Goldfeld received his B.S. degree in 1967 from Columbia University. His doctoral dissertation, entitled "Some Methods of Averaging in the Analytical Theory of Numbers", was completed under the supervision of Patrick X. Gallagher in 1969, also at Columbia. He has held positions at the University of California at Berkeley (Miller Fellow, 1969–1971), Hebrew University (1971–1972), Tel Aviv University (1972–1973), Institute for Advanced Study (1973–1974), in Italy (1974–1976), at MIT (1976–1982), University of Texas at Austin (1983–1985) and Harvard (1982–1985). Since 1985, he has been a professor at Columbia University.