Director of Marketplace Policy

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About the Role

eBay is seeking a Director of Marketplace Policy to lead the development, governance, and operationalization of item policies across eBay Inc., including our global marketplace, emerging commerce experiences, and subsidiaries.

This leader will oversee a large policy organization responsible for Prohibited & Restricted Items, Product Safety, Intellectual Property, and Counterfeit & Authenticity. The team's mission is to translate complex regulatory, legal, marketplace, and brand risks into clear, enforceable policies that protect customers, enable trusted commerce, and support sustainable marketplace growth.

As eBay continues to expand AI-powered monitoring and enforcement tools, this role will be central to transforming how policy operates. The Director will lead the evolution toward clearer, preventative, and machine-readable policies, ensuring that policy intent is consistently translated into effective automated controls, human decision-making, and customer experiences.

We are looking for an experienced marketplace policy leader who brings outstanding judgment and deep expertise in enforcement. They use advanced tools and have a track record of building hard-working teams. The ideal candidate can balance risk mitigation with customer experience and business impact, navigate complex stakeholder environments, and lead meaningful organizational and operational transformation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Global Policy Strategy & Risk Management

• Own global item policy strategy across Prohibited & Restricted Items, Product Safety, Intellectual Property, and Counterfeit & Authenticity.
• Translate emerging legal, regulatory, market, and brand risks into clear policy positions, requirements, and enforcement recommendations.
• Establish risk-based prioritization frameworks that direct organizational resources toward the highest-impact compliance and marketplace integrity risks.
• Lead complex policy decisions and tradeoffs, balancing regulatory obligations, buyer and seller protection, enforcement feasibility, and commercial impact.
• Ensure consistent policy principles across geographies, categories, and eBay Inc. businesses, while accounting for differences in local regulations and marketplace risk.

2. Policy Development, Clarity & Operationalization

• Own the end-to-end policy lifecycle, including risk intake, policy development, approval, implementation, evaluation, and continuous refinement.
• Develop clear, consistent, and actionable policy frameworks, taxonomies, decision logic, and enforcement requirements that can be implemented across automated systems and human operations.
• Drive the progression toward structured, machine-readable policies that enable more scalable and detailed automated detection and enforcement.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to translate policy intent into technical requirements, including detection criteria, enforcement actions, and appropriate safeguards.
• Advance preventative compliance by making policy requirements easier for sellers to understand and embedding actionable guidance into marketplace experiences before violations occur.

3. AI-Enabled Enforcement & Decision Quality

• Serve as the senior policy partner to Product, Engineering, Analytics, and Operations in the development and continuous improvement of AI-enabled item spotting and control capabilities.
• Define policy requirements and standards for detection and enforcement, ensuring automated and human decisions accurately reflect policy intent.
• Partner with governance and quality teams to improve detection precision and recall, reduce enforcement errors, and minimize unnecessary customer disruption.
• Use insights from enforcement performance, appeals, audits, regulatory reports, brands, and community experts to identify policy gaps and drive targeted improvements.
• Ensure high-impact enforcement decisions incorporate appropriate risk-based safeguards and clear paths for review and correction.

4. Cross-Functional Leadership & Policy Governance

• Serve as a senior policy decision-maker and strategic partner to Legal, Government Relations, Product, Engineering, Operations, Trust & Risk, and marketplace business leaders.
• Lead policy recommendations through established governance forums, ensuring decisions are well-supported, transparent, and appropriately documented.
• Establish clear decision rights, accountability, and escalation processes across the policy lifecycle.
• Partner with the leaders responsible for eBay Live and subsidiaries to ensure item policies and enforcement standards can be implemented consistently across different commerce experiences and platforms.
• Represent the policy group in senior leadership discussions, articulating complex risks, tradeoffs, recommendations, and decisions with clarity.

5. Organizational Leadership & Transformation

• Lead and develop a global organization of policy domain leaders, Policy Managers, and subject-matter experts.
• Build a high-performing, accountable leadership team that operates with clear priorities, strong judgment, effective delegation, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Modernize the policy operating model to improve consistency, speed, scalability, and operational effectiveness.
• Champion the adoption of AI, automation, and self-service capabilities to reduce manual work and enable policy teams to focus on higher-value judgment and risk management.
• Establish a culture of continuous improvement, analytical rigor, constructive challenge, and adaptability as the policy organization evolves.
• Develop organizational capabilities and talent to support an increasingly technology-enabled and globally integrated compliance function.

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of experience leading marketplace policy teams, including substantial responsibility for policy strategy, development, enforcement, or Trust & Safety at a large-scale online marketplace.
• Proven experience leading and developing global teams, including managers and senior policy professionals, with demonstrated success building effective organizational structures and operating models.
• Deep understanding of marketplace rules and enforcement, including prohibited and restricted goods, product safety, intellectual property, counterfeit prevention, or closely related risk domains.
• Demonstrated experience translating complex legal, regulatory, and marketplace risks into clear, scalable policy frameworks and operational requirements.
• Strong understanding of technology-enabled policy enforcement, including automated detection, human moderation, quality evaluation, and appeals.
• Proven ability to make sound decisions in ambiguous, high-stakes situations, balancing risk, customer experience, and organizational outcomes.
• Extensive experience partnering with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, Legal, Operations, and business functions to deliver complex cross-functional outcomes.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to synthesize complex issues, influence executive collaborators, and drive clear decisions.
• Track record of successfully leading organizational transformation, process modernization, and meaningful improvements in policy effectiveness.

Preferred

• Policy leadership experience at a major global commerce marketplace or technology platform.
• Experience developing policy requirements for AI/ML-driven detection, enforcement, or moderation systems.
• Familiarity with policy taxonomies, machine-readable policy, model evaluation, and human-in-the-loop decisioning.
• Experience navigating complex international regulatory environments and working with regulators, brands, or rights owners.
• Demonstrated success improving policy and enforcement outcomes through data-driven decision-making, automation, and continuous feedback loops.

Additional Details

The base pay range for this position is expected in the range below:

$166,000 - $221,600

Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including location, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a target bonus and restricted stock units (as applicable) in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as PTO and parental leave). Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

If hired, employees will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

Remote roles are not eligible for U.S. visa sponsorship.

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at [email protected]. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

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