Blockchain Security Engineer
Coinbase has built the world's leading compliant cryptocurrency platform serving over 30 million accounts in more than 100 countries. With multiple successful products, and our vocal advocacy for blockchain technology, we have played a major part in mainstream awareness and adoption of cryptocurrency. We are proud to offer an entire suite of products that are helping build the cryptoeconomy, and increase economic freedom around the world.
There are a few things we look for across all hires we make at Coinbase, regardless of role or team. First, we assess whether a candidate demonstrates our values: Clear Communication, Positive Energy, Efficient Execution, and Continuous Learning. Second, we look for signals that a candidate will thrive in a culture like ours, where we default to trust, embrace feedback, disrupt ourselves, and expect sustained high performance because we play as a championship team. Finally, we seek people with the desire and capacity to build and share expertise in the frontier technologies of crypto and blockchain, in whatever way is most relevant to their role.
Read more about our values and culture here.
Coinbase stores more digital currency than any company in the world, making us a tier 1 target on the internet. As a Blockchain Security Engineer, you will join a premier team with one overarching goal: to secure funds and data from protocol through wallet.
Protocol refers to distributed ledgers, most often blockchains or similar data structures, achieving consensus despite adversarial behavior. This means that the Blockchain Security team is on the front line of knowledge and expertise about how these technologies work, and how they break: we are as “far down the crypto stack” as you can get.
Wallet refers to Coinbase systems that manage interactions with the blockchain network. These systems are critical to Coinbase’s mission, and it’s our job to bring blockchain expertise into the picture.
“Through” refers to everything in between, including smart contracts/dApps, signing services, node software, SDKs, and any other services relying on decentralized tech.
What you’ll be doing (ie. job duties):
- Perform security assessments and threat modeling of assets, including various blockchain protocols, smart contracts, and other distributed ledger tech.
- Partner with software engineering teams to advise on code and architecture for internal asset integrations, including node software, wallet systems, and key management frameworks.
- Contribute code to in-house blockchain monitoring software to detect abnormal or malicious behavior (51% attacks, dangerous smart contract calls, validator misbehavior, and more).
- Investigate impactful changes to the space, asset upgrades, and novel innovations such as zero-knowledge proofs and bleeding-edge blockchain protocols.
- Publish blogs and give talks (internal and external) on newfound vulnerabilities, incident investigations, unique integration risks, and related topics.
What we look for in you (ie. job requirements):
- 2-3 years software development experience
- Passion for learning about and working with digital currencies OR Background in security engineering
- Passion for solving complex security problems
- Demonstration of our core values: clear communication, positive energy, continuous learning, and efficient execution
Nice to haves:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field
- Expertise in Go or Ruby
- Past experience securing digital assets
- Experience working on a remote first team
- Previous work in a high security and/or highly regulated industry