Head Category - Collectibles jobs at Ebay in United Kingdom, London

You’ll lead a team of Category Managers and Analysts, bring together cross-functional collaborators around goals, and build scalable systems to support growth. Your role guarantees category excellence across metrics (GMV, ASP, retention, value), while directing incentive strategy, programming integration, and cross-category innovation.

What you will accomplish

Portfolio Leadership & Strategy:

• Define and own the growth strategy for your assigned category portfolio (e.g., Collectibles, Fashion, or Luxury).

• Lead annual and quarterly planning cycles with benchmarks for GMV, retention, and engagement.

• Identify and develop new category opportunities, bringing to bear buyer and market insights.

• Coordinate cross-category programming cadence and consistency.

• Partner with Finance and Incentives teams to optimize budget efficiency and value (target ≥5x GMV return).

Team Management & Development

• Manage and mentor a team of Category Managers and Account Specialists.

• Drive operational excellence through structured goal setting, reviews, and training.

• Build a culture of accountability, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making.

Cross-Functional Strategy & Collaboration

• Partner with Business Development to ensure seller pipelines align to portfolio goals.

• Work with Programming and Marketing to plan and complete high-impact campaigns and tentpoles.

• Collaborate with Product and PMO to improve category tooling, reporting, and visibility.

• Align with Trust, Legal, and GCX to ensure category compliance and consistency.

Performance & Reporting

• Monitor category dashboards (GMV/hr, ASP, retention, incentive return on investment) and course-correct in real time.

• Lead business reviews (WBR, MBR, QBR) summarizing insights, growth levers, and risks.

• Identify and scale repeatable programs and guidelines across regions.

What you will bring

• Strategic portfolio management and growth planning

• Cross-functional leadership and alignment

• Financial and return on investment literacy (incentives, spend optimization)

• Team leadership and mentoring

• Data analysis and insight storytelling

• Operational rigor and execution within the field

• Seller and buyer empathy

This role reports into the Collectibles Category Lead, who will support the delivery of the role.

What you will accomplish:

• Support the Category Managers and Lead in both scheduled weekly tasks as well as being flexible enough to pick up ad-hoc support requests.

• Lead on planning and delivering to category trading plan, liaising with both horizontal planning and merchandising and marketing partners.

• Support with new seller acquisition and converting existing eBay sellers to eBay Live.

• Collaborate with other categories, business functions and product teams to drive further engagement and help build a proposition for the consumer that highlights eBay’s points of difference in the collectibles' market.

• Deliver robust plans to optimise and drive value for buyers and sellers through brilliant and engaging experiences

• Contribute ideas and find efficiencies in ways of working to streamline team workloads.

• Develop your skill set across a range of category management principles, strategy and project management, all whilst operating within a high-functioning global business.

What you will bring:

• An understanding of the UK collectibles market and communities, particularly across trading cards and collectible toys

• Good attention to detail and analytical skills

• Flexibility and the ability to self-prioritise.

• Curiosity, initiative, creativity and a willingness to embrace new ways of working.

• Effective verbal and written communication with clarity and professionalism.

• Experience in planning, delivering and leading all aspects of projects effectively.

• Ability to build and maintain positive working relationships with others.

In this role, you’ll work side by side with Business Development, Account Management, Marketing and Programming to help develop category strategy, strengthen seller performance, and deliver high-quality live experiences.

• Support day-to-day operations and strategy for your assigned category.

• Partner with sellers to improve event performance, consistency, and engagement.

• Track GMV, seller health, and buyer retention metrics via dashboards and reports.

• Coordinate category programming — scheduling, promotions, and tentpole events.

• Help identify and onboard new sellers through collaboration with BD.

• Maintain internal trackers, recaps, and performance reviews for your vertical.

• 1–3 years of experience in account management, e-commerce, or marketplace operations.

• Strong organisational and communication skills.

• Analytical problem solver with comfort using dashboards and Excel/Tableau reports.

• Creative problem-solver who enjoys working cross-functionally.

• Passionate about live commerce, storytelling, and helping sellers succeed.

We seek a seasoned Category Manager for Live Commerce to drive expansion of our Collectibles category on eBay Live. The responsibilities include devising the category strategy, identifying crucial sellers, and collaborating closely with them to flourish on this platform, and meeting GMV targets is part of the accountability. You will be responsible for advocating for your sellers, running tests for new initiatives in your categories, building playbooks for success, understanding our platform and how it needs to change, and helping us build a program that scales.

Deliver an ambitious eBay Live GMV target for Collectibles categories

• Collaborating with the Category Lead on developing the category playbook and strategy to achieve GMV targets

• Building out our seller & event supply and coordinating cross functional teams to deliver success for those sellers & events

• Lead on category programming with the Programming team to support on the efficient category content strategy

Select and onboard new sellers to eBay Live

• Support on BD activities - meet sellers, develop pitches, devise inventive approaches to engage and contract with sellers

• Develop criteria for selecting eBay Live sellers based on patterns, analytics, and merchant intuition.

• Assist sellers in the onboarding journey, pinpointing challenges and devising solutions to overcome them

Help Sellers find success on eBay live

• Convince sellers to invest time and resources in eBay live, and help them make that investment worthwhile

• Understand drivers of success on the eBay live platform and mentor your portfolio of sellers accordingly - across assortment, live host, production, selling formats, marketing, etc.

