Lead talent acquisition at Cardless by partnering with the COO, executing executive-style recruiting, and managing the full recruiting lifecycle.
At Cardless, we’re building a credit card and loyalty platform that consumer businesses use to engage their customers. We’ve launched 14 credit cards, including for Alibaba and Qatar Airways. We help businesses bring imaginative card programs to life, and have pioneered technology to embed credit card features natively into their products.
We value curiosity, humility, and intensity — we move fast and take ownership. This is a place where a motivated, resourceful individual can have an enormous impact on our trajectory. We're headquartered in San Francisco, and have raised about $90M in equity funding from top venture capital firms and angels.
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We're looking for a Senior Recruiter to partner directly with our Chief Operations Officer and lead talent acquisition across the entire company. At Cardless, bringing in great people is one of our most important goals, and we take a distinctively nuanced approach to recruiting. We treat all recruiting like executive recruiting — every hire matters, and we're willing to accept occasional false negatives if it means we can move quickly while avoiding false positives at all costs.
This isn't your typical recruiting role. You'll be responsible for deeply understanding exactly who we need, finding those specific individuals, and building authentic relationships through personalized outreach. This is a hands-on individual contributor role — everyone at Cardless gets their hands dirty, and this position is no exception. You'll be doing the sourcing, the outreach, the screening, and the coordination yourself. Hard work is required, and we need someone who thrives on rolling up their sleeves and delivering results.
What you'll do
Partner with Leadership to Define Talent Needs
Work directly with the COO and executive team to understand the nuanced requirements for each role
Go beyond job descriptions to identify the exact type of person who will thrive at Cardless
Develop detailed candidate personas that capture both technical requirements and cultural attributes
Execute Targeted, Executive-Style Recruiting
Source high-caliber candidates through creative channels and deep market research
Craft personalized outreach that resonates with each individual candidate's motivations
Build genuine relationships with passive candidates who aren't actively looking
Own the Full Recruiting Lifecycle
Manage end-to-end recruiting processes with white-glove service for every candidate
Partner with hiring managers to design thoughtful interview processes that assess for both competence and culture
Move quickly without sacrificing quality — speed and precision are equally important
Build Scalable Recruiting Infrastructure
Develop systems and processes that allow us to maintain our high-touch approach as we grow
Create compelling employer brand content that attracts the right people
Establish talent pipelines for critical roles before we need them
Important Traits
- You understand that great recruiting is about quality, not quantity. You know how to identify truly exceptional candidates and would rather leave a role open than make a mediocre hire.
- Attention to detail. You craft thoughtful, personalized messages and create candidate experiences that reflect our values. You know that how we recruit says everything about who we are as a company.
- Effective in high-stakes rooms. You're comfortable presenting to executives, pushing back when needed, and advocating for both the business and candidates. You can navigate complex stakeholder dynamics with grace.
- Interdisciplinary curiosity. You genuinely enjoy learning about different functions and can speak intelligently about roles ranging from fraud analysts to product managers. You ask great questions and admit when you don't know something.
Requirements
- 7+ years of recruiting experience, with a proven track record of hiring exceptional talent in competitive markets
- Experience with executive search or boutique recruiting where relationship-building and personalization are paramount
- Demonstrated ability to recruit across diverse functions — from engineering to operations to finance
- Strong business acumen and the ability to deeply understand role requirements beyond surface-level skills
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills — your outreach messages should make candidates want to respond
- Self-starter who thrives in ambiguity and can build processes from scratch
- Experience in fintech, B2B platforms, or high-growth startups is a plus but not required
Benefits
We're headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a beautiful office in the Mission District. We're proud to offer our team excellent benefits:
💸 Meaningful Start-up equity
🏥 100% health, vision & dental primary coverage
➕ 75% health, vision & dental dependent coverage
🍱 Catered lunches
🚎 $250/month Commuter benefit
👶 Parental leave
✈️ Team building events & happy hours
🌴 Flexible PTO with a minimum of 15 days off per year
🖥️ Apple equipment
💸 401k plan
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Cardless employees are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and to provide proof of vaccination prior to their first day. Cardless is an equal opportunity employer, and we value a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.
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