Coinbase building an office in India, says CEO Brian Armstrong, makes open calls for jobs

Coinbase said it is “fully committed to expand understanding of crypto and blockchain in the region”, and plans to hire “hundreds of engineers in the near term”. (Representative Image)

Coinbase CEO and co-Founder Brian Armstrong has said the company is expanding its team in India. In a tweet late on July 2, Armstrong said: "Coinbase is building out an office in India! Amazing team already in place - come join us."

Coinbase is building out an office in India! Amazing team already in place - come join us.https://t.co/yCaJk681pZ

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) July 2, 2021

At the time of writing this, Armstrong's post had nearly 5,000 likes and close to 1,000 retweets, besides over 300 comments. Response on the site was largely positive, with comments ranging from "nice!", "Welcome to India" and "excited!", while others also asked for Coinbase to enter their regions such as Malaysia and Africa.

While the tweet itself did not give more details, Armstrong linked a blog post titled 'Building Crypto out of India' by Pankaj Gupta, VP Engineering and Site Lead India, which outlined Coinbase’s plans for India.

Gupta said the post shares the company’s “plans and ambitions in India and how we are thinking about this hub in general”.

He noted the crypto situation worldwide has “never been more exciting”, but India, in particular, had important native projects such as Polygon and Instadapp, adding: “It is well known that India has a vibrant, world-class community of software engineers, technology builders, and entrepreneurs…we are pleasantly surprised at growing expertise in crypto and blockchain technologies as well.

So, what can we expect?

Gupta said the company is “fully committed to expanding understanding of crypto and blockchain in the region”, and plans to hire “hundreds of engineers in the near term”.

Besides the engineering team, complementary openings will also be in the product and design teams, and support function teams such as recruiting and HR to “build out a sustainable, well-rounded tech hub”.

The India hub will have teams in all major areas Coinbase works in — infrastructure, cloud, platform, payments, crypto, blockchains, data engineering, machine learning, growth, and product engineering, among others.

The company will also explore startup acquisitions and acquihires in India, for which Guptas asked interested founders to contact him directly.

Coinbase plans for teams to function independently – led by local engineering directors with large and autonomous charters.

The localised independence is “intentional” to optimise impact and velocity. But teams will work on a combination of global and local products and systems in the wider APAC region.

The organisation structure has been planned to “maximise learning, growth and impact”.

The hub will have a “flexible and modern work environment, with plenty of perks”, Gupta said.

He noted that Coinbase has a “remote-first strategy”, which means they will hire from all parts of India and will have physical offices in key cities to provide a hybrid, flexible environment.

The company is also introducing a new program called CIkka — short for “Coinbase India Sikka” — offering each new employee in India a one-time $1000 in crypto when they start. “Our expectation is that they’ll leverage this offering to learn about crypto, and will use this knowledge to help us build the next generation of products that will delight our customers around the world,” Gupta said.

The company is also focused on “a culture of sustained innovation” and under Project 10% dedicates 10 percent of its resources to supporting big product bets.

Those interested in joining Coinbase can apply for an open position on their website here.