Category Manager, Watch Authentication Category Management New York View role

Legitmark is building the trust layer for resale. We believe that authentication should be fast, accurate, and accessible to everyone, from individual sellers to the world's largest marketplaces. Our team of experts and engineers authenticate millions of items annually, helping buyers shop with confidence and sellers maximize value.

We're hiring a Category Manager to lead Legitmark's expansion into watches, spanning everyday and entry-level brands through high-value luxury watches. This is a build-from-zero role: you'll stand up the facility, specify the equipment, define the standards, and build the team that runs it.

You'll design and equip a dedicated watch authentication facility, covering movement testing, timing accuracy checks, case and material inspection, and secure handling for high-value inventory. You'll also set the authentication standards themselves and translate them into repeatable processes for the operations team.

Once the category is live, you own its health: throughput, accuracy, and growth across the full range of brands and price points we authenticate. This role also owns the people side of the category, hiring and training the specialists who authenticate watches day to day, and acting as their long-term manager.

This role is based onsite in New York, where the authentication facility will be built and run.

• Design authentication standards for watches across price tiers and brands, including movement inspection, case and bracelet material checks, hallmark and serial verification, engraving checks, dial and reference-level detail validation, and papers/box matching
• Identify counterfeit trends across brands and reference variations, including franken-watches, aftermarket parts, and refinished dials, and build authentication methodology to counter them
• Specify and procure the equipment needed for a watch authentication facility: timegraphers, loupes and microscopes, movement demagnetize rs, case-opening and watchmaker tools, and other testing and measurement instruments
• Design and build out the physical facility, including layout, intake-to-return workflow, and security for high-value inventory
• Translate standards into documented, repeatable authentication processes for the operations team
• Partner with Product and Engineering to inform roadmap decisions and tooling needed to support the category
• Own the category launch plan: scope, timeline, staffing, facility readiness, and success metrics
• Maintain and grow the category post-launch by expanding brand and model coverage, tuning throughput and accuracy, and scaling the facility as volume grows
• Hire authentication specialists for the category and build out the team as volume grows
• Train new hires on standards, inspection methodology, and equipment use, and build the reference materials, written assessments, and QC checks that keep the team consistent
• Provide ongoing supervision of category staff, including quality audits, coaching, and performance management
• Implement QC processes for high-risk, high-value items, including escalation paths and multi-reviewer verification
  
  Monitor category-level metrics and report on health, growth, and risk

• Day 30: Facility build underway. You've immersed in how Legitmark authenticates today, drafted authentication standards for the first brands and price tiers, specced the facility layout, and have equipment procurement in motion.
• Day 60: Category live. The facility is operational and we're authenticating watches in production with defined scope, staffing, and success metrics, and hiring for your first authentication specialists is underway.
• Day 90: Growing. Brand and model coverage is expanding, throughput and accuracy are tuned against real…