Country Managing Director — Digital Marketplace

The mandate

The marketplace is entering a phase in which international growth requires more than translating a website and recruiting sellers remotely. Customers expect local delivery choices, understandable returns, relevant payment methods and effective remedy. Sellers need clear onboarding, settlement and compliance support. Cross-border selection can create immediate breadth, but duties, delivery uncertainty and difficult returns can weaken trust before a local proposition takes hold. The group needs a country operator who can decide what should be local, what can remain regional and which physical touchpoints genuinely improve the model.

The Country Managing Director will carry full accountability for the new country business from London. The remit includes country strategy, profit and cash, seller growth, category development, customer acquisition and retention, fulfilment partnerships, service, regulatory coordination and people. Global teams own core platform and enterprise standards; the Managing Director must translate them into a viable local proposition and influence the central roadmap when country evidence exposes a material gap.

This is a planned new appointment, not a request to reproduce the domestic model. Collection points, return hubs, seller service centres, temporary discovery spaces or other physical formats may be useful, but each must solve a named customer or seller problem. The executive will test those formats with explicit economics and resist creating a store network merely to signal local presence.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in London, the role will lead approximately 1,075 employees and material partners across the United Kingdom and contribute to a wider international operating region. The country team includes seller commercial, category, customer, operations, marketing, finance, legal and people leadership, supported by global product, technology, trust and risk functions.

The seller base will span established brands, specialist retailers, small businesses and cross-border merchants. Their ability to provide content, inventory, delivery, returns and customer communication varies significantly. A successful launch cannot depend on standards that only the largest sellers can meet, nor can inclusion justify weak product or service assurance. The Managing Director must create differentiated onboarding and support while preserving one customer promise.

Physical-format choices are intertwined with density. Collection and return points may reduce failed delivery and increase convenience in some catchments; in others, carrier networks or partner stores already solve the problem. Seller hubs can improve activation if local capability is the constraint, but they can become costly offices with limited use. Decisions must follow customer missions, geography and transaction evidence.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will validate the country thesis. The Managing Director will review category demand, customer expectations, seller supply, delivery and return infrastructure, regulation, payment, competitive behaviour and the economics of local versus cross-border fulfilment. Direct discussions with prospective sellers and customers will test assumptions inherited from the group's home market.

The executive will then define the launch portfolio. Priority categories will have a clear reason to exist, required seller capabilities, fulfilment model, trust controls and contribution pathway. Some cross-border selection may be offered with explicit lead times and duties; categories carrying safety, authenticity, installation or service complexity may require local capability before launch. Assortment breadth will be paced by the organisation's ability to govern it.

Seller acquisition will focus on quality and activation rather than signed accounts. The country team will define onboarding stages, content and compliance requirements, integration options, commercial terms, fulfilment choices and early performance support. Smaller sellers should receive practical tools and transparent expectations. Persistent failure will result in remediation or removal regardless of category pressure.

The Managing Director will test a limited number of physical service formats. A collection-and-return partnership might be compared with a dedicated hub; a seller clinic may run temporarily before any permanent facility; a high-consideration category may use appointment-based discovery without holding broad stock. Tests will measure adoption, customer effort, delivery or return effect, seller value and total cost.

Within twelve months, the country should have a coherent category and seller base, dependable local customer remedy and evidence on which physical formats merit scale. Unit economics should bridge transaction value to retained contribution, fulfilment, service and cash. Lessons suitable for other markets should be codified, but the Managing Director must also state which findings depend on UK-specific infrastructure or behaviour.

Leadership responsibilities

The Managing Director will own the country plan, forecast and operating cadence. They will chair weekly decisions connecting seller availability, customer demand, service, trust, fulfilment and cash, and will escalate central platform constraints with quantified country impact. Growth commitments must distinguish seller sign-up, active selection, customer demand and completed contribution.

The role will build the country leadership team and culture. Global specialists and local operators need clear decision rights, with no important customer issue stranded between them. The executive will assess capability, strengthen succession and ensure front-line seller and service evidence reaches strategic choices quickly.

External representation will include regulators, seller communities, carriers, payment partners and potential physical-format partners. The Managing Director must establish credibility without implying that every discussion will become an exclusive arrangement. Commercial and regulatory commitments require documented authority and central coordination where they create wider precedent.

Measures of success

The board will assess completed contribution, active buyers, repeat, seller activation and retention, available quality selection, fulfilment performance, returns, customer contacts and cash. Cross-border and local transactions will be reported separately enough to understand their economics and service. Seller count and gross merchandise value will not be stand-alone success measures.

Format tests will be evaluated through utilisation, customer effort, failed-delivery or return improvement, seller activation and full cost. Trust measures include complaint, product intervention, refund and remedy. Organisational success will include leadership strength, central-country decision speed and a credible path from launch investment to sustainable economics.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring at least 28 years of general management in marketplaces, e-commerce, retail, logistics or another two-sided platform. They must have held a substantial country or regional profit-and-loss remit and led a market launch or reset involving sellers, customers and local operations. Experience with both cross-border and domestic marketplace models is required.

The board will look for evidence of narrowing an initial category thesis, creating seller activation rather than accumulating registrations and testing a physical service format against a partner alternative. Candidates should understand payment, settlement, fulfilment, returns, trust and regulatory dependencies well enough to own the complete country outcome.

The successful leader will be entrepreneurial without being careless with precedent or customer promise. They must influence global product teams, communicate directly with sellers and regulators and stop a visible expansion idea when evidence is weak. Cultural fluency and experience transferring learning across markets are important.

Compensation and appointment terms

The anticipated annual base is GBP 350,000–520,000, accompanied by annual incentive and long-term participation tied to country and enterprise outcomes. Final placement will reflect relevant launch scale, marketplace depth and current arrangements. Mobility support and treatment of forfeited awards will be evaluated individually.

Confidentiality

The marketplace is unnamed because the country plan, partner discussions and physical-format tests are not public. Detailed market and product information will be disclosed to shortlisted candidates after identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applications must anonymise seller data, regulator discussions and unpublished launch plans from other organisations.