Software Engineer, Backend Developer

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.

• 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 No
  
  SQL 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…