Lead Engineer in London

At CoinDesk we do more than report on the future of money; we actively help shape it. As the global leader in crypto news, indices, and events, we provide the transparency and context the world needs to understand the digital asset revolution. Our team is dedicated to a shared mission of informing, educating, and connecting the global community.

We value engineers who treat development as a craft and own the outcome from concept to deployment. You will be expected to navigate the unknown, bring structure to ambiguity, and help shape the frameworks and processes that drive our global teams forward. We refuse to compromise on quality and seek problem solvers who thrive on high‑impact technical challenges.

The CoinDesk Data Engineering Team builds the infrastructure that powers global crypto market data. Our mission is to architect resilient systems that process tens of billions of monthly requests, managing the full lifecycle of data from global exchange ingestion to delivery via high‑throughput APIs and streaming services. We own the mission‑critical calculation engines for flagship indices backing major ETFs, bridging the gap between innovation and institutional‑grade stability.

What You’ll Do

• Strategic Initiative Ownership: Lead the planning and execution of high‑impact projects, ensuring technical or team roadmaps align with broader company objectives.
• Operational & Technical Governance: Drive the evolution of engineering architectures and operational standards, proactively identifying and closing gaps in system reliability and development efficiency.
• End‑to‑End Delivery Excellence: Own the successful delivery of complex mission‑critical systems by managing cross‑functional dependencies, technical risks, and stakeholder expectations.
• Consensus & Decision Making: Mediate high‑level technical discussions to reach a consensus, ensuring architectural decisions balance immediate tactical needs with long‑term scalability.
• Process & Quality Leadership: Define and oversee industry‑leading QA practices and CI/CD frameworks, ensuring excellence is embedded in the software development lifecycle.

What You’ll Bring

• Lead‑Level Experience: 6+ years in backend development with a proven track record in a Senior Lead or equivalent role, driving technical roadmaps and operational excellence of critical sub‑systems or service portfolios.
• Ecosystem Mastery: Deep technical authority in the crypto ecosystem, leveraging its asynchronous patterns and event‑driven architecture to build high‑performance, scalable backend services.
• High‑Level Mentorship & Influence: Proven ability to foster growth in others—whether through direct management or technical coaching—and act as a go‑to resource for innovative solutions.
• Data‑Intensive Application Expertise: Strong practical experience with modern databases (e.g., Redis, PostgreSQL) including schema design, query optimization, and performance tuning for high‑throughput workloads.
• Full Lifecycle Ownership: A DevSecOps mindset with expertise in building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure‑as‑code, and robust observability (monitoring, logging, tracing) for production systems.
• Quality as a Feature: A deep commitment to quality, demonstrated by implementing comprehensive testing strategies (unit, integration, end‑to‑end, performance) that ensure system reliability.
• Influence and Collaboration: Exceptional communication skills with a proven ability to influence technical and non‑technical stakeholders, articulate complex architectural decisions, and build consensus across multiple teams.

Nice to Haves

• Cloud Architecture: Experience designing and deploying services on a major cloud provider (Azure, GCP).
• Blockchain Expertise: A strong understanding of blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized ecosystems.
• Financial Market Knowledge: Interest or prior experience in traditional financial markets, trading systems, or investment platforms.
• Containerization & Deployment: Proficiency with containerization technologies such as Docker or Kubernetes.
• Observability: Hands‑on experience with modern observability tooling (e.g., Prometheus, DataDog, Jaeger, OpenTelemetry).
• Data Governance: Experience with data privacy (GDPR/CCPA) and security compliance in a regulated financial environment.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

In an effort to attract, retain, develop and promote the most qualified individuals, CoinDesk is committed to treating all applicants and employees in a nondiscriminatory manner with respect to the terms and conditions of employment without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status/service, physical or mental disability or any other classification protected by applicable law. This mandate governs all aspects of employment including recruitment, selection, promotion, training, education, social and recreation programs, compensation, discipline, termination and access to benefits.

ACCOMMODATION

CoinDesk 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 application process, please send an e‑mail to and let us know the nature of your request.