Director of Marketplace

Reports to: Group COO Function: Marketplace / Operations & Commercial B2B Contract About the role We're looking for a Director of Marketplace to build, scale, and grow our premium Lifestyle & Travel vertical — with wellness at its core. Reporting directly to the Group COO, you'll own both the commercial growth and the operational foundation of a curated marketplace that connects discerning, experience-driven members with the best of wellness, travel, and lifestyle. Wellness is the centre of gravity for this vertical. The most valuable experiences our members want — and the fastest-growing part of premium travel and lifestyle — are built around wellbeing: wellness retreats, spas and longevity clinics, fitness and recovery, mental health and mindfulness, and health-led travel. You'll own this category end-to-end alongside the broader travel and lifestyle services (hotels, flights, accommodations, eSIMs, and exclusive perks), and make it the reason members choose this product. This is a commercial and operational leadership role. You'll grow the marketplace — acquiring premium supply, driving demand and conversion, and owning the economics — while turning a fragmented ecosystem of partners into a scalable, reliable, and genuinely premium offering. The ideal candidate has built and grown a premium travel, wellness, or lifestyle-services marketplace and knows what an exceptional, members-first standard of service actually feels like. What you'll own 1. Marketplace growth & commercial Own the growth and commercial performance of the vertical — GMV, revenue, take-rate, and unit economics Acquire and curate premium supply across wellness, travel, and lifestyle, with wellness as the priority category Drive the demand side: conversion, attach rate, repeat usage, and marketplace liquidity (balancing supply and demand) Negotiate partner commercial terms — rates, inventory access, exclusivity, and co-marketing Build the merchandising and curation strategy that makes premium wellness and travel experiences easy to discover and book Identify and launch new wellness and lifestyle categories, partners, and markets to expand the offering 2. Operational leadership & strategy Define and execute the operational strategy for wellness, lifestyle, and travel services Build scalable processes, frameworks, and playbooks for partner onboarding and lifecycle management Identify operational gaps and inefficiencies and implement structured improvements Establish clear ownership, accountability, and KPIs across all operational streams 3. Partner operations & ecosystem management Own onboarding, integration, and ongoing operations of partners (wellness retreats and clinics, spas, fitness and recovery providers, hotels, airlines, OTAs, eSIM providers, perks platforms, etc.) Manage outsourced service providers, including concierge support and customer experience vendors, while protecting a premium, on-brand standard of service Define SLAs, performance metrics, and accountability frameworks for external vendors Ensure partners meet performance, SLA, and quality standards — and the curation bar for a premium audience Build strong relationships with key partners and act as the primary operational and commercial escalation point Continuously evaluate and expand the partner ecosystem to improve coverage, quality, and value 4. Premium member experience & service reliability Own the end-to-end member journey across all wellness, lifestyle, and travel services Set and protect a premium, members-first service standard — proactive, white-glove, and built around trust and care Ensure high reliability across discovery, booking, fulfillment, and post-purchase support flows Lead travel disruption and duty-of-care response (cancellations, delays, emergencies) with 24/7 readiness and rebooking at scale Monitor and improve premium experience metrics (NPS/CSAT, conversion, success rate, cancellations, complaints, resolution time) Work closely with Support teams to identify pain points and proactively resolve them before members feel them 5. Cross-functional coordination Act as the central bridge between Operations, Product, Engineering, QA, Support, Compliance, and Partnerships Ensure smooth integration of partner services into the product ecosystem Drive alignment across teams so features are correctly implemented, tested, and launched Create structured feedback loops between Support, QA, and Product teams to improve member experience 6. Issue resolution & escalation management Build frameworks for identifying, triaging, and resolving operational issues Oversee resolution of complex issues across bookings, payments, fulfillment, and partner failures Partner closely with Finance teams to resolve payment-related issues including failed transactions, refunds, reconciliation gaps, and settlement discrepancies Ensure strong coordination between Operations, Finance, Support, and Engineering for timely issue resolution Establish escalation protocols across internal teams and external partners 7. Process optimization & internal efficiency Streamline internal workflows between Operations, Support, QA, and Engineering Reduce friction in partner integrations and service delivery Introduce automation and tooling where possible to improve efficiency Ensure documentation and SOPs are maintained and followed 8. Performance, analytics & member insight Define and track KPIs for growth, partner performance, operational efficiency, and member experience Build dashboards and reporting systems for visibility across stakeholders Use member data and insight to drive personalization, offers, and lifetime value — not just reporting 9. Compliance, trust & risk management Work with Legal and Compliance teams to ensure all partner agreements meet regulatory requirements Own trust & safety and fraud risk across bookings and payments (booking fraud, fake inventory, chargebacks, refund abuse) Ensure operational processes align with compliance standards, and identify and mitigate operational risks What we're looking for Required Direct experience building and growing a premium travel, wellness, or lifestyle-services marketplace — a multi-sided platform connecting members with third-party providers (e.g., wellness retreats and clinics, spas, fitness, hotels, flights, accommodations, OTAs, eSIMs, or perks). This is a must-have: you should have personally owned both the operations and the growth of this kind of marketplace model. A premium, members-first service instinct — a track record of delivering exceptional, high-touch experiences for an affluent or experience-driven audience 8–12+ years of experience across operations and commercial/marketplace growth Proven experience managing complex partner ecosystems and multi-sided platforms, including supply acquisition and commercial negotiation Strong leadership experience with the ability to build and scale teams and processes Deep understanding of operational workflows across product, engineering, and customer support Commercial fluency — comfortable owning GMV, take-rate, and unit economics Highly member-centric mindset focused on delivering seamless, premium experiences Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, plus excellent stakeholder management and communication Strong plus Background in wellness, hospitality, luxury travel, or affluent consumer brands Experience in fintech, super apps, or high-growth consumer tech environments Success in this role looks like The wellness-led Lifestyle & Travel vertical grows in supply, demand, and revenue — with healthy unit economics Members choose product for premium wellness and travel experiences, and come back Wellness, lifestyle, and travel services operate reliably with minimal member friction Strong coordination across Product, Engineering, QA, and Support teams Clear visibility into growth, operational performance, and partner quality Fast issue resolution, strong duty of care, and reduced operational incidents Scalable processes that support rapid expansion of services, partners, and markets Continuous improvement driven by member feedback and data insight Hiring process Intro Call with a recruiter Call with CPO/COO Call with Co-founder (optionally) Offer