Category Manager, Japan

Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest live 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.

Role

As a Category Manager, you’ll focus on growing the seller communities as we launch into Japan.

• Build our seller community

• Create community-defining moments

• Use data and strategic thinking to propel your category forward

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 Tokyo hub.

You

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 Category Manager, you should have:

• 6+ years of mixed experience working in a fast-paced, client-facing role in high output environments, such as: Strategy Consulting, Private Equity, or partnerships at a fast-paced tech company

• Experience working in a business development or partner-facing role

• You are scrappy and flexible enough to work in an ambiguous environment with limited guidance

• You are a problem solver with strong project management skills and the ability to fully own strategy and execution on both sides of an emerging marketplace

• You have business acumen, are deeply analytical, and comfortable understanding and manipulating data to gain and take action on business insights

• You speak fluent English and native Japanese

Nice to Have

• Experience at a high-growth startup, marketplace, or creator-focused platform

• An existing network of sellers, creators, and influencers within a Whatnot product category.

• Proficiency in SQL

• Passion for creator communities and/or expertise in existing Whatnot product categories (e.g. vintage clothing, collectibles).

• Experience buying and selling in online marketplaces.

Benefits

• Generous Holiday and Time off Policy

• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision

• Work From Home Support

• Care benefits

• 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

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.