docs: present organization as an operating model rather than a research report

docs/organization/structure.mdx

@@ -1,101 +1,131 @@
 ---
 title: Structure
-description: Distinguish Eldorado’s publicly evidenced organization from advertised roles and planning assumptions.
+description: Eldorado’s organizational operating model, departments, teams and responsibilities.
 ---
 
 import ArchifyDiagram from '@site/src/components/ArchifyDiagram';
 
-**Research snapshot: 2026-10-02.** This is a public-evidence reconstruction for AI strategy planning, **not a verified employee roster** or an internally approved organization chart.
+This operating model organizes Eldorado around six departments: **Product, Technology, Operations, Marketing, Finance & Accounting, and HR & Administration**. Leadership aligns their priorities around marketplace growth, customer trust and efficient delivery.
 
-## What is known
+## Leadership
 
-Eldorado names **Vladas Jurkevičius — co-founder and CEO** and **Lukas Deksnys — co-founder and COO** on its official About page.[1]
+| Role | Leadership | Responsibility |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Chief Executive Officer | Vladas Jurkevičius | Company direction, business performance, strategic priorities and executive alignment. |
+| Chief Operating Officer | Lukas Deksnys | Marketplace operations, customer service, resolution quality and operational performance. |
 
-Its official careers site uses seven hiring categories: **Management, Product, Technology, Operations, Marketing, Finance & Accounting, and HR & Administration**. Those labels are directly evidenced; treating them as six peer departments beneath Management is a planning arrangement, not a published reporting hierarchy.[4]
+Functional leaders translate company priorities into departmental plans. Team leads own execution, people development and service quality within their teams.
 
-### Evidence legend
+## Organization overview
 
-- **E — Publicly evidenced:** a named leader, team, function or careers category explicitly appears in an official source. This does not establish every reporting relationship.
-- **J — Job-advertised:** a vacancy describes a role, mandate or reporting line. The position may be unfilled or newly created.
-- **A — Assumed:** a proposed grouping or missing team boundary used for planning, not a claim about Eldorado’s current structure. Dashed connectors identify assumed placements.
+<ArchifyDiagram name="organization-structure" title="Eldorado organization structure" />
 
-## Department overview
-
-<ArchifyDiagram name="organization-structure" title="Eldorado organization — evidence and assumptions" />
-
-**Text alternative:** Management is shown above Product, Technology, Operations, Marketing, Finance & Accounting, and HR & Administration. All six placements beneath Management are assumed. The department names come from the careers taxonomy; the notes in the viewer identify evidenced teams and proposed subdivisions. This view does not assign every function directly to the CEO or COO.
+**Management coordinates the six departments.** Each department has a clear business responsibility and a set of teams that deliver it.
 
 ## Departments and teams
 
-The following separates **named teams** from **roles, capabilities and domains**. A function mentioned in a vacancy is not automatically a separately staffed team.
+### Product
 
