Technical Expert - Compliance Technology

The Compliance Technology team builds and operates data and detection capabilities that enable Coinbase to meet global BSA/AML and related regulatory obligations at scale. We partner closely with Compliance, Product, and Engineering to ensure our monitoring and investigative controls (e.g., Transaction Monitoring, EDD/KYC, Screening) are effective, measurable, and auditable.

What you’ll do: 

• Set technical direction for compliance data and control systems within your domain, leading the design, implementation, and operation of large-scale solutions that support global compliance requirements.
• Define and deliver multi-year technical roadmaps aligned with regulatory requirements, business growth, and operational scalability, translating long-term priorities into measurable quarterly outcomes.
• Independently frame ambiguous technical problems, evaluate alternatives, and determine approaches that balance control effectiveness, data quality, reliability, customer experience, and operational cost.
• Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives across Product, Engineering, Compliance, and Operations. Build alignment on technical approaches, resolve competing priorities, and drive delivery across teams without relying on reporting-line authority.
• Serve as a technical expert whose judgment shapes critical architectural decisions across your team and cross-functional partners. Raise engineering quality through hands-on development, design reviews, technical documentation, and reusable approaches.
• Partner with Compliance and control owners to translate regulatory and policy requirements into testable technical controls, with clear acceptance criteria, traceable data, and evidence of control effectiveness.
• Own the operational health of systems within your domain, including monitoring, incident response, and remediation. Detect data-quality issues and control degradation, and drive improvements that reduce recurrence.
• Analyze detection outputs and control-performance trends to improve signal quality and operational efficiency, reducing non-actionable noise while validating that changes preserve detection sensitivity.
• Partner with Machine Learning/AI and Platform teams to improve compliance capabilities, with clear evaluation criteria and ongoing monitoring of production performance.
• Mentor analytics and data practitioners through technical guidance, reviews, and knowledge sharing, reinforcing Coinbase’s cultural values.

Required Skills & Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience developing data-intensive systems, including significant technical leadership in compliance data and control systems.
• Deep expertise in compliance data systems, with a track record of being a trusted technical resource whose judgment shapes architectural decisions and resolves critical cross-functional issues.
• Demonstrated success independently leading complex technical initiatives from problem definition and design through implementation, rollout, and production operation.
• Experience building reliable data pipelines, data models, and multi-tenant compliance controls or systems at scale, with strong practices for data quality, testing, and auditability.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical decisions and align Product, Engineering, Compliance, and Operations stakeholders without formal authority.
• Strong technical judgment in balancing regulatory and control requirements with system reliability, customer experience, delivery constraints, and operational efficiency.
• Experience evaluating detection or control performance, investigating degradation, and validating improvements to signal quality and effectiveness.
• Strong hands-on skills in implementation, code and design review, technical writing, production troubleshooting, and incident leadership.
• Ability to connect long-term technical direction with near-term execution, independently determining approaches in ambiguous situations.
• Clear communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical and compliance issues, present trade-offs, and build agreement with technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Sound judgment in using AI tools, including reviewing outputs and protecting sensitive data.
• Passion for building an open financial system that brings the world together.

Annual base salary range (excluding bonus): 230265 - 270900 USD