Product Design Director, Buyer

Overview Join to apply for the Product Design Director, Buyer role at Whatnot. Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. We’re redefining e-commerce by blending community, shopping, and entertainment into a community just for you. As a remote co-located team, we’re inspired by innovation and anchored in our values. With hubs in the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, and Germany, we’re building the future of online marketplaces—together. From fashion, beauty, and electronics to rare collectibles like trading cards, comic books, and even live plants, our live auctions have something for everyone. And we’re just getting started! As one of the fastest growing marketplaces, we’re looking for bold, forward-thinking problem solvers across all functional areas. 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.

Ready to apply Before you do, make sure to read all the details pertaining to this job in the description below.

Role 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.

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.

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.

Qualifications

10+ years of Product Design experience, with at least 3 years leading teams, plus a player-coach mindset—willing to mentor and hands-on with design.

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

Parental Leave : 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work

EOE : Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and do not discriminate on many bases; we encourage diverse skills and experiences

Compensation Range : $280K - $320K

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