Category Manager, Card Authentication Category Management Remote (US, New York preferred) View role

Category Management – Remote (US, New York preferred) About the role In this role, you'll:

• Design authentication and grading standards for cards, including condition criteria (centering, corners, edges, surface), defect taxonomy, and edge-case rulings
• Define detection standards for counterfeits and card doctoring, including trimming, recoloring, restoration, and resealed packs
• Translate standards into documented, repeatable intake and authentication processes for the operations team
• Partner with Product and Engineering to inform roadmap decisions and tooling needed to support the category
• Own the category launch plan: scope, timeline, staffing, and success metrics
• Maintain and grow the category post-launch by expanding coverage, tuning throughput and quality, and responding to demand
• Hire authentication specialists for the category and build out the team as volume grows
• Train new hires on standards, grading methodology, and tooling
• Provide ongoing supervision of category staff, including quality audits, coaching, and performance management
• Set and manage production goals that balance throughput with grading accuracy and consistency
• Stay current on industry developments, especially new counterfeits and alteration methods circulating the market, and evolve standards to counter them
• Monitor category-level metrics and report on health, growth, and risks

Your first 90 days

• Day 30: Standards and processes set. You've immersed in how Legitmark authenticates today, drafted grading and counterfeit-detection standards for the initial sub-category, translated them into repeatable intake and authentication workflows, and aligned with Product and Engineering on tooling.
• Day 60: Category live. We're authenticating cards in production with defined scope, staffing, and success metrics, and hiring for your first authentication specialists is underway.
• Day 90: Growing. Coverage is expanding, throughput and accuracy are tuned against real volume, and you're reporting on category health with a clear plan to scale.

We're looking for someone with:

• 5-8 years of experience in card grading, authentication, or category/merchandising management, ideally with exposure to companies like PSA, Beckett, CGC, SGC, or comparable grading and marketplace operations
• Expert-level understanding of card grading systems and standards across sports cards, non-sports cards, and/or TCGs, including vintage and modern eras
• Expert knowledge of the counterfeiting and card doctoring methods that exist in the industry, and how to detect them at production speed without compromising accuracy
• Working knowledge of card printing processes, variants, and errors, and how they factor into authentication and grading decisions
• A track record of building or scaling operational processes from scratch
• Experience hiring, training, and managing frontline staff, with real ownership of their performance over time
• Comfort partnering cross-functionally with Product and Engineering to shape what gets built
• Strong process and documentation skills — you can turn tacit expertise into something a new hire can follow
• Ability to own ambiguous scope and act as the internal domain expert for the category

Nice to have:

• Experience launching a new product category or business line from the ground up
• Existing relationships within the card grading and marketplace ecosystem (eBay, PWCC, Alt, COMC, or similar)
• Background in high-volume, quality-controlled physical inspection workflows
• Familiarity with authentication or grading software tooling

You might thrive in this role if:

• You're a category builder. You want to define how an entire category gets authenticated, not just execute someone else's playbook.
• You think in systems. You design standards and processes that scale, not one-off judgment calls.
• You're a people manager at heart. You genuinely enjoy hiring, training, and developing a team over the long run.
• You're comfortable with ambiguity. You're the expert in the room, and you're ready to make the calls when there's no existing precedent.

About Legitmark #J-18808-Ljbffr Legitmark