Corporate Development Senior Deal Lead

🚀 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

We’re seeking a high-performing dealmaker to build and scale our Corporate Development function. You’ll develop M&A recommendations, execute transactions independently, and shape corporate strategy. Reporting to the Head of Corporate Development, you’ll partner with senior executives to execute strategies and deals that accelerate our growth.

• Partner with our executive team and product leadership to develop M&A strategies

• Drive the end-to-end M&A process, from thesis development through deal close and integration

• Lead external negotiations with expertise in deal structures and tactics

• Develop and present insights on the competitive landscape, industry trends, and emerging business models

• Oversee deal integration, managing cross-functional partners across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Finance

• Build a strong external network with founders, venture capitalists, investment banks, and industry partners

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 50 miles commuting distance of our Los Angeles, New York, Seattle or San Fran 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 next Senior Deal Lead / Principal you should have 8+ years of Corporate Development or M&A experience, plus:

• Proficiency leading and negotiating a range of M&A transactions including acquihires, asset purchases, and mergers

• Strong domain knowledge of M&A structures, including legal, tax, and accounting implications

• Excellent financial, quantitative, and analytical abilities

• A creative yet pragmatic problem-solver who can navigate ambiguity

• Exceptional organizational and project management skills

• Strong interpersonal and communication abilities – you thrive in a fast-paced, unstructured environment

🎁 Benefits

• Generous Holiday and Time off Policy

• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, 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; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and 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.

💛 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.