-| Department / function | Publicly evidenced teams, roles or domains | Assumed completion for planning |
-| --- | --- | --- |
-| **Management** | **E:** CEO Vladas Jurkevičius and COO Lukas Deksnys. **J:** CTO and CMO are referenced as reporting managers.[1][8][12] CFO is advertised.[5] No incumbent names are inferred for those three roles. | **A:** a leadership coordination layer across the six functions. Exact executive reporting lines, Board membership and decision rights remain unverified. |
-| **Product** | **E:** Order/Orders team; Categories design team, with Boosting & Currency scope; Data Team appears in the ranking Data Scientist vacancy metadata. Data classification and product design evidence.[9][13][14] **J:** Sellers and Operations product-owner domain, including Seller Portal, integrations, onboarding, balances/withdrawals, invoicing and support tooling.[15] | **A:** treat Sellers & Operations as a cross-functional product squad for planning, not a proven standalone team. Do not duplicate Data as a separate peer department. |
-| **Technology** | **J:** Head of Engineering → Group Engineering Managers → Engineering Managers → engineers. AI Architect reports to CTO and starts solo. Technical Architect is named as an infrastructure/security partner; IT Engineer is advertised for identity, device management and internal SaaS.[6][8][10] | **A:** CTO → Head of Engineering. Proposed shared platform/reliability and security capability groups, with staffing and reporting unverified. Do not turn AI Architect into an established AI department. |
-| **Operations** | **E:** Customer Support, Trust & Resolution, Risk & Fraud. **J:** QA Specialist (Operations) reports directly to COO; separate support/resolution Team Lead mandates cover specialist teams.[11][17][18] | **A:** COO ownership of the wider Operations function and its team-lead escalation chain. Only the QA Specialist’s direct COO line is explicit in the reviewed sources. |
-| **Marketing** | **J:** Brand Team Lead reports to CMO. **E:** the wider Marketing team names Creative, SEO, PPC & Affiliate, Influencer, and CRM; brand scope includes organic social, community and brand partnerships.[12] | **A:** model these named disciplines as planning workstreams under Marketing. Separate team managers, headcounts and each discipline’s direct CMO line are not established. |
-| **Finance & Accounting** | **E:** Finance team / hiring category. **J:** CFO remit includes planning, reporting, cash/capital, tax, compliance, financial risk and payments; it describes partnership with CEO and Board, not an explicit reporting line.[5] | **A:** FP&A; Accounting/Tax/Controls; Treasury/Payment Operations as three capability groups. These are inferred subdivisions, not proven staffed teams. Financial risk is not the same thing as the Operations Risk & Fraud team. |
-| **HR & Administration** | **E:** Talent Acquisition team / role category. **J:** full-cycle IT and non-IT recruitment, partnering with hiring managers.[16] | **A:** People Operations and Office/Administration alongside Talent Acquisition. Separate teams and the HR leader’s reporting line remain unverified. |
+**Purpose:** improve the buyer and seller experience and turn marketplace opportunities into valuable product capabilities.
 
-The Sellers and Operations posting establishes a **product domain**, not a named Sellers department. Its mandate crosses seller-facing features, operational tooling and marketplace infrastructure.[15]
+| Team | Responsibilities |
+| --- | --- |
+| Orders | Purchase and post-purchase journeys, order status, delivery experience, dispute flows, feedback and loyalty. |
+| Categories | Category experiences, including Boosting and Currency, discovery, conversion and category-specific user journeys. |
+| Sellers & Operations | Seller Portal, seller integrations, onboarding and verification, balances and withdrawals, invoicing and operational tooling. |
+| Data & Intelligence | Product analytics, experimentation, offer ranking, recommendations and decision support. |
+| Product Design | User research, interaction design, design consistency and accessible buyer and seller experiences across product teams. |
 
-## Reporting lines supported by vacancies
+Product Owners, Designers and Tech Leads work together on each product area. Product owns priorities and outcomes; Technology owns engineering execution and technical quality.
 
-<ArchifyDiagram name="organization-reporting" title="Eldorado reporting lines — advertised and assumed" />
+### Technology
 
-**Read arrows as manager → role/team.** Solid **J** connectors are explicitly described in vacancies. The dashed **A** link between CTO and Head of Engineering is the only inferred link in this diagram. Separate rows are not connected because their upward reporting lines were not established.
+**Purpose:** build and operate a secure, reliable marketplace and improve the effectiveness of engineering.
 
-| Manager / leader | Role or team below it | Status and scope |
-| --- | --- | --- |
-| Head of Engineering | Group Engineering Manager | **J:** explicitly reports directly to Head of Engineering; the vacancy describes managing 4–5 Engineering Managers.[6] |
-| Group Engineering Manager | Engineering Manager | **J:** explicitly named manager in the Engineering Manager vacancy.[7] |
-| Engineering Manager | Software engineers | **J:** leads a team of around five engineers. This is the advertised span, not a count of all current engineering teams.[7] |
-| CTO | AI Architect | **J:** explicitly direct; a new individual-contributor role, starting solo with a possible future team.[8] |
-| COO | QA Specialist (Operations) | **J:** explicitly direct; independent quality work across Customer Support, Trust & Resolution, and Risk & Fraud.[11] |
-| CMO | Brand Team Lead | **J:** explicitly direct; brand, organic social, community and brand partnerships remit.[12] |
-| Customer Support / Trust & Resolution Team Leads | Their specialists | **J:** support/resolution leadership advert describes teams of 5–10 specialists; the resolution-specific advert also states 5–10. Their own upward manager is not stated.[17][18] |
-| CTO | Head of Engineering | **A:** plausible technology reporting arrangement, retained only as a planning assumption. |
+| Team / function | Responsibilities |
+| --- | --- |
+| Product Engineering | Develop and maintain marketplace capabilities in cross-functional product teams. |
+| Platform & Reliability | Shared platform services, delivery infrastructure, observability, availability and performance. |
+| Architecture & Security | Technical standards, system design, infrastructure security and secure engineering practices. |
+| Quality Engineering | Test strategy, automation, release quality and defect prevention. |
+| AI Enablement | AI-assisted engineering workflows, developer tools, adoption, standards and safe use of AI. |
+| Internal IT | Identity and access, employee devices, internal systems, software administration and joiner–mover–leaver processes. |
 
