Product Design Director, Buyer

Overview

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Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. We7re redefining e-commerce by blending community, shopping, and entertainment into a community just for you. As a remote co-located team, we7re inspired by innovation and anchored in our values. With hubs in the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, and Germany, we7re building the future of online marketplacesDtogether. From fashion, beauty, and electronics to rare collectibles like trading cards, comic books, and even live plants, our live auctions have something for everyone. We7re one of the fastest growing marketplaces, and we7re looking for bold, forward-thinking problem solvers across all functional areas.

Role : We7re 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, you7ll drive the strategy and execution for everything from customer acquisition and activation to retention and re-engagement. This includes discovery surfaces (browse, search, ranking, personalization, taxonomy), the live shopping experience, and customer service flows. You7ll partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Marketing, and our Executive Team to ensure we7re not just meeting user expectations, but creating joyful, seamless, and high-performing experiences that define the future of live commerce. As a player-coach, you7ll balance leading, mentoring, and hands-on design work to deliver impactful experiences. You7ll help elevate the team7s 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.

Team members in this role are required to be within commuting distance of our New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA, or Los Angeles, CA hubs.

Base pay range

$280,000.00 / yr - $320,000.00 / yr

Responsibilities

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.

Location : Team members in this role are within commuting distance of our New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; or Los Angeles, CA hubs.

Qualifications

As Our Next Product Design Director, You Should Have 10+ Years Of Product Design Experience, With At Least 3 Years Leading Teams, Plus

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.

Benefits

Flexible Time off Policy and Company-wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)

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. We9re 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.

Details

Seniority level : Director

Employment type : Full-time

Job function : Product Management and Marketing

Industries : Technology, Information and Internet

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