--- title: 'Head of Recruiting at Cardless' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-recruiting-cardless-san-francisco-thwa4qrfq5jr' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-14' --- # Head of Recruiting at Cardless - **Company:** Cardless - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Compensation:** $170k–$230k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-01-20 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/cardless/4d99ee58-3c0b-49b7-9da7-98686171caaf/application **Skills:** Full-cycle recruiting, Recruiting function scaling, Hiring strategy, Employer branding, Candidate sourcing > The Head of Recruiting will build and lead the full-cycle recruiting function at Cardless, a fast-growing fintech company. This hands-on role involves owning the hiring plan, establishing processes, and building a lean team to support engineering, operations, and go-to-market efforts. ## Job description At Cardless, we're building a credit card and loyalty platform that consumer businesses use to engage their customers. We've launched over a dozen credit card programs, including for Coinbase, Bilt, 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 outsized 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 $150M in equity funding from top venture capital firms including Spark Capital, American Express, Activant Capital, and more. The Job We're looking for a Head of Talent to build and lead recruiting at Cardless. You'll report directly to our COO and work closely with our founders. This isn't a function that gets delegated and forgotten — leadership is in the weeds on hiring because we believe it's the highest-leverage thing we do. At our stage, each hire over the next year can meaningfully change the trajectory of the business. We want someone who feels the weight of that. This is our first full-time recruiting hire, but you won't be starting from scratch. We've used outsourced recruiters and fractional help to build a foundation — your job is to take it from here and make it yours. You'll have the opportunity to shape the function in your vision while inheriting some momentum. We're planning to grow significantly over the next year. You'll own that hiring plan end-to-end: sourcing, closing, and building a small team to give yourself leverage. This is a hands-on role — we're not looking for someone who wants to manage from above. ## Responsibilities - Own full-cycle recruiting across all functions, with a near-term focus on engineering, operations, and GTM. - Build the recruiting function: hiring plan, process, tooling, employer brand, candidate experience — all of it. - Build and lead a lean recruiting team that scales thoughtfully with hiring demand, prioritizing efficiency, strong processes, and clear ownership over simply adding headcount. - Partner with hiring managers to define roles, calibrate on candidates, and close offers. - Be a closer. Do extraordinary things on an ordinary basis to get candidates over the line. We're competing for great people in a highly competitive market. - Move fast. We have aggressive hiring goals and need someone who can keep pace. ## Requirements - 5+ years of recruiting experience at tech companies, with meaningful time spent on engineering roles. - Experience building or significantly scaling a recruiting function — or you're a senior IC ready to step up and own it. - Hands-on. You're not looking to manage a team from a distance; you want to be in the work. - High bar for talent. You know what great looks like and you're not willing to settle. - Creative and relentless closer. You don't just follow the playbook — you find new ways to win. - Organized and fast. You can run multiple searches in parallel without dropping balls. - San Francisco-based and excited to be in-office 5 days a week. Before You Apply A few things worth knowing: - We work in the office 5 days a week. We know that's a dealbreaker for some people, and that's okay. - This is an early-stage company. We're ~40 people servicing hundreds of thousands of customers. You'll be building systems that don't exist yet, not optimizing ones that do. If you want structure handed to you, this isn't the right fit. - You'll need to push yourself. We're not going to give you a playbook or check in daily to make sure you're on track. You need to be someone who creates their own direction and holds themselves accountable. - The pace is intense and this role is hands-on. We have aggressive goals and a lot to build — this isn't a 9-to-5. You'll be expected to build out a team, but to give you leverage, not to make you a full-time manager. You'll be sourcing and closing candidates yourself — not just managing a team or running process from above. - We expect out-of-the-box thinking. If your idea of closing a candidate is a nice phone call and a follow-up email, this job isn't for you. We want someone who texts their candidates, shows up in person, does whatever it takes. Out-of-the-box methods are the only way to achieve out-of-the-box results — in hiring and across the business. ## Compensation This role has an annual starting salary range of $170,000–$230,000 + equity + benefits. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience, and specific work location. ## 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 Location We're headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a beautiful office in the Mission District (near Dolores Park). This role is in-office 5 days a week. ## About Cardless ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Cardless provides an embedded credit card platform with modular APIs and components that enable companies to build and launch branded, full-stack credit card programs. