Product Design Director, Whatnot
Buyer
$280-320k
+ Equity
More information about location
Live stream platform & marketplace
Open for applications
Live stream platform & marketplace
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$280-320k
+ Equity
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.
Role
Who you are
- As our next Product Design Director, you should have 10+ years of product design experience, with at least 3 years leading teams
- A player-coach mindset—excited to mentor, but equally passionate about designing and solving problems hands-on
- Strong portfolio showcasing interaction and visual design skills, with a track record of shipping successful products
- Proven success designing and scaling customer-facing experiences across a complex funnel (acquisition through retention)
- Deep expertise in interaction design, systems thinking, and user-centered design
- Strong understanding of search, discovery, personalization, and taxonomy design principles
- Experience in e-commerce, marketplaces, or live shopping platforms is a major plus
- A strong collaborator who thrives at the intersection of product, business, and user needs
- A portfolio that demonstrates thoughtful, elegant solutions to complex problems
What the job involves
- We’re looking for a strategic and inspiring Director of Product Design to lead our Buyer Design team—the group responsible for shaping the end-to-end experience for millions of users navigating our marketplace
- As the design leader overseeing the entire buyer journey, you'll drive the strategy and execution for everything from customer acquisition, activation, to retention and re-engagement
- This includes discovery surfaces (browse, search, ranking, personalization, taxonomy), the live shopping experience, and customer service flows
- You’ll partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Marketing, and our Executive Team to ensure we're not just meeting user expectations, but creating joyful, seamless, and high-performing experiences that define the future of live commerce
- As a player-coach, you’ll balance leading, mentoring, and rolling up your sleeves to design impactful experiences
- You’ll help elevate the team’s craft, drive design strategy, and collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, research, and business teams to deliver innovative solutions that make finding what you love seamless, intuitive, and delightful
- Lead and scale a high-performing team of product designers across the buyer funnel
- Define and drive the vision, strategy, and execution for the buyer experience in collaboration with cross-functional partners
- Partner with research, data, and product to develop deep customer empathy and inform high-impact design decisions
- Shape intuitive, elegant systems across discovery, live shopping, and post-purchase experiences
- Ensure our experiences are accessible, inclusive, and delightfully human
- Champion design quality and consistency across surfaces while enabling speed and iteration
- Nurture a strong design culture through mentorship, feedback, and high standards for craft and thinking
- Represent design in executive conversations and influence company-wide priorities
Our take
Live shopping is changing the way people engage with eCommerce and Whatnot is one of the key platforms driving this shift. The company operates across the US, UK, and Europe, where millions of people connect each day to buy, sell, and build communities around shared interests.
Founded in 2019, Whatnot allows real-time auctions where buyers can watch sellers showcase products and share their expertise, creating a more interactive and personal shopper experience. Sellers include individual creators and small businesses who use live shows to reach audiences and grow their online presence.
As of 2025, the company reports over $6B in sales, with sellers earning significantly more on average than other major marketplaces. And with a range of investor support, Whatnot is committed to developing new ways to make online shopping more social and community-driven.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
54% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Oct 2025
$225m
SERIES F
Jan 2025
$265m
SERIES E
Total funding: $974.2m
Company benefits
- Wellness: Health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans. We also cover some of the cost for your dependents as well.
- Compensation: Generous compensation, including a competitive base salary and equity. Whatnot offers monthly reimbursement for internet and phone costs, along with a one-time home office set-up allowance. Whatnot offers a pension plan and matches employee contributions of up to 4% of the employee’s base salary.
- Recharge: Whatnot gives you the freedom to take time off as you see fit. And, we take company-wide Winter and Summer breaks so we can recharge. Whatnot provides a monthly allowance for wellness expenses. We know that to take care of our customers, we have to take care of ourselves. Supplemental health and life insurance coverage comes standard at Whatnot. 16 weeks of paid parental leave, and an additional one-month gradual return-to-work period.* Plus an additional childcare allowance, and a lifetime allowance for family planning, including adoption and fertility expenses. *The leave allowances provided by Whatnot may be dictated / informed by your country’s legal requirements,
- Flexibility: As a remote co-located team, we’re inspired by innovation and anchored in our values. With hubs in the US, UK, Germany, Ireland, and Poland, we’re building the future of online marketplaces –together.
Company values
- Always listen to customers
- Move uncomfortably fast
- Prioritize impact ruthlessly
- Own everything and nothing
- Set crazy goals
- Provide extreme transparency
- Optimize for the upside
- Team over ego
- Figure it out
- Deeply understand why
- Have fun & be kind
Company HQ
Venice, Los Angeles, CA
Articles
Leadership
Grant LaFontaine
(Co-Founder & CEO)Former Product Marketing Manager at Google, Project Manager at Facebook. Also co-founded Kit.
Logan Head
(Co-Founder & CTO)Experience in Engineering, including at Maker's Row, Factr, and Flight Club. Former Senior Product Manager at GOAT.
Salary benchmarks
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