Head of Data Communications

About the role

Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. As our first Head of Data Communications, you'll establish the foundation for how Whatnot uses its platform insights to shape culture, earn media coverage, and define the live shopping category.

This high-visibility, high-impact role will directly shape how millions of people understand and talk about live commerce and Whatnot. You’ll serve as Whatnot’s first Economist and Trends Expert, translating platform data into compelling narratives that predict and influence trends.

This role requires living within commuting distance of our San Francisco, New York, Seattle, or Los Angeles hubs, with flexibility to work from home or one of our global office hubs.

Responsibilities

• Own the development of Whatnot's consumer research and trend report program, from concept and methodology through to media-ready packaging and launch.
• Use AI tooling, platform data, seller behavior, and buyer trends to surface insights that are newsworthy, culturally relevant, and category-defining.
• Partner closely with data, product, and category teams to identify stories hiding in the numbers and turn them into compelling narrative assets.
• Build a cadence of trend moments—seasonal, cultural, and category-specific—that keep Whatnot in the media conversation year-round.
• Build and own a recurring content franchise (blog, newsletter, or similar) that delivers original analysis on categories, seller economics, and the live commerce industry.
• Shape story angles grounded in data that resonate with media and consumers, and identify opportunities to insert Whatnot into broader cultural and industry conversations.
• Develop press materials including pitch angles, backgrounders, and talking points anchored in research and insights.
• Serve as an on-the-record spokesperson for Whatnot on consumer trends, category stories, and live shopping culture, representing the brand with press, on camera, and at events.
• Translate platform data and buyer/seller insights into sharp, quotable narratives that position Whatnot as the definitive voice on what's trending and what's next.
• Build and maintain credibility with journalists as a go-to expert source on consumer behavior, live commerce, and the communities that shop on Whatnot.

Requirements

• 7-10+ years of PR, communications, economist, or journalism experience, with a strong track record in communications and data storytelling.
• Demonstrated experience developing and launching data-driven reports, trend studies, or research-backed earned media programs.
• Strong analytical instincts: comfortable working with data sets and translating findings into narratives that resonate with press and consumers.
• Excitement for AI tools across research, data analysis, and day-to-day work.
• Experience working with media and editorial; solid media relationships across consumer, lifestyle, and tech outlets are a plus.
• Exceptional writing skills: ability to turn a data point into a headline and a trend into a story.
• Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth tech, marketplace, entertainment, or creator-driven companies.
• Low ego, high output: as comfortable doing the work as shaping the strategy.

Benefits

• Generous holiday and time off policy.
• Health insurance options including medical, dental, and vision.
• Work from home support, including home office setup allowance.
• Monthly allowance for cell phone, internet, wellness, and 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 (use Whatnot as both a buyer and seller).
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work (company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements).

Pay

Compensation range: $225K - $265K.