Category Associate, Japan

🚀 Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

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.

💻 Role

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

• Go-to expert of your category

  • Become the go-to expert on your category, including seller/buyer dynamics, community channels, influencers, and product nuances

  • Become the face of Whatnot for the community of sellers and buyers that you represent

• Seller outreach and onboarding

  • Source and reach out to sellers to convince them to join and grow their business on Whatnot.

  • Leverage social media, outbound channels, and in-person events

• Relationship management

  • Partner with new sellers and strategic partners to build big businesses on Whatnot

  • Build and execute seller growth plans to unlock category growth

• Marketing and growth

  • Spearhead diverse seller marketing initiatives, such as organizing offline events, influencer partnerships

• Data analytics

  • Use basic data analytics skills (SQL) to derive insights from projects and enhance process efficiency

  • Utilize key data points to assess category growth, success, and areas for improvement, driving continuous iteration
    

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

Curious about who thrives at Whatnot? We’ve found that low ego, a growth mindset, and leaning into action and high impact goes a long way here.

As our next Category Associate, you should have:

• 3+ years of experience working in sales and/or account management function, specifically working with top business partners, streamers, and/or creators

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

• Specific knowledge of Salesforce, AirTable, Sigma, and other tools to expertly manage your accounts

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

• You are comfortable navigating ambiguity and have a strong inclination to dive deep, problem-solve, and adapt quickly in evolving environments

• You speak fluent English and native Japanese with a deep understanding of Japan cultural and community dynamics
  

🙏 Nice to Have

• Be a Whatnot seller or entrepreneur yourself

• 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

  • 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.

💛 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.