Staff Software Engineer: Modernization & AI Platform

Collectors; Santa Ana (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Collectors is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to shape architecture across NestJS/TypeScript microservices and Next.js frontends, migrating from PHP monoliths while preserving business continuity.

You will lead modernization, drive platform-level decisions, and elevate data workflows across grading, marketplace, CRM, payments, and identity. Strong AI tooling experience and leadership are essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with multi-engineer, multi-quarter leadership.
• Expert-level backend engineering in TypeScript/Node.js and/or Java across polyglot stack (TypeScript, Java 21, PHP, Python, C#).
• Full-stack experience with modern React/Next.js frontends, APIs, relational stores, and infra.
• Proven experience modernizing legacy systems: strangler migrations, monolith extracts, or platform re-architecture.
• Deep relational database expertise (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
• Strong distributed-systems fundamentals: API design, messaging, idempotency, failure handling.
• Production AWS depth (ECS, Lambda), infra-as-code (CDK/Terraform).
• Experience with AI tooling in team workflows and secure generation of code.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture of your team’s domain end to end, including services, data flows, and integration points.
• Design scalable products and services to enable autonomous development and future growth.
• Lead modernization work, sequence migrations, and ensure safe cutovers with low risk.
• Build cross-team understanding of adjacent systems to catch risks early.
• Set standards for security, testing, observability, and operational excellence.
• Champion AI-assisted engineering, establish guardrails, and measure impact.
• Lead projects spanning 1–2 quarters with stakeholders and dependencies.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews and pairing; foster a feedback-driven culture.

Skills

TypeScript/Node.js

Java

React/Next.js

PostgreSQL/MySQL

Distributed systems

AI tooling / Copilot

Communication

Tools

AWS (ECS/Lambda)

AWS CDK

Terraform

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Docker

Job description

Collectors is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to shape architecture across NestJS/TypeScript microservices and Next.js frontends, migrating from PHP monoliths while preserving business continuity.

You will lead modernization, drive platform-level decisions, and elevate data workflows across grading, marketplace, CRM, payments, and identity. Strong AI tooling experience and leadership are essential.