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At World of Books, we’re on a mission to become the Planet’s Bookstore. We’re the world’s largest seller of used books, with operations across the UK, US and Hungary, over 1,000 employees and certified B-Corp status.

About the role

As Director of Pricing, you will shape and execute our global pricing strategy across geographies, products and sales channels. Your remit covers the entire pricing lifecycle from purchasing inventory to selling it, across D2C, marketplaces and wholesale.

This is a rare opportunity to lead both strategic direction and day-to-day commercial performance in a fast-moving, data-rich environment with significant headroom for growth.

Key responsibilities

• What books we buy, and in what quantity
• Define which books to acquire and in what volume, using data-led forecasting and customer demand signals to inform sourcing strategy.
• Lead predictive modelling and optimisation to maximise sales, margin and customer satisfaction.
• Establish and manage objective functions for sourcing and inventory decisions to continuously optimise commercial and customer outcomes.

• How much we pay for books
• Own the logic and infrastructure behind buy-price algorithms for all sourcing channels, including consumer and charity acquisitions.
• Lead a cross-functional squad to develop and evolve algorithms that reflect value, demand and conversion potential.
• Apply revenue management to continuously evaluate and refine buy-side pricing, identifying risks and opportunities.
• Implement A/B tests and pricing experiments to evaluate buy price changes and refine inputs over time.

• What price we set on books for each selling channel
• Own strategy for all products and conditions across all channels, ensuring competitiveness and strong unit economics.
• Design and maintain a pricing roadmap balancing long-term improvements with short-term tactical pricing.
• Lead dynamic and rules-based pricing engines using real-time data on demand, inventory, seasonality, competitor pricing and customer behaviour.
• Shape promotional pricing, shipping models and bundles to drive conversion and profitable growth.

• Which channels we sell books on
• Determine optimal sales routes based on performance and product characteristics.
• Define automated channel-allocation logic for commercial effectiveness.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to ensure scalable pricing and channel decisions aligned with growth targets.
• Work with marketing and CRM to use pricing as a lever for trading performance.

• Which books to keep in inventory
• Set pricing-led rules for lifecycle management from listing to markdown or removal.
• Build frameworks to decide retention, discounting or culling based on age, velocity, capacity and space economics.
• Use pricing levers to optimise trading performance and reduce slow-moving stock.
• Act as product owner for pricing and inventory infrastructure, aligning systems and processes with commercial strategy.

Milestones within the first year

• Implement pricing A/B testing to maximise profitability, focusing on average sale price, items per order, average order value and unit profit for top books.
• Establish monitoring and reporting of pricing inputs/outputs, including internal, competitive and macro variables.
• Deliver consistent, rules-based pricing outcomes aligned with documented rules.

Collaborate with the Pricing Product Team to rapidly test, run and deploy new pricing algorithms across all buying and selling channels.

What we’re looking for

Key experience

• Proven leadership in pricing, revenue management or commercial strategy within ecommerce, marketplaces or high-SKU environments (millions of SKUs). Experience with long-tail or catalogue retailing (books, media, consumer goods) is advantageous.
• Strong track record of designing and executing pricing strategies using ML/RL techniques suitable for high-velocity, multi-product environments (e.g., multi-armed bandit).
• Successful collaboration with data science, analytics and engineering teams to develop and refine pricing logic and automation.
• Ability to simplify complex pricing mechanisms for non-technical stakeholders and leaders.
• Experience leading pricing strategy across D2C and third-party marketplaces with understanding of platform dynamics.
• Exposure to international pricing and localisation (UK and US).
• Proficiency in SQL and Python.

Key attributes

• Outstanding leadership to inspire and empower teams.
• Strategic thinker who can solve problems creatively while adapting to change.
• Results-focused with the ability to set goals and deliver quickly in a trading-led environment.
• Strong financial and commercial acumen with understanding of pricing impact on the business.
• High energy, ambition and resilience under pressure.
• Excellent influencing and communication skills to build alignment across stakeholders.

Location

• London (approximately 3 days a week), with some travel to Coventry and West Sussex (UK), Illinois (US), and Hungary on an ad hoc basis.

Why join World of Books?

• Values-driven culture; we work as one team and are customer-obsessed.
• Simplify, move fast, and deliver results with agility and innovation.
• Protect the environment; sustainability is central to what we do.

This is an opportunity to lead game-changing innovation in our marketplace, shaping how millions of books are bought and sold every year.

Seniority level

• Director

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Business Development, Strategy/Planning, and Sales
• Industries: Online and Mail Order Retail