate through the evolving world of digital currencies. Collaborate with a dedicated group of professionals who are experts in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency – all committed to advancing the industry.

Introducing the Coinbase Professional Growth and Development Initiative

The initiative is building a market-leading team to help some of the most well-known companies and professionals master their financial digital transformation journey with Coinbase.

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Join a dedicated group of experts at the forefront of blockchain technology and digital currencies, where industry expertise meets digital innovation.

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The Coinbase Employment Experience

The combined service capabilities, global scale, and joint solution development help clients and employees overcome challenges and lead transformation in the financial industry. Clients and professionals around the globe look to Coinbase for new strategies and solutions to drive innovation and growth in the era of digital finance. Bringing together dedicated professionals, Coinbase empowers individuals to thrive in the era of digital disruption.

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