We are looking for a Staff Backend Engineer with 8+ years of experience to help scale the backbone of Arena Club's platform as we rapidly expand into new collectibles categories. You'll be a highly opinionated architect who can own large projects end-to-end — from designing container-based systems to shipping new category launches in months. We need someone who thrives in a fast-paced, consumer-facing marketplace environment handling billions of transactions monthly, and who is comfortable using AI-powered development tools daily. This is a role for an engineer who can balance greenfield builds with legacy migrations while collaborating cross-functionally in a low-ego, high-ownership culture.
What will you be doing?
Designing and scaling container-based backend architecture (EKS) to handle rapidly growing transaction volume (from 1.5B to 2.5B+ monthly)
Building backend systems for new category launches (e.g., watches, upcoming verticals) with unique inventory and scaling requirements
Migrating monolith repositories to microservices while keeping existing systems running
Owning production reliability through observability (Datadog, Sentry), scalability planning, and working closely with the DevOps team
Using Arena Club's internal AI harness and tools like Claude Code and Cursor as a first step in your PR workflow
At Arena Club, we’re igniting a collectibles revolution. Backed by legendary 5× World Series Champion Derek Jeter and trailblazer Brian Lee, we’ve launched the first-ever digital card show—a dynamic marketplace where innovation, transparency, and pure excitement drive everything we do. Our cutting-edge platform offers unparalleled grading, authentication, secure vaulting, and digital pack openings (Slab PacksTM), giving collectors the power to curate unique online showrooms and redefine their collecting experience.
Salary
$200,000 - $240,000
Location
San Francisco, United States
Experience
8+ years
Total raised
$25.5M
Last stage
Series A
Investors
Jesse Glass
Co-Founder, CFO & COO
Derek Jeter
Co-Founder (Founding Partner)
No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.