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.
About the Role
Beckett is the trusted authority in sports card and collectibles grading, pricing, and marketplace services. Our platform is mid-transformation: a new generation of NestJS/TypeScript microservices and Next.js frontends is actively replacing a prior generation of Java/Spring Boot services, while two large legacy PHP monoliths still power critical grading and e-commerce workflows. Getting this migration right — without disrupting the business — is the defining technical challenge of the next few years.
As a Staff Software Engineer, your influence extends beyond your team to the technology organization. You have expertise in the entirety of your team's products and services — how they interact and how data flows between them — and you're building the same understanding of adjacent systems. You lead projects of moderate-to-significant scope over one-to-two-quarter horizons, design for the platform's future rather than just the next feature, and are recognized by peers and leaders as an authority in your domain.
What You'll Do
Set technical direction
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Own the architecture of your team's domain end to end: services, data flows, integration points, and failure modes across the full portfolio (e.g., NestJS services, their Postgres/MySQL data stores, the legacy systems they front, and the frontends they serve).
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Design products and services that allow for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling, deliberately reducing the friction of future changes — service boundaries, contract design, data ownership, and migration paths.
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Lead high-stakes modernization work: defining strangler patterns around the PHP monolith, sequencing Java→TypeScript service replacements, and ensuring byte-compatible, low-risk cutovers.
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Build a working understanding of adjacent systems and products across the org — grading, marketplace, CRM, payments, identity, data/ETL — and use it to catch cross-system risks early.
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Set the bar for security, testing, observability, and operational excellence, and use operational data to drive stability and performance improvements.
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Lead the adoption of AI-assisted engineering across the tech org: establish standards and guardrails for AI coding tools (code review expectations, testing requirements, security and IP hygiene), identify where AI agents can accelerate the modernization effort (legacy code comprehension, test generation, migration scaffolding), and measure the impact.
Lead Delivery