Senior Director of Product, Reputation

Upwork Inc.’s (Nasdaq: UPWK) family of companies connects businesses with global, AI-enabled talent across every contingent work type including freelance, fractional, and payrolled. This portfolio includes the Upwork Marketplace, which connects businesses with on-demand access to highly skilled talent across the globe, and Lifted, which provides a purpose-built solution for enterprise organizations to source, contract, manage, and pay talent across the full spectrum of contingent work. From Fortune 100 enterprises to entrepreneurs, businesses rely on Upwork Inc. to find and hire expert talent, leverage AI-powered work solutions, and drive business transformation. With access to professionals spanning more than 10,000 skills across AI & machine learning, software development, sales & marketing, customer support, finance & accounting, and more, the Upwork family of companies enables businesses of all sizes to scale, innovate, and transform their workforces for the age of AI and beyond.

Since its founding, Upwork Inc. has facilitated more than $30 billion in total transactions and services as it fulfills its purpose to create opportunity in every era of work. Learn more about the Upwork Marketplace at Upwork.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X; and learn more about Lifted at Go-Lifted and follow on LinkedIn.

Reputation is foundational to Upwork’s marketplace. It is how trust is earned, quality is signaled, and confidence is built between millions of freelancers and clients. As we enter the next phase of our evolution, we’re investing in senior product leadership to transform reputation from fragmented signals into a cohesive, measurable, and non-gameable system that drives marketplace outcomes at scale.

As Senior Director of Product, Reputation, you’ll own the multi-year strategy, roadmap, and execution of Upwork’s reputation systems. You’ll define how users assess quality, build trust, and collaborate safely, directly influencing user confidence, marketplace efficiency, and business performance.

You’ll have clear end-to-end ownership of reputation as a product system, with accountability for measurable marketplace and business impact. This is a builder role, ideal for a senior product leader who has designed and scaled complex reputation or trust systems.

Responsibilities

• Set the long-term vision and strategy for Reputation, translating frameworks into shipped, customer-validated systems. Establish a clear transition from current-state systems to the future architecture.
• Own and deliver multi-quarter initiatives that materially improve user confidence and business outcomes, balancing experimentation with operational rigor.
• Define and track success metrics linking reputation improvements to marketplace and business outcomes.
• Lead and develop a team of Product Managers, setting a high bar for strategy, product craftsmanship, and ownership. Create clarity of decision rights across the reputation domain and serve as the senior product voice with executive stakeholders, distilling critical decisions upward and translating direction back to teams.
• Oversee rollout and adoption so freelancers and clients clearly understand and trust reputation signals.

What it takes to catch our eye

• 12+ years of product management experience, including senior leadership roles owning complex, platform-level systems.

• Deep experience with reputation, trust, identity, ranking, or signal-based systems in large-scale marketplaces or platforms.

• Proven ability to lead transformational product initiatives from strategy through measurable impact.

• Strong cross-functional leadership and comfort operating in ambiguity.

• Builder mindset with strong product judgment and systems thinking.
  
  

Come change how the world works.

At Upwork, you’ll shape the future of work for a global, remote-first workforce, creating economic opportunities for professionals worldwide. While we have a physical office in Palo Alto, we currently hire full-time employees in 34 U.S. states, making it easier than ever to join our mission from wherever you call home.

Our culture is built on trust, risk-taking, customer focus, and excellence, all in service of our core mission: to create economic opportunities so people have better lives. We embrace authenticity and inclusion, encouraging everyone to bring their whole selves to work. Personal and professional growth is a priority here, supported through development programs, mentorship, and our Upwork Belonging Communities.

We’re proud to offer benefits that go beyond the basics, including comprehensive medical coverage for you and your family, unlimited PTO, a 401(k) plan with matching, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Visit our Life at Upwork page to learn more about our values, working principles, and the overall employee experience.

Ready to help shape the future of work? Check out our Careers page to learn more about opportunities at Upwork.