Staff Software Engineer

Collectors is the leading creator of innovative technology that provides value-added services for collectors worldwide. We grade, authenticate, vault, and sell millions of record-setting collectibles, all while modernizing and digitalizing the process to further our mission of helping collectors pursue their passions. We’re always on the lookout for talented people to join our growing team.

Our services span collectible trading cards, autographs, comic books, coins, video games, event tickets, and memorabilia. Our subsidiaries include PSA, PCGS, Beckett, SGC, and Card Ladder.

Since our founding in 1986, we have graded and authenticated millions of items. We employ more than 3000 people across our headquarters in Santa Ana, California and offices in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, Germany, the UK, and France.

As part of our interview process, we request that candidates have their cameras on during video interviews. This helps foster meaningful conversation and allows us to create an experience that closely resembles our standard working environment. Certain interview steps may take place by phone. For remote roles, and at our discretion, candidates may be asked to participate in an on-site interview as part of the final stages of the process.

We understand there may be occasional circumstances requiring accommodation and are happy to discuss them as needed. Your recruiter will be able to clarify expectations and answer any questions you have.

Staff Software Engineer, API and Collectibles Data Team

About Collectors

Collectors is the leading creator of innovative technology that provides value-added services for collectors worldwide. We grade, authenticate, vault, and sell millions of record-setting collectibles, all while modernizing and digitalizing the process to further our mission of helping collectors pursue their passions.

Our services span collectible trading cards, autographs, comic books, coins, video games, event tickets, and memorabilia. Our subsidiaries include PSA, PCGS, Beckett, SGC, and Card Ladder. Since our founding in 1986, we have graded and authenticated millions of items, and today we employ more than 3,000 people across our headquarters in Santa Ana, California and offices in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and France.

We're transforming the collecting experience with technology that brings authentication, grading, and trading into the modern era. Our products are equalizing the playing field by providing tools that make complex research analytics (including pricing, scarcity reports, and historic sales data) accessible to every collector, old or new. Our Product & Engineering mission is to democratize technology while promoting innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning throughout the organization.

About the Role

We are looking for two Staff Software Engineers to set the technical direction for the API and Collectibles Data Team, the engineering team responsible for turning Collectors' collectibles data into products: the external APIs that partners and customers build on, and the spec data that identifies every item we grade, authenticate, and sell.

This team owns the external-facing APIs and API gateway layer, developer portals, the spec data models and ingestion pipelines behind our collectibles catalog, and the integrations that downstream products depend on. Its work serves PSA, Beckett, SGC, Card Ladder, marketplace and research teams, and external partners across millions of collectible specs and certificates.

As a Staff Software Engineer, your influence extends beyond your team to the technology organization. You will have expertise in the entirety of the team's portfolio, including how our services interact and how data flows between them, and you will build the same understanding of adjacent systems across grading, marketplace, vault, and identity.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility role. Every product that shows or prices a collectible depends on the data and APIs this team ships. You will own architecture decisions, API strategy, and the quality bar for everything that ships.

We believe there is significant value in onsite partnership and team collaboration, and candidates within 1-hour commuting distance of the office may be expected to work onsite most of the time. Additional details will be discussed during the recruiting process.

What You'll Do

• Own the architecture of the API and data domain end to end: Hold expertise across the entirety of the team's products and services, including Java and Python services, the distributed event-driven systems they run on in AWS and Kubernetes, their relational and NoSQL data stores, and the consumers they serve. Architect for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling through clean service boundaries, contract design, clear data ownership, and well-sequenced migration paths.

• Set the API strategy: Define standards for API design, versioning, authentication, rate limiting, and documentation so that internal teams and external partners can build against our APIs with confidence. Near-term work includes piloting a certificate lookup API with a business admin console, launching a self-service developer portal, migrating legacy public API users, and consolidating API gateways under consistent rate limiting and bot protection.

• Build and evolve the collectibles data platform: Design the data models, pipelines, and access patterns that keep collectibles data accurate, consistent, and fast to query across product lines. Near-term work includes enriching spec data across all categories with measurable quality scoring, unifying overlapping spec databases across PSA, Beckett, and SGC, and exposing the result through a spec API.

• Set the bar for reliability and quality: Establish standards for testing strategy, observability, performance, and incident response, then use operational data to drive stability and latency improvements.

• Lead complex, multi-quarter delivery: Lead projects of moderate-to-significant scope spanning 1-2 quarters, coordinating engineers, stakeholders, and dependencies to a predictable landing. Plan using an explicit value-vs-cost framework so urgency and prioritization are easily understood by the team and stakeholders alike, and surface blockers and delays to the right people before they become surprises.

• Drive cross-functional execution: Translate business requirements into technical solutions and partner across Product, Marketplace, Grading, Vault, Data, and platform teams. Build a working model of adjacent systems, including CRM, identity, and data/ETL, so you catch cross-system risks early.

• Multiply the engineers around you: Mentor senior and mid-level engineers through design reviews, pairing, and feedback. Foster a culture of knowledge sharing and documentation within your team and with business stakeholders by initiating and facilitating meaningful discussions around complex issues.

• Lead an AI-first approach to building: Establish standards and guardrails for AI coding tools, including code review expectations, testing requirements, and security and IP hygiene. Identify where AI agents accelerate the team's work, and raise the org's collective AI fluency by sharing proven workflows and coaching engineers on when the tooling helps and when it misleads.

Who You Are

• 8+ years engineering experience, including demonstrated technical leadership of multi-engineer, multi-quarter projects. You have a track record of designing, shipping, and scaling products with measurable business impact at a high-growth company or a scaled consumer platform.

• Expert-level backend engineering in Java and Python. You have strong proficiency in Java (Spring Boot) and Python, own complex API surfaces, async patterns, and data consistency in distributed systems, and are recognized by peers and leaders as an authority in