Senior Manager / Director, Carrier Operations

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

Every package that moves between a Whatnot seller and buyer touches a carrier and shipping is one of the largest cost and experience levers in the business. As Senior Manager / Director of Carrier Operations, you will own Whatnot's global carrier function end to end: the relationships, the economics, the operating rhythm, and the team behind them. Our network spans domestic and international parcel carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, Royal Mail, DHL, DPD, Mondial Relay, Canada Post, Australia Post, and more) as well as shipping integrators like Shippo and Sendcloud. In this role you will:

• Own carrier performance monitoring. Build and run the daily/weekly monitoring of shipping health margin, on-time delivery, label generation success, scan rates, surcharge and refund rates, and CX contact volume define the topline carrier KPIs, surface degradation early, and drive issues to resolution with the right internal and external owners.

• Own carrier pricing. Understand and size every carrier price change (rate cards, surcharges, fuel, zone remapping), decide with Product/Eng and business leadership whether and how to pass changes through, coordinate customer communications and CX readiness, and hold carriers accountable to advance notice on pricing and data changes.

• Lead disruption response. Monitor and respond to carrier API changes, tariffs and regulatory shifts (e.g., de minimis changes), carrier policy updates, and weather events quarterbacking coordinated cross-functional responses with Product, Engineering, CX, Trust & Safety, and Public Policy.

• Own shipping cost integrity. Run the invoice reconciliation process across all carriers and integrators, ensure carrier charges map correctly to internal data, drive rate shadowing to catch mispricing, and partner with Accounting, Strategic Finance, and Analytics to reconcile margin reporting into a single trusted source of truth.

• Manage carrier relationships and negotiations. Own the weekly/biweekly operating cadence with each carrier and integrator, set agendas that drive our priorities, escalate and resolve operational issues (rate card mismatches, incorrect surcharges, RTS spikes, collections delays), and lead or support rate negotiations, RFPs, and contract changes.

• Recover money we're owed. Own claims at scale (thousands of loss/damage claims per week), bulk claims programs, unused label refunds, and overcharge credits a direct, measurable margin lever.

• Own carrier-side seller and CX operations. Oversee high-value stuck-shipment resolution, BYOL support, seller collections, hazmat violation management, and carrier violation remediation in partnership with Account Managers and Support.

• Launch and scale. Onboard new carriers, service levels, lanes, and markets from commercial diligence through data integration and ramp and set the 1218 month strategy for the carrier function as Whatnot's volume and international footprint grow.

• Build and lead the team. Manage and develop a team of carrier operations analysts and associates, define clear ownership across monitoring, pricing, reconciliation, and escalations, and identify what to automate, playbook, or hand off as we scale.

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 Senior Manager / Director of Carrier Operations you should have:

• 812+ years of experience in parcel/carrier operations, logistics, transportation procurement, or marketplace operations ideally at a high-volume ecommerce company, marketplace, 3PL, integrator, or carrier

• Experience owning carrier relationships and negotiations, including rate cards, surcharges, SLAs, and contract terms across multiple domestic and international carriers

• Deep fluency in parcel economics and cost integrity: rate structures, fuel and peak surcharges, VAT/tax treatment, FX, invoice audit and reconciliation, and claims recovery

• Strong analytical rigor you're comfortable owning shipping margin down to the invoice line and reconciling numbers across finance, accounting, and analytics systems; SQL and tools like Sigma, Hex, or Looker are a strong plus

• Proven cross-functional leadership: you can align Product, Engineering, Finance, CX, and external partners around a plan, and run a tight operating cadence with vendors

• Experience managing and developing a team, including building playbooks and delegating standardized work

• Calm, structured incident response instincts you're the person people want running point when a carrier changes an API, a lane starts failing, or a tariff lands

• International shipping and cross-border experience (customs, duties, de minimis, VAT) strongly preferred

• Ability to think strategically and execute methodically in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment

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.