Director of Product, oDesk Marketplace

Position Summary

oDesk, based in Menlo Park, is changing the way the world works. Every day, thousands of people in over 90 countries connect, work and earn their living on oDesk, and hundreds of new employers look to tap our global talent base and manage their remote team.

We are growing fast, and we are looking for a product rockstar who can take our Marketplace to the next level. You will be the business owner of the marketplace and lead product initiatives with the goal of increasing conversion, hiring, and customer value. You will understand the product needs of our diverse customer segments and verticals, drive the Marketplace product roadmap, and lead the product process from defining requirements to launch to measuring business impact. You will report to the head of Product, and work closely with our PM, Interaction Design, and Engineering Teams.

Some of your more specific areas of responsibility include:

• The reputation system
• Search and merchandising for providers and jobs and companies
• Categories and skills taxonomies
• Usability — turn the marketplace into a world-class web service with first-rate ease of use
• Improve the new user start ratio and the job opening fill ratio
• Measure! Get into the data and really understand the business
• Make your colleagues better product managers

Skills

We are looking for someone with demonstrated experience (8+ years) building and launching world-class web products, and a passion for creating simple, elegant, powerful, and scalable products.

Personal qualities we particularly value are:

• Strategy/business leadership - proven ability to figure out what will move the needle and why, and to get the team behind your ideas
• Process experience - knowledge of product management best practices and experience leading the entire product lifecycle
• Balance of strong analytical skills and business judgment
• Outstanding communication and influencing skills - capacity to lead executives and functional counterparts in setting priorities and solving tough problems across the business
• Quickness and agility - learn fast, think on your feet, take a lot on your plate, and deliver high-quality work product quickly
• Accountability - take responsibility for an outcome and be held to it
• An inclination towards doing less, but doing it simpler and better - fight bloat and scope creep
• The desire to help a fast-growing startup change the world
• Top-tier MBA (or similar finance or consulting experience) nice but certainly not required

About oDesk

oDesk, a rapidly growing Internet start up in Silicon Valley, is at the center of three emerging trends: internet marketplaces, homesourcing and offshore outsourcing. Using the oDesk platform, oDesk buyers are able to hire, manage, and pay talented providers from around the world as if they were in the same office. oDesk is backed by leading Silicon Valley venture firms Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Sigma Partners.

To learn more about oDesk, please visit www.odesk.com/about