Strategic Development Manager

Whatnot is the largest livestream 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.

The Strategic Partnerships team builds deep, long-term relationships with Whatnot sellers—guiding them to scale efficiently, elevate buyer experience, and innovate on the platform.

This role sits at the intersection of partnership management, category strategy, and go-to-market execution. You’ll partner closely with your Category Lead, Marketing, Trust & Safety, and Product teams to turn seller insights into action and ensure your team delivers exceptional results for sellers and buyers.

You’ll own a book of up to 200 sellers, applying a structured, data-informed approach to coaching, engagement, and performance improvement. By combining automation, AI-powered insights, and a deep understanding of seller behavior, you’ll help sellers reach key growth milestones and scale their business successfully on Whatnot.

This role requires sharp and ruthless prioritization, strong operational judgment, and the ability to translate data into actionable outreach at scale. You’ll act as both strategist and operator — ensuring every seller receives the right level of guidance at the right time, while balancing efficiency and impact across your portfolio.

• Manage a scaled book of business. Own relationships with high-potential sellers, balancing proactive outreach with data-driven prioritization.

• Drive growth and account health at scale. Use AI tools and analytics (Salesforce, ChatGPT, Gong) to identify performance trends, automate communication, and execute structured coaching programs that improve seller performance.

• Prioritize ruthlessly. Focus time and energy on sellers with the highest engagement potential and growth opportunity, applying a clear prioritization framework to drive results efficiently.

• Deliver structured communication. Execute scaled outreach campaigns, monthly education seminars, and automated growth treatments that improve seller account health and business fundamentals.

• Leverage AI for insights and efficiency. Utilize Whatnot’s AI-enabled toolset to summarize seller performance, generate outreach content, and automate repetitive tasks, freeing capacity for strategic engagement.

• Collaborate cross-functionally. Partner with Category Leads, Marketing, and Product to surface seller trends, share feedback, and align scaled interventions with category priorities.

• Track, measure, and report. Maintain high data hygiene in Salesforce, logging outreach, treatments, and seller milestones to inform team-level metrics and continuous improvement.

• Build scalable best practices. Share insights, pilot learnings, and scaled comms templates to strengthen team-wide effectiveness and inform future Development playbooks.
  

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 commuting distance of our San Francisco, New York City, or Los Angeles hubs.

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 Strategic Development Manager, you should have 3–5+ years of experience in account management, partnerships, client success, or operations — ideally in ecommerce, marketplaces, or a creator platform, plus:

• Proven ability to manage a large, complex portfolio while driving measurable business outcomes.

• Advanced organizational and prioritization skills; capable of navigating competing demands with structure and focus.

• Comfort with AI tools (ChatGPT, Salesforce automation, Gong AI, etc.) and demonstrated ability to use them to improve efficiency and decision-making.

• Analytical mindset and strong command of metrics to diagnose performance and inform outreach.

• Excellent communication skills for scaled messaging and seller engagement.

• A high degree of ownership, accountability, and adaptability in a fast-moving environment.
  

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting SMBs or creators at scale through digital or AI-driven programs.

• Background in operational improvement, training, or coaching in a high-volume environment.

• Passion for live commerce, seller communities, and Whatnot’s core categories (collectibles, sports, fashion, vintage).

• 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.

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.