Strategic Development Manager

Role

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.

Responsibilities

• Own relationships with high-potential sellers, balancing proactive outreach with data-driven prioritization.
• Drive growth and account health at scale using AI tools and analytics (Salesforce, ChatGPT, Gong).
• Identify performance trends, automate communication, and execute structured coaching programs that improve seller performance.
• Prioritize ruthlessly, focusing 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 through scaled outreach campaigns, monthly education seminars, and automated growth treatments that improve seller account health and business fundamentals.
• Leverage AI for insights and efficiency, utilizing Whatnot’s AI-enabled toolset to summarize seller performance, generate outreach content, and automate repetitive tasks, freeing capacity for strategic engagement.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Category Leads, Marketing, and Product to surface seller trends, share feedback, and align scaled interventions with category priorities.
• Track, measure, and report, maintaining high data hygiene in Salesforce, logging outreach, treatments, and seller milestones to inform team-level metrics and continuous improvement.
• Build scalable best practices by sharing insights, pilot learnings, and scaled comms templates to strengthen team-wide effectiveness and inform future Development playbooks.

Requirements

• 3–5+ Years of experience in Account Management, Partnerships, Client Success, or Operations—ideally in E-commerce, Marketplaces, or a Creator Platform.
• 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.
• An 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.

Qualifications

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

Benefits

• 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
• Retailer; 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

Schedule

Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our San Francisco, New York City, or Los Angeles hubs.

Compensation Range

$140K - $155K

EEO Statement

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and 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.