Director of Category Marketing, Whatnot
$240-285k
+ Stock options; Salary is based on US Applicants only
Live stream platform & marketplace
Job no longer available
Live stream platform & marketplace
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$240-285k
+ Stock options; Salary is based on US Applicants only
1001+ employees
Company mission
To enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.
Role
Who you are
- We’ve found that low ego, a growth mindset, and leaning into action and high impact goes a long way here
- As our Director of Category Marketing you should have 8+ years of marketing experience, including time at a high-growth consumer startup, plus:
- Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
- You’re a world-class leader with experience building out and scaling a marketing team
- Proven experience in consumer marketing and brand management through chapters of hyper growth, preferably within the e-commerce, social, tech, or gaming industry
- Strong understanding of various enthusiast communities, including sports cards, trading cards, comics, coins, and fashion (sneakers)
- Demonstrated ability to build and nurture relationships with influencers
- Proficiency in social media platforms, community management tools, and data analytics tools
- Experience in organizing and executing virtual or physical events
- Comfort in being analytical, owning budget and ROI metrics
- You’re immersed in internet culture and can use that knowledge to identify trends, creators and opportunities for the Whatnot brand to build and grow
- You are comfortable operating on a small team and will get in the weeds to produce results in a highly ambiguous environment. You are scrappy and no job is too small
What the job involves
- Expand marketing capabilities across our key categories including Sports, Fashion, Collectibles and more
- As our Director of Category marketing you’ll be responsible for driving demand against our biggest categories and growing the Whatnot brand by building awareness and adoption
- You will manage and scale a team of marketers focused against our largest categories
- You’re a consumer marketing leader who has built and scaled world class brands
- You’ve led diverse marketing teams, spanned performance, influencer, community and campaigns that grow genuine relationships with consumers
- You will define our approach to category specific marketing designed to garner widespread awareness and demand across our highest value verticals
- Your team will be leading the growth strategy for our categories including liaising with performance marketing and influencer teams to set and achieve ambitious growth goals
- Events strategy and execution - core to many of our biggest communities are cons and events where legions of enthusiasts congregate to express their passion. You’ll lead our category events roadmaps, goalset and partner with our events team to bring these moments to life
- You’ll work with the team on how to identify and activate key influencers across these categories and partner with them in unique and authentic ways to activate their communities on Whatnot. You’ll be accountable for the direct impact to first time buyers from these influencer activations
- Category tentpole campaigns - our categories should always be developing a cadence of disruptive and genuine campaigns which get core communities engaged
- You’ll work with your teams to develop a regular cadence of on-app programming tied to key moments, unique sellers, attention worthy product, and endemic product releases that make Whatnot the go-to platform where the community convenes. You will program these moments across relevant surfaces to drive cross category adoption within the Whatnot ecosystem
- In partnership with your teams you’ll develop a category specific social strategy to build Whatnot communities across our key verticals
- You’ll build a highly collaborative partnership with our creative team to develop campaigns, creative, and collateral to bring your marketing strategy to life
- You’ll own the measurement framework for how your activity drives brand and business impact and work with stakeholders across data science, finance, and growth to ensure our category efforts are driving responsible growth
- Work hand in hand with GMs of our categories to ensure our marketing strategies align to our business goals
- You’ll partner with performance marketing to ensure that categories are helping to drive lower funnel growth, partner on the development of performant creative, and create feedback loops that are constantly optimizing and growing demand
- You will bring a wealth of experience in marketing operations on not just creating brand elevating work, but doing so in a replicable and scaled way in a high growth environment
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
Meet the team
Jon Malkemus, VP Product Design
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.
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