-Product Owner, Tech Lead and Product Designer are described as collaborating on product direction. That is evidence of cross-functional work, **not** evidence that one line-manages the others.[13][14]
+The CTO owns technology direction. The Head of Engineering leads engineering delivery through Group Engineering Managers and Engineering Managers. The AI Architect coordinates AI enablement across engineering, working with Architecture & Security and team leaders.
 
-## What this means for AI strategy
+### Operations
 
-**Research interpretation, not an approved roadmap:** use the evidenced organizational owners rather than inventing one central AI department.
+**Purpose:** keep marketplace trading dependable and resolve customer issues fairly and efficiently.
 
-- **Engineering enablement:** the AI Architect vacancy focuses on engineering output, adoption, standards and security under the CTO—not ownership of every business AI initiative.[8]
-- **Marketplace intelligence:** Product/Data has an advertised ranking and recommendations remit, including experimentation and learning-to-rank.[9]
-- **Operations quality:** operational QA explicitly includes auditing AI-handled support and LLM-assisted scoring; customer support leadership includes AI-assisted support and automation.[11][17]
-- **Planning assumption:** coordinate these three areas with Product, Operations, Technology and Finance owners. Whether to create a cross-company AI steering group is a future decision, not a finding about current organization.
+| Team | Responsibilities |
+| --- | --- |
+| Customer Support | Buyer and seller assistance, knowledge management, self-service and support workflow automation. |
+| Trust & Resolution | Disputes, appeals, refunds, warranties, chargebacks and complex customer cases. |
+| Risk & Fraud | Transaction and account risk, fraud prevention, investigations and operational controls. |
+| Operational Quality | Independent case reviews, quality standards, calibration, service accuracy and improvement tracking across operational teams. |
 
-## Limits and validation questions
+The COO coordinates Operations. Team leads manage specialists and daily service delivery. Operational Quality reports directly to the COO and reviews quality across teams.
 
-- **No complete internal chart was found in the reviewed public sources.** This is not a claim that none exists. Research prioritized official About, careers, vacancy and legal pages; it is not an exhaustive employee or vacancy census.
-- **Job postings are time-bound recruitment evidence.** A vacancy can describe a future role or team. Names, staffing, budgets and every executive reporting line still need company confirmation.
-- **No reliable total headcount is asserted.** The careers homepage itself contains both “150+” and “200+” descriptions; do not use either to derive department sizes.[2]
-- **Legal entities are not departments.** The Terms of Service names GWD Processing FZCO, Eldorado Sales LLC and Halfway House OÜ collectively as Eldorado. This establishes contracting language, not a parent/subsidiary hierarchy or the employing entity of each team.[3]
-- **Keep scope distinctions:** marketplace Risk & Fraud, financial risk, AI security, and corporate compliance may collaborate but should not be collapsed into one assumed reporting chain.
+### Marketing
 
-Before using this as an operating model, confirm: **(1)** which advertised roles are filled, **(2)** executive and functional reporting lines, **(3)** product squad membership and engineering matrix, **(4)** ownership of Payments, Legal/Compliance and Data, and **(5)** the real team roster and capacity. Replace each **A** only when evidence is supplied.
+**Purpose:** attract and retain customers, build the Eldorado brand and grow marketplace demand.
 
