Head of Launch, UK

🚀 Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories. We're building live commerce at a scale that's never been done in the West, and there's no playbook to copy. The people here are shaping how an entirely new industry develops.

As a remote co-located team, we're inspired by our values and anchored in hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia. We move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact.

We're one of the fastest growing marketplaces and were recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our news and engineering blogs and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.

💻 Role

Join our team as Head of Launch for the UK market and take charge of scaling categories on Whatnot UK. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role at the intersection of strategy, general management, and market development. You will define the strategic vision for your categories, lead and develop a cross-functional team, and spearhead the launch of new verticals in the UK - building the communities, supply, and demand that make them thrive.

Define our strategy:

• Map the UK e-commerce landscape: dive into market data, speak with sellers and buyers, and study the competitive environment to build a clear-eyed view of priority categories to launch

• Define a category strategy grounded in the unique dynamics of UK consumer culture - including the categories, communities, and seller archetypes most likely to drive breakout growth on Whatnot

• Build a rolling action plan for addressing key challenges and opportunities, making explicit trade-offs and communicating priorities clearly to your team and leadership

• Develop a zero-to-one playbook for identifying and validating new category opportunities in the UK, covering market sizing, supply mapping, community identification, and go-to-market approach

Lead and develop your team:

• Directly manage and develop a generalist team of launchers, who balance account management, sales, and marketing, and who are responsible for seller onboarding and growth, influencer activation, and community events in the UK.

• Set a high bar for team performance: establish clear goals and KPIs, run structured 1:1s and team rituals, deliver candid feedback, and hold your team accountable to outcomes

• Invest in the growth and careers of your team members - identify development opportunities, stretch assignments, and coaching moments that help them grow into senior contributors

• Define your team’s hiring needs as the UK business scales; actively participate in recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding top talent

• Build a culture of ownership, curiosity, and close seller relationships within your team, where everyone is expected to understand the product and the communities they serve

Launch new categories in the UK:

• Lead the end-to-end launch of new verticals in the UK: from initial hypothesis and market validation through seller acquisition, community activation, and growth ramp

• Identify the right categories to prioritise based on UK consumer demand, existing supply ecosystems, community enthusiasm, and Whatnot’s platform strengths

• Build and refine repeatable launch playbooks that can be applied across multiple category launches and eventually scaled to other European markets

• Work cross-functionally with product, marketing, operations, and engineering to unlock the platform features and support needed to make new categories succeed

• Define clear success metrics for each new vertical, run structured experiments to learn fast, and make data-driven decisions about where to double down or change course

Drive outsized growth:

• Identify category unlocks and work cross-functionally with product, marketing, operations, and engineering to bring to life initiatives that step-change growth

• Work alongside executives to propose and run experiments that surface the insight needed to adapt to evolving category dynamics

• Act as the primary internal voice of the UK market - bringing local context, cultural nuance, and on-the-ground seller insight into product and business decisions

Be the voice of your categories:

• Build deep relationships with top sellers and buyers in the UK, seeking to understand their needs and ensuring our product and operations keep pace with their expectations

• Represent Whatnot at industry events, trade shows, and seller communities to build brand credibility and surface new category opportunities

• Carry our culture by guiding your team to deeply understand the core components of the business and product so they can pitch sellers compellingly and grow the community

We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our London, UK hub.

👋 You

People who do well at Whatnot tend to be comfortable figuring things out as they go, biased toward action, and genuinely curious about what they're building. They care more about outcomes than credit and stay close to the product and the people using it.

As our first Head of Launch in the UK, you should have 10+ years of experience working in a fast-paced, client-facing role in high-output environments, such as: Strategy Consulting, Venture Capital, Private Equity, or partnerships at a fast-paced tech company, plus:

• Passion for our mission: You live and breathe the needs of our communities and work relentlessly to improve their experiences on Whatnot

• Proven team leader: You have a track record of building and leading high-performing teams - setting vision, developing talent, managing performance, and scaling team structures. You know how to get the best out of people and create an environment where they grow

• Zero-to-one builder: You have launched new products, categories, or markets from scratch. You know how to move from ambiguity to a clear plan, and from a clear plan to traction. You are energised by the challenge of building something that doesn’t exist yet

• Deep UK market expertise: You are fluent in English, and you have a genuine, nuanced understanding of UK consumer culture, e-commerce dynamics, and the communities and platforms that shape purchasing behaviour in the UK

• Player-coach: You operate at both altitude and ground level - you can shape strategy in a senior meeting and then roll up your sleeves to get into the weeds and unblock your team

• Scrappy and resourceful: No job is too small. You find a way to make things happen even when resources are constrained

• Deeply analytical: You are comfortable working with data to generate insight, define success metrics, and drive decisions - you use data to prioritise, not just to report

🙏 Nice to Have

• Experience with two-sided platforms and marketplace dynamics

• Passion for creator communities and live e-commerce

• Experience scaling a category or market across multiple European countries

• Existing network within the UK collector, fashion, or enthusiast communities

🎁 Benefits

• Generous Holiday and time-off policy

• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, and vision

• Work-from-home support

  • Home office setup allowance

  • Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet

• Care benefits

  • Monthly allowance for wellness

  • Annual allowance towards Childcare

  • Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses

• Retirement; Pension plans internationally

• Monthly allowance to dogfood the app

  • All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our product. We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).

• Parental Leave

  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements, which take precedence.

  Please find our Whatnot Candidate Privacy Notice here.

💛 EOE

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.