Lead Quantitative Scientist

Collectors • Santa Ana, CA

2d • $235,347 - $331,754 • Hybrid

About The Position

Collectors is seeking a Lead Quantitative Scientist to build and lead the quantitative modeling capability at the core of its next phase of growth. This role will own two critical domains: Lending & Underwriting, focusing on designing and scaling ML and quantitative models for automated underwriting in the lending business where collectibles serve as collateral; and Financial Forecasting, building predictive models for collectible valuations, market dynamics, and pricing trends. The position is a founding, senior individual contributor role with the opportunity to grow a team over time. The role reports into the VP of Corporate Development and Strategy and can be based in Santa Ana, CA or Jersey City, NJ. Remote or hybrid candidates will be considered, with a discussion about on-site requirements for those within a 1-hour commute.

The Lead Quantitative Scientist will be responsible for designing, building, and iterating on ML and quantitative models for the automated underwriting engine, developing collateral valuation models, credit risk frameworks, loss forecasting, and pricing models. They will leverage proprietary data for modeling advantages, partner with Engineering for model deployment and monitoring, and collaborate with Product & Technology teams for validation. For Financial Forecasting, the role involves building models for market dynamics, asset valuations, and pricing trends, and developing intelligence to support grading and authentication businesses. The Lead Quantitative Scientist will also serve as the founding leader of the Quantitative Sciences function, defining the team’s roadmap, research agenda, and technical standards, and collaborating cross-functionally to translate business needs into modeling priorities.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in quantitative finance, data science, machine learning, or a related field, with meaningful depth in credit/lending, pricing, risk modeling, or asset valuation
• Strong ML fundamentals/Technical Rigor — you’ve built, validated, and deployed supervised/unsupervised models in production
• Financial modeling fluency — you’re comfortable with concepts like probability of default, loss given default, expected loss, time series forecasting, and asset pricing
• Production mindset — you care about model reliability, monitoring, drift detection, and working closely with engineering teams
• Entrepreneurial orientation — you thrive in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and are comfortable owning a problem end-to-end with limited precedent
• Emerging leadership skills — you may not have managed a large team yet, but you’ve mentored others, led projects, and are excited to grow into a people-leadership role
• Strong communication skills — you can translate complex quantitative concepts for non-technical stakeholders and influence decisions with data
• Intellectual curiosity about alternative assets — you’re excited (not intimidated) by the prospect of modeling asset classes that don’t have decades of structured financial data behind them

Nice To Haves

• Experience in fintech, marketplace lending, or alternative/exotic asset valuation
• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in a quantitative discipline — statistics, applied math, CS, physics, economics, operations research, or similar
• Experience building underwriting or credit decisioning systems from scratch
• Familiarity with alternative data sources and feature engineering for non-traditional collateral or thin-file credit assessment
• Personal interest in collectibles, trading cards, coins, or related hobbyist markets (not required, but it helps)

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and iterate on the ML and quantitative models that power Collectors’ automated underwriting engine for collectible-backed lending
• Develop collateral valuation models, credit risk frameworks, loss forecasting, and pricing models that operate reliably at scale
• Leverage Collectors’ proprietary grading, authentication, search and transaction data — one of the deepest datasets in the collectibles industry — as a core modeling advantage
• Partner with Engineering to deploy models into production systems with appropriate monitoring, explainability, and feedback loops
• Continuously improve model performance using new data sources, features, and methodologies
• Partner with other members of the Product & Technology team to validate valuation models through rigorous backtesting and experimentation
• Collaborate with domain experts to improve feature engineering to ensure our models reflect the market nuances that drive sale prices
• Build quantitative models that forecast market dynamics, asset valuations, and pricing trends across collectible categories (cards, coins, comics, banknotes, games, and beyond)
• Develop and refine intelligence that supports and enhances our grading and authentication businesses
• Generate insights that inform product, pricing, and go-to-market strategy across the Collectors portfolio
• Serve as the founding leader of the Quantitative Sciences function at Collectors
• Define the team’s roadmap, research agenda, and technical standards
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Finance, and Risk to translate business needs into modeling priorities

Benefits

• Health Insurance: All full-time employees are eligible to enroll in Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Additional Benefits: Full-time employees are eligible for fertility, commuter, and educational assistance benefits
• 401(K) Matching Plan: We are proud to offer a competitive 401k matching plan to our employees to support their future financial goals
• Vacation: All salaried employees are eligible for flexible time-off
• Holiday Pay: All regular, full-time employees are eligible for ten company paid holidays
• Employee Discounts: Employees receive discounts on select grading services for approved submissions
• Flexible Hours: Many of our teams offer flexible schedules with varying shifts and will work with you to accommodate your needs
• Fun Working Environment: Our team members are invited to participate in celebrations, holiday events, and team building activities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior