Head of Marketplace

Candide is a growing marketplace platform enabling people to progress their passion for plants and nature through the application of technology. We have offices in Bristol (UK) and Cape town (South Africa) with over 50 staff members.

 We openly put our people first and we’re proud to be building a team that genuinely loves working and learning together. We know how important culture is, so have a read to see if you think we might be a good fit.

We are looking for an experienced, innovative and collaborative leader to drive our global Marketplace Strategy - our customers in this area of Candide are everyone who buys and grows plants at home, whether indoors or outdoors. Our efforts in this area have been focused on building a warm community centred around plant knowledge, and in 2019 we also added the ability for the community to buy, sell and swap plants with one another. With online plant sales booming due to COVID, we are accelerating our growth strategy to become the largest online plants marketplace in the UK in three years.

The role carries budgetary and team oversight over a cross functional team of product, engineers, marketers and support analysts, to ensure the strategic success of this division. Our ideal candidate has a successful track record building engaging consumer facing digital products to various audiences around the world, who understands the dynamics of building a highly retentive platform that grows itself organically.

Your Responsibilities

• Support Candide’s CEO by leading the division;
• Ensuring team and customer engagement, and effective communication to stakeholders and teams;
• Establishing and expanding a clear strategy for the Knowledge Community business, aligning market demand with the evolving solution;
• Growing the product globally, weighing market and competitor dynamics to size and execute the win;
• Defining and achieving budgets and growth goals;
• Building clear metrics and tracking performance to goals, adapting approach where necessary to improve market and product performance;
• Lead and grow a cross functional, agile team of 28 people.

Role Measures:

• Successful attainment of business targets and budgets;
• Increased market share, user retention and organic growth;
• Level of engagement and transaction volume by our customers in the Candide platform;
• The depth of Candide services utilised among our customers;
• Positive and fluid engagement with our growth and product teams, stakeholders and within your team.

Your Skills and Experience:

• Leadership experience across product, business development and engineering in an online marketplace or social network. An understanding of the dynamics of building loyal and defensible user base is essential;
• Driven and hungry to succeed;
• Strong and honest influencer with excellent negotiation skills;
• Great communicator;
• Accountable and results driven;
• Continuous learner with interest in mobile apps and technology, the potential of machine learning and advances in product development methods.

Team culture

We work in small, cross-functional teams to turn business goals into product features. Great communication means there is an inherent no-blame culture, and our collaborative and inclusive structure encourages everyone to share ideas on how we can improve our processes, growth and product. All our teams have a short daily stand-up, this ensures we remain aligned and those who build products stay very close to our customers that enjoy them. To encourage innovation, we hold monthly hack days where everyone can build something new that falls outside our current roadmap - an idea, a campaign or even a small product - with whomever they like.

Our values

For plant lovers

We democratise information about plants by building social connections between people, gathering their knowledge and making it as accessible as possible. We ultimately aim to be the most useful tool in a gardener’s pocket and to accentuate the social, environmental, and physical benefits already associated with gardening.

For the future

We explore new, emerging technologies and constantly adapt to rapidly seize opportunities others have missed. In this way we will bring the gardening industry into the 21st century and secure its relevance in the long-term.

For good

We build on the inherent positivity of our subject matter and protect our “warm and safe community”, which sets us apart. We use our platform to encourage conscious, informed decision-making and work with individuals and companies to progress our values.

What you’ll get from us

• 25 days holiday (+ bank holidays) because the rest of your life is important too
• An extra paid day off to spend among plants
• Regular team socials
• Amazing plant-filled office in Queen Square
• Your choice of equipment
• Pre-paid training budget for whatever you need to do your job more effectively
• Enhanced shared parental leave
• Free fruit in the office

Application process

A successful application typically involves:

A short phone interview

A small take-home assignment

An on-site interview with a few members of the team, and some from other teams

An interview with our CEO

To find out more about Candide, visit candidegardening.com.

Please do not hesitate in contacting recruit@candide.eu if you want to find more before you apply.