• Support sellers by collaborating with complementary teams, brainstorming solutions, initiating new programs to boost seller success, advocating on their behalf, and taking action when needed

Help us scale eBay live

• Support the Category Lead to land on our ambitious goals

• Develop scalable processes, tools, and models that help us grow the business

• 5+ years of relevant ecommerce experience collaborating closely with vendors and merchants, preferably in the Collectibles market

• Experience and curiosity about Live selling formats

• Consistent track record leading multiple priorities simultaneously with minimum mentorship

• Strong project management, organisation, and partner engagement abilities, including multitasking to lead and complete projects

• Strong verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with sellers and internal team members

• Ability and willingness to travel to meet in person with accounts (up to 15% of month)

• Lead the development and refinement of media strategies for eBay’s Full Funnel marketing initiatives in UK, encompassing online and offline channels, in close alignment with eBay’s global marketing team.
• Work collaboratively with the brand team, and other adjacent marketing & business functions, to create approaches that deliver for the business objectives as well our customers.
• Directly manage an inhouse media planning team, to ensure they are equipped and motivated to deliver against our goals.
• Effectively plan and manage the annual paid media budget, ensuring phasing & allocation is optimised to drive performance. Manage teams to ensure we are spending to budgets with effective pacing.
• Create consumer data-driven media briefs and guide eBay’s media agency, and internal buying teams, in UK to deliver impactful and efficient media plans.
• Continually optimize campaign media strategies and assess campaign effectiveness.
• Be able to assess the performance of our lower funnel media activity, interpret what is driving or hindering performance, and provide valuable summaries to senior partners.
• Find opportunities related to new media channels and innovative placements.
• Evaluate the efficiency of different media channels in reaching target audiences.

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Marketing/Communications.
• Minimum of at least eight years of media planning experience, ideally within agency and client side roles, with a focus on retail, consumer goods, tech, or internet sectors.
• Proven expertise in media planning for both offline and online channels.
• Experience working within a matrixed organisation, demonstrating cross-functional collaboration skills to deliver success.
• Experience managing and motivating a media team.
• Strong background in briefing and managing media strategy projects involving internal departments and external agencies.
• Ability to analyse and optimize media plans for maximum efficiency, with experience in metrics reporting and plan adaptation.
• Proficient in building relationships with partners across different organizational levels, with a creative and solution-focused approach.
• Strong communication skills and comfort in liaising with senior partners across various marketing & business functions. Ability to tailor communication style to different levels of media knowledge.

We seek a seasoned Category Manager for Live Commerce to drive Fashion expansion on eBay Live. The responsibilities include devising the category strategy, identifying crucial sellers, and collaborating closely with them to flourish on this platform, and meeting GMV targets is part of the accountability. You will be responsible for advocating for your sellers, running tests for new initiatives in your categories, building playbooks for success, understanding our platform and how it needs to change, and helping us build a program that scales.

Deliver an ambitious eBay Live GMV target for Fashion categories

• Collaborating with the Category Lead on developing the category playbook and strategy to achieve GMV targets

• Building out our seller & event supply and coordinating cross functional teams to deliver success for those sellers & events

• Lead on category programming with the Programming team to support on the efficient category content strategy

Select and onboard new sellers to eBay Live

• Support on BD activities - meet sellers, develop pitches, devise inventive approaches to engage and contract with sellers

• Develop criteria for selecting eBay Live sellers based on patterns, analytics, and merchant intuition.

• Assist sellers in the onboarding journey, pinpointing challenges and devising solutions to overcome them

Help Sellers find success on eBay live

• Convince sellers to invest time and resources in eBay live, and help them make that investment worthwhile

• Understand drivers of success on the eBay live platform and mentor your portfolio of sellers accordingly - across assortment, live host, production, selling formats, marketing, etc.

• Support sellers by collaborating with complementary teams, brainstorming solutions, initiating new programs to boost seller success, advocating on their behalf, and taking action when needed

Help us scale eBay live

• Support the Category Lead to land on our ambitious goals

• Develop scalable processes, tools, and models that help us grow the business

• BA/BS degree or equivalent, with 5+ years of relevant ecommerce experience collaborating closely with vendors and merchants, preferably within the Fashion industry

• Experience and curiosity about Live selling formats

• Consistent track record leading multiple priorities simultaneously with minimum mentorship

• Strong project management, organisation, and partner engagement abilities, including multitasking to lead and complete projects

• Strong verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with sellers and internal team members

• Ability and willingness to travel to meet in person with accounts (up to 15% of month)

• Build category and market expertise to identify and exploit opportunities for eBay and build inventory plans that will result in increased growth for the category

• Specifically, maintain the relationship with market data providers and build actionable insights from this data

• Analyse ebay data to support strategic projects

• Develop experienced understanding of sellers’ business operations and current strategies and utilise insight to find opportunities for growth

• Develop the relationship with key sellers, brands and retailers within the portfolio and in line with the category strategy

• Build range and promotional plans, to target merchandise and use levers to get products and promotions on site from sellers

• Ability to analyse data and build actionable insights from this data

• Ability to take large amounts of information and summarise the key insights from this information

• Strong communicator, both verbally and in the building of presentations

• Strategic problem solver and self-starter with a strong action-orientation

• Strong commercial competence and negotiation skills, feeling comfortable operating in a fast-paced online environment

• The ability to build internal and external relationships, crafting partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives

• Operating with agility and easily adapting to change.

This role offers excellent career development for an individual with excellent organisational, communication and problem-solving skills.