-## Sources
+| Team / workstream | Responsibilities |
+| --- | --- |
+| Brand & Community | Brand positioning, campaigns, organic social, community and brand partnerships. |
+| Creative | Campaign concepts, visual assets and performance creative. |
+| SEO | Organic discovery, search visibility and content performance. |
+| PPC & Affiliate | Paid acquisition, affiliate channels and return on marketing investment. |
+| Influencer | Creator relationships, influencer programs and campaign delivery. |
+| CRM | Customer lifecycle communication, retention, reactivation and campaign personalization. |
 
-[1] https://www.eldorado.gg/about-us — Eldorado About us
-[2] https://careers.eldorado.gg — Eldorado Careers homepage
-[3] https://www.eldorado.gg/terms-of-service — Eldorado Terms of Service
-[4] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs — Eldorado Jobs — official hiring categories
-[5] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8394692-chief-financial-officer — Chief Financial Officer
-[6] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8376024-group-engineering-manager — Group Engineering Manager
-[7] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8290012-engineering-manager — Engineering Manager
-[8] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8175478-ai-architect — AI Architect
-[9] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8261309-data-scientist-offer-ranking-recommendations — Data Scientist (Offer Ranking & Recommendations)
-[10] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8363463-it-engineer — IT Engineer
-[11] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8358613-qa-specialist-operations — QA Specialist (Operations)
-[12] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8450323-brand-team-lead — Brand Team Lead
-[13] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8404928-product-designer-orders-team — Product Designer (Orders team)
-[14] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8253165-product-designer — Product Designer
-[15] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8389376-product-owner-sellers-and-operations — Product Owner (Sellers and Operations)
-[16] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8487069-talent-acquisition-partner-junior-mid — Talent Acquisition Partner (Junior - Mid)
-[17] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8381712-customer-support-team-lead — Customer Support Team Lead
-[18] https://careers.eldorado.gg/jobs/8483510-trust-resolution-team-lead — Trust & Resolution Team Lead
+The CMO coordinates Marketing. The Brand Team Lead owns Brand & Community, with shared support from Creative and the other marketing workstreams.
+
+### Finance & Accounting
+
+**Purpose:** maintain financial control, support business decisions and keep marketplace money flows dependable.
+
+| Team / function | Responsibilities |
+| --- | --- |
+| Financial Planning & Analysis | Budgets, forecasts, profitability, management reporting and investment analysis. |
+| Accounting, Tax & Controls | Accounting, financial reporting, tax, audit coordination and internal controls. |
+| Treasury & Payment Operations | Cash management, reconciliation, payout oversight, payment-provider coordination and financial risk. |
+
+The CFO coordinates Finance & Accounting and works with executive leadership on business performance. Finance, Operations and Product share responsibility for effective payment and withdrawal processes, each within its own area of expertise.
+
+### HR & Administration
+
+**Purpose:** help teams attract, develop and retain people and provide an effective working environment.
+
+| Team | Responsibilities |
+| --- | --- |
+| Talent Acquisition | Recruitment, candidate experience, hiring coordination and workforce demand support. |
+| People Operations | Employee onboarding, development, performance processes, policies and employee experience. |
+| Office & Administration | Workplace services, office operations and administrative coordination. |
+
+HR partners with department leaders on team capacity and development. People Operations works with Internal IT on employee onboarding, role changes and offboarding.
+
+## Leadership and delivery structure
+
+<ArchifyDiagram name="organization-reporting" title="Eldorado leadership and delivery structure" />
+
+The diagram shows management responsibility from leader to role or team:
+
+- **CTO → Head of Engineering → Group Engineering Managers → Engineering Managers → Product Engineering teams.**
+- **CTO → AI Architect**, coordinating engineering AI enablement.
+- **COO → Operational Quality**, providing independent quality oversight.
+- **CMO → Brand Team Lead**, leading Brand & Community.
+
+Product teams combine product ownership, design, engineering, quality and data expertise. Functional management develops people and professional standards; cross-functional teams deliver business outcomes.
+
+## How the departments work together
+
+| Business outcome | Collaboration |
+| --- | --- |
+| Better buyer experience | Product defines improvements; Technology delivers them; Operations brings customer feedback; Data measures the result. |
+| Stronger seller experience | Product and Technology develop seller tools; Operations supports sellers; Finance manages financial processes. |
+| Safe and trustworthy trading | Risk & Fraud, Trust & Resolution, Architecture & Security, and Finance coordinate controls and incident responses. |
+| Sustainable growth | Marketing develops demand; Product improves conversion and retention; Finance measures profitability. |
+| AI-powered execution | AI Enablement supports engineering; Data & Intelligence develops marketplace intelligence; Operations improves service and quality workflows. |
+
+Department leaders remain accountable for outcomes, controls and service quality as AI becomes part of everyday work.