Corporate Security Investigations & Protective Intelligence Manager

Whatnot Inc.; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Work From Home

Parental Leave

401k Match

Dogfood allowance

Job summary

Whatnot is seeking a Corporate Security Investigations & Protective Intelligence Manager to identify and investigate threats to our people, offices, and community. You’ll sit within Whatnot’s Corporate Security team and work with Trust & Risk, Legal, People, CyberSecurity, and IT, acting as both practitioner and program owner.

You will build and guide investigations, protect executive events, map law enforcement partnerships, and develop our case management tooling using AI.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in corporate or government investigations and protective intelligence.
• Experience managing end-to-end investigations including workplace violence.
• Experience building AI-enabled tooling with internal AI tools.
• Familiar with OSINT platforms like Clear, TLO, Ontic.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; strong judgment.

Responsibilities

• Lead protective intelligence and threat assessments for events and executives.
• Collaborate with Trust & Risk, Legal, People, Cybersecurity, and IT.
• Develop and maintain the internal investigations case management system.
• Onboard vendors, manage budgets and ensure lawful tool usage.
• Engage with local and federal law enforcement as needed.

Skills

Investigations

Protective intelligence

Threat assessment

Law enforcement liaison

OSINT tools

AI tooling

Communication skills

Tools

Clear

TLO

Ontic

OSINT platforms

Job description

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

The Corporate Security Investigations & Protective Intelligence Manager will identify and investigate threats to our people, offices, and community.

• In this role, you will:
• You’ll sit within Whatnot’s Corporate Security team and work closely with Trust & Risk, Legal, People, CyberSecurity, and IT. You’ll be hands‑on in the cases and the tools while also operating as the program owner.

What You’ll Do

Protective Intelligence & Law Enforcement Outreach Management

• Monitor open‑source and platform signals for emerging threats, and deliver concise intelligence products to Corporate Security and business partners.
• In partnership with Trust & Risk and other members of the Threat Management team, determine when on-platform issues (harassing or threatening messages, escalating disputes, concerning behavior toward hosts, sellers, or buyers) could translate into in‑person incidents, and collaborate on threat assessment and recommended response.
• Partner with Trust & Risk on escalation criteria and handoffs between platform enforcement and Corporate Security.
• Provide protective intelligence and threat assessments to support company events, executive protection, and high‑profile business activities.
• Partner with Trust & Risk and Legal to map the landscape of law enforcement partners and playbooks for proactive law enforcement partnership.

Internal Investigations & Threat Management

• In partnership with the People and Legal teams, conduct internal security investigations.
• Support compliance with workplace violence prevention requirements, including SB 553 in California, in partnership with the Legal and People teams.
• Maintain rigorous evidence handling, documentation, and confidentiality standards.
• Establish processes for sharing investigative findings, threat assessments, and recommended security actions with appropriate internal stakeholders while maintaining confidentiality.

Case Management System (Build) & Investigative Tooling Management

• Design, build, and manage Whatnot’s investigations and case management system, a purpose‑built alternative to platforms like Ontic, using internal AI tools to develop.
• Source, evaluate, and manage investigative and intelligence tools, such as Clear, TLO, or other public-records and OSINT platforms.
• Own vendor onboarding, budgets, contracts, and renewals. In partnership with the Cybersecurity and Legal teams, set permissible‑use, privacy, and access standards so tools are used lawfully and consistently.

Location & Travel

This role will be based in one of the Whatnot hubs - NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles with a preference for candidates in New York City. The successful candidate must live within commuting distance of their hub location. Expected in‑office cadence: ~2 days per week. This role will be expected to occasionally respond to urgent security incidents outside of normal work hours and will include periodic travel (~10%).

You

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

We’re looking for someone who’s passionate about keeping people safe while enabling the business to thrive. You bring both a deep skillset and empathy to your work, thrive in a fast‑moving environment, and lead with calm, informed confidence.

What You’ll Bring:

• 7+ years of experience in corporate or government investigations and protective intelligence.
• Proven experience managing end‑to‑end investigations, including workplace violence, insider risk, and external threats.
• Experience building/vibe‑coding purpose built tooling with AI (we use Claude most prominently at Whatnot).
• Deep familiarity with the investigative and intelligence tool landscape (for example Clear, OSINT and social media monitoring platforms, and case management platforms like Ontic), and the ability to articulate which tools are most valuable for this body of work and why.
• Sound judgment on when a concerning behavior warrants escalation, intervention, or law enforcement engagement.
• Strong understanding of permissible use, privacy, and data‑handling requirements.
• Experience working with local and federal law enforcement agencies.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong discretion, sound ethics, and the ability to handle sensitive, confidential matters.

Bonus Points

• ASIS PCI (Professional Certified Investigator), ATAP Certified Threat Manager (CTM) or similar certification.
• Experience with trust and safety, marketplace, social, gaming, or live/real‑time product environments, and with online‑to‑offline threat escalation.
• Experience supporting international investigations across multiple jurisdictions.
• Experience with workplace violence prevention compliance requirements.

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

Please note: Whatnot will only contact you through official @whatnot.com email addresses. If you see an email impersonating a Whatnot recruiter, please disregard and report it as spam.

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.