Quantitative Scientist, Forecasting & Demand Planning

Collectors Holdings, Inc.; Santa Ana (CA); On-site; USD 187,000 - 254,000; Full time

Job summary

Collectors Holdings, Inc. seeks a Quantitative Scientist to advance forecasting and demand planning for collectibles.

You will build and productionize models leveraging proprietary grading, authentication and market data, with ownership of modeling work from idea to shipped results. You'll collaborate with Product, Engineering and Finance to validate valuation models, run backtests, and translate insights into pricing and capacity planning strategies across cards, coins, comics and related

Qualifications

• 3–5 years in quantitative finance, data science or ML
• Built and validated supervised models in production
• Strong Python and SQL with large datasets
• Familiar with time series forecasting and asset pricing
• Ability to communicate with non-technical partners

Responsibilities

• Build and productionize forecasting models for market dynamics and pricing
• Collaborate with Engineering to deploy models in production
• Backtest and validate models with new data sources
• Support valuation and capacity planning insights across collectibles

Skills

Quantitative finance

Data science

Machine learning

Python

SQL

Time series forecasting

Communication

Production deployment

Education

MS/PhD in quantitative field

Tools

Pandas

scikit-learn

SQL tooling

Job description

We're looking for a Quantitative Scientist, Forecasting & Demand Planning to help build the quantitative modeling capability at the core of Collectors' next phase of growth. This is unlike almost any other quantitative role in fintech or financial services. You'll be modeling asset classes — vintage sports cards, rare coins, sealed video games — where the data is uniquely ours, the domain expertise lives in-house, and the opportunity to build something from first principles is wide open. You'll join a small, early-stage team and work directly with its leader on modeling and infrastructure. We're looking for someone who wants to ship real models and grow quickly alongside the function.**What You'll Do** Modeling & Production:* 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 Financial Forecasting:* 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 Team & Collaboration:* Join the Quantitative Sciences function as one of its first members, working directly with its leader* Contribute to the team's roadmap, research agenda, and technical standards* Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Finance, and Operations to understand business needs and turn them into well-scoped modeling work.**Who You Are** * 3–5 years of experience in quantitative finance, data science, machine learning, or a related field, with hands-on experience in pricing, demand forecasting, or asset valuation* Solid ML fundamentals — you’ve built and validated supervised models on real data and have helped get at least one into production, not just in notebooks* Strong Python and SQL — you’re fluent with the standard data stack (pandas, scikit-learn or similar) and comfortable working directly with large datasets* Financial modeling foundations — you're familiar with concepts like time series forecasting, scenario analysis, and asset pricing* Forecasting experience — you’ve built time series or demand forecasts and can produce scenario ranges (downside, base, upside), not just point estimates* Production mindset — you care about model reliability, monitoring, drift detection, and working closely with engineering teams* Comfort with ambiguity — you can make progress in a fast-moving environment and are comfortable working on problems with limited precedent* Ownership and follow-through — you can take a loosely defined problem, scope it, and carry it to a shipped result with guidance from your lead* Clear communication — you can explain your models and results to non-technical partners and back your recommendations 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 or alternative/exotic asset valuation* Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in a quantitative discipline — statistics, applied math, CS, physics, economics, operations research, or similar* Exposure to demand planning or capacity planning in an operations-heavy business* Personal interest in collectibles, trading cards, coins, or related hobbyist markets (not required, but it helps)**Why This Role** * Proprietary data. Collectors has authenticated and graded hundreds of millions of collectibles. You'll build models on top of a dataset that simply doesn't exist anywhere else.* Early-stage team. You'll join the Quantitative Sciences function near its start and help shape the models, the roadmap, and the culture.* Tangible business impact. The models you build will directly power how we price, plan capacity, and grow across a rapidly expanding market.* Category-defining work. Collectibles are becoming a recognized asset class. You'll help build the quantitative infrastructure that makes that possible.* Room to grow. You’ll work directly with the function’s leader, get hands-on coaching, and take on more scope as the team and the models mature.**Compensation & Benefits** The estimated salary for this role is $187,400 - $253,500. Actual compensation may vary based on relevant experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other role-specific factors.