VP of Marketplace

About Espresa:
Espresa is the sole personal benefits platform delivering a global, all-in-one experience for HR, people teams, and employees. Our core focus on Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs), complemented by modular solutions for total well-being, recognition, and community, empowers Great Places to Work® and elevates HR teams.

Join our dynamic team of tenacious builders, designers, and people igniters as we transform the personal benefits industry.

The Role

Espresa seeks a VP of Marketplace to join its executive team, taking ownership of the strategic vision, commercial performance, and operational evolution of the Espresa Marketplace. This high-impact, cross-functional leadership position is ideal for an individual who thinks like a general manager, operates with a merchant's instincts, and thrives at the nexus of partnerships, product, and business development.

The Marketplace is a key growth opportunity for Espresa. This leader will be instrumental in evolving it from a simple catalog into a curated, dynamic, and commercially successful ecosystem that delivers substantial value to employees, vendor partners, and clients.

This executive role involves close collaboration with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, Marketing, Sales, Finance, and senior leadership.

What You'll Own

Marketplace Strategy & Vision

• Define and execute a long-term marketplace strategy aligned with Espresa’s overall product and business objectives.
• Develop a distinct point of view on assortment, curation, and merchandising that embodies Espresa’s wellness philosophy.
• Establish the marketplace as a key differentiator for Espresa, showcasing platform quality and innovation to prospective clients.

Vendor Partnerships & Ecosystem Development

• Source, negotiate, and manage strategic vendor relationships across wellness, retail, services, experiences, and more.
• Cultivate a partner ecosystem where vendors perceive Espresa as a high-value distribution channel driving meaningful engagement and revenue.
• Develop exclusive promotions, preferred partnerships, and long-term commercial agreements to create a competitive advantage.

Financial Performance

• Oversee marketplace revenue, margin, and contribution to overall company financial performance.
• Define a clear pathway to sustainable fintech revenue, targeting approximately 10% gross margin over time.
• Establish, track, and report on key performance metrics, continuously optimizing economics across the partner and employee ecosystem.

Operational Excellence & Scalability

• Collaborate with internal teams to drive automation in vendor onboarding, catalog management, fulfillment, reporting, and reconciliation.
• Ensure operational complexity does not scale linearly with marketplace growth.
• Build robust processes, systems, and team structures to enable efficient marketplace expansion.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Act as the internal champion for marketplace priorities, influencing product investment decisions and roadmap.
• Align stakeholders across Product, Engineering, CS, Marketing, Sales, and Finance around marketplace goals.
• Build and lead a high-performing marketplace team, including a senior operational hire and existing staff.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of experience in marketplace, platform, or two-sided business models, ideally including vendor/partner management and P&L ownership.
• Proven success in building and scaling a marketplace or curated product ecosystem.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to structure and negotiate partnership agreements.
• Deep understanding of marketplace economics, unit economics, and fintech or payment-adjacent revenue models.
• Excellent cross-functional collaborator adept at influencing without authority and driving executive alignment.
• Strong merchandising taste and the ability to make clear curatorial decisions.
• Comfortable with operational details while maintaining a strategic perspective.
• Experience in HR tech, benefits, wellness, or consumer platforms is a plus.

Equal Opportunity Employer:
Espresa is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Espresa’s Benefits:
Espresa offers a comprehensive benefits package competitive with Silicon Valley/Bay Area employers, including health, retirement, a Lifestyle Spending Account, generous PTO, and more.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

For US Based Candidates: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

Show us how your mission and vision shine in you. We welcome wonderful, kind, and bright humans!