At Gawker Media, we think commerce is a big part of our future. We're looking for a data wiz to join our commerce team and help us get there!

What Is the Commerce Team?
 You'll be joining an upstart team that is focused on delivering a new type of reader service to our audience — deals on things they love and new products that inspire them. Reader service is our first mission and building a strong revenue stream is the second. Online commerce is only 10% of the total retail market right now but it's growing at a much faster clip than offline. And Gawker Media is read by up to 40 million people a month. Numbers pros will see that we've got significant opportunity to chase. Come join the expedition!

What You'll Be Doing
 You'll own data for the commerce team. This means executing and interpreting reports to inform our next steps in commerce. What's selling well? How's our conversion? What's our margin? How do we learn from these metrics? Your responsibilities will include everything from daily reporting tasks on sales volume to recommendations for improving the quality of our sales to examining new analytics tools. You won't just be looking at numbers. You'll be looking at numbers and recommending courses of action to improve the data. Specifically you'll be:

  • Managing affiliate program reporting (Commission Junction, Linkshare, Skimlinks, etc)
  • Creating master spreadsheets that unify reporting across all our commerce projects
  • Keeping an eye out for traffic and sales changes that can signal opportunities
  • Interpreting data to help us figure out what products our readers like and buy
  • Analyzing and optimizing content for better conversion
  • Tracking prices and setting up price change alerts across retailers
  • Setting up affiliate tracking services and billing information
  • Setting up tests and data collection to answer questions about our commerce activity
  • Setting up reporting worksheets for various members of the commerce team (writers, biz types)
  • Helping to define the core metrics for our commerce success and how best we can measure those
  • Owning a weekly reporting session and making recommendations for improvement each week
  • Being comfortable enough to admit what you know and own up to what you don't — we're all here to learn!

Who You'll Be Working With
 You'll be working with our upstart commerce team. We're a startup group with the resources of a mature company. Think entrepreneurial!

Things You Should Be / Have
 Ideally you're experienced in reporting, Excel, sales data, or other analytical functions from your time at a media, startup, or ecommerce company. You needn't have done this exact job. Rather, we're looking for someone who has a knack for numbers and is interested in applying them to commerce. Long term, you should have an interest in how data can guide strategic decisions and management of a business team.

  • 2 years work experience at digital companies, bonus points if in ecommerce / flash sales
  • Digital native with a lifetime of making, reading, and buying in the online world
  • Excel expertise, including formulas, macros, pivot tables, linked sheets, etc
  • Familiarity with site analytics programs like Google Analytics, Quantcast, Omniture, etc
  • Familiarity with affiliate programs like Commission Junction, Linkshare, Amazon Affiliates
  • Strong writing abilities; you'll be communicating through data and its explanations
  • Comfort working with analytical and less analytical minds in a business
  • General understanding of commerce terms (conversion, margin, discounting, churn, CPA/CPC)
  • Familiarity with the online media space, CMS systems, and how content ‘gets made'
  • Comfort looking ‘under the hood' of a site to examine how the tech and tracking bits fit together
  • Confidence suggesting new ways to organize information and measure the business
  • A strong interest in the fast moving space of ecommerce and where it's going
  • General awesomeness and a few good jokes in your pocket

How to Apply
 This is a full time position at Gawker Media's NYC headquarters with full benefits, including everything from unlimited time off with a sabbatical after four years and fully paid medical insurance to lunch and breakfast once a week.

Send along the following in an email to commercejob AT gawker DOT com:

  • Intro note
  • Resume pasted in plain text in the body of the email
  • Links to your online worlds (Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, your blog, forum profiles, etc)


As well as answers to the following questions:

  1. What's the max number of pageviews Gizmodo has ever received in a single day and when was that day? Explain the steps you took to figure this out.
  2. How might you find the page on Lifehacker that has driven the most affiliate revenue to date?
  3. What's your favorite online retailer?!