Senior People Business Partner, Operations

Whatnot; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 174,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Work From Home Support

Home office setup allowance

Phone/internet allowance

Childcare allowance

Wellness stipend

401k employer match up to 4%

Parental Leave

Job summary

Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories, from cards to electronics to plants, and we’re shaping a new live commerce era.

As a remote co-located team, we move fast and value planning, problem solving, and human connection. This role partners with leaders to design org strategy, workforce planning, and team development for a large, distributed

Qualifications

• Deep familiarity with the employee lifecycle for hourly CX, Trust & Risk, and customer support.
• Strong partnership mindset with leaders and employees at all levels.
• Experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments; proactive and action-oriented.
• Sound judgment and discretion handling sensitive situations.
• Clear, effective communication for a remote-first, globally distributed team.
• Strong prioritization with clear line of sight to business goals.
• Comfort working with data to surface insights and inform decisions across a large population.

Responsibilities

• Coach leaders from VP to frontline team leads to improve performance and employee experience.
• Partner on people strategy: org design, workforce planning, and team development for a distributed workforce.
• Advise on employee relations matters, including investigations, in collaboration with legal.
• Drive core people processes (compensation, performance cycles, talent planning) at scale.
• Collaborate with COEs to build programs for an expanding Operations population.
• Use data and insights to anticipate talent risks across client groups.

Skills

Employee lifecycle

Partnership mindset

Experience in high-growth environments

Data-driven decisions

Remote-friendly communication

Prioritization

Stakeholder management

Job description

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

• Coach leaders and managers, from VP to frontline team lead, to build stronger teams, sharper performance, and a better employee experience
• Partner on people strategy, including org design, workforce planning, and team development, for a large, distributed, majority-hourly workforce
• Advise on employee relations matters, including performance, behavior, and investigations, including issues specific to hourly and shift-based populations, partnering with legal as needed
• Drive core people processes (compensation, performance cycles, talent planning) at a scale built to work for both agents and senior leaders
• Partner with COEs (People Programs, Total Rewards, People Ops) to build strong programs built for a fast growing Operations population
• Use data and insights to get ahead of talent risks (e.g., attrition, engagement) across your client group, including trends specific to agent-level roles
• Lead change management across reorgs, role changes, and evolving business priorities for teams that operate globally and around the clock
• Support manager development, especially for first-line managers overseeing large frontline teams, on team effectiveness and leadership capability
• Leverage culture surveys and people data to shape decisions on culture, growth, retention, and performance across an ever-evolving workforce

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 50 miles of our San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, or Phoenix hubs.

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.

• Deep familiarity with the employee lifecycle for hourly CX, Trust & Risk, and customer support populations, including hiring and onboarding at scale, shift-based scheduling dynamics, performance management, and attrition
• A strong partnership mindset. You build trust quickly with leaders, managers, and employees at every level, from VP down to agent
• Experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments. You're proactive, action-oriented, and comfortable iterating at scale
• Sound judgment and discretion when handling sensitive situations, with strong attention to detail
• Clear, effective communication built for a remote-first, globally distributed environment
• Strong prioritization skills and a consistent line of sight to business goals
• Comfort working with data to surface insights and inform decisions across a large population

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.

Compensation Range: $174K - $240K