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, led by Activant Capital, November 2024) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2019 - **Founders**: Scott Kazmierowicz (Co-Founder & CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Financial technology – embedded credit cards / co-branded credit card programs - **Target customers**: B2B – enterprise brands and high-growth companies (e.g., Coinbase, Bilt, Alibaba, Qatar Airways) that want to offer native credit card experiences to their customers - **Mission or purpose**: Empower companies to ship credit like they ship product – with full control over how it works, looks, and grows. ## Products & Services - **Embedded Credit Platform (APIs & Pre-built Components)**: A set of modular tools including Application flow, Checkout integration, Card management, Transaction disputes, fraud detection, and compliance (KYC/AML). Companies can embed approvals, rewards, and card management directly into their own app or website. [cardless.com/platform] - **End-to-End Program Operations**: Cardless handles ongoing program management, customer support, transaction processing, settlement, card production, and compliance (PCI DSS Level 1 certified). [cardless.com/platform] - **Decisioning & Feedback Loop**: Combines customer behavior data with network-level signals for underwriting, fraud detection, and reward optimization – adapts in real time. [cardless.com/platform] ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed - **Key Metrics**: - Annual Revenue: $9.8M (estimated, LinkedIn) - Total Funding: $195M across 7 rounds (as of 2024) - Employees: 41 (36.7% YoY growth) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Activant Capital (led Series C), Greycroft, Accomplice, i80 Group, Amex Ventures [linkedin.com, cbinsights.com] - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew 36.7% in the last year - 23 active job postings (+91.7% quarterly growth) - Partnerships with major brands: Coinbase, Bilt, Alibaba, Qatar Airways - Launched international presence in Saudi Arabia ## Competitive Advantages - **True embedded credit, not white-label**: APIs and customizable components allow full control over UX and brand experience, rather than a static co-brand card. - **Real-time data feedback loop**: Combines program-level credit data with user behavior for dynamic underwriting, fraud detection, and reward optimization. - **Full-stack operations**: Covers compliance, card production, customer support, and regulatory requirements (PCI DSS Level 1), reducing go-to-market complexity. - **Trusted by high-profile partners**: Real-world deployments with Coinbase, Bilt, Alibaba, and Qatar Airways provide credibility and network effects. ## Strategic Focus - **Deepen platform capabilities**: Continue building modular components and improving the data feedback loop to help partners optimize engagement. - **Expand enterprise pipeline**: Onboard more large consumer brands seeking to launch or upgrade co-branded credit programs. - **Scale international operations**: Already in Saudi Arabia; likely expansion into other regions, replicating the Qatarr Airways and Alibaba models. ## Why Work Here - **Culture & Work Style**: Cardless believes the best work is done in person. Office in San Francisco with daily lunch provided (dinner for late workers) and $250/month transportation reimbursement for in-office employees. [cardless.com/careers] - **Compensation & Perks**: Competitive salary, meaningful equity, 401(k) plan, top-of-the-line medical/vision/dental insurance. Unlimited PTO with a minimum of 15 days taken per year. [cardless.com/careers] - **Engineering Focus**: "Ship credit like they ship product" – engineers build consumer-facing financial products using modern APIs and infrastructure. The team includes talent from Uber, Robinhood, Chime, Plaid, and Lyft. [linkedin.com] - **Growth Trajectory**: Rapidly hiring (+91.7% quarterly job postings) with a young, scaling company that has raised nearly $200M – offering ownership and impact. ## Sources 1. [cardless.com](https://www.cardless.com/) 2. [cardless.com/platform](https://www.cardless.com/platform) 3. [cardless.com/careers](https://www.cardless.com/careers) 4. [linkedin.com/company/cardless](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardless) 5. [cbinsights.com/company/cardless](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/cardless) ## Other roles at Cardless - [Software Engineer - Full-Stack](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-full-stack-cardless-san-francisco-0m7p6zm0mb0f) — San Francisco, CA - [Strategic Partnerships Manager, Bank & Program Launch](https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-partnerships-manager-bank-program-launch-cardless-san-francisco-cmfscmm3g83y) — San Francisco, CA - [Product Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/product-designer-cardless-san-francisco-r2rtkr3xw8wf) — San Francisco, CA - [Consumer Compliance Manager, Complaints](https://feeny.ai/job/consumer-compliance-manager-complaints-cardless-san-francisco-ff1a8q3y7qx4) — San Francisco, CA - [Program Launch Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/program-launch-manager-cardless-san-francisco-dt96d9rxwjjn) — San Francisco, CA - [Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-cardless-san-francisco-stfyf7wg3vha) — San Francisco, CA - [Manager, Partner Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-partner-growth-cardless-san-francisco-ny1k7f2fh2te) — San Francisco, CA - [Director, Communications](https://feeny.ai/job/director-communications-cardless-san-francisco-15efe97jqswr) — San Francisco, CA - [Director, Product Marketing](https://feeny.ai/job/director-product-marketing-cardless-san-francisco-1jj1jb25y2zq) — San Francisco, CA - [Director, Business Development](https://feeny.ai/job/director-business-development-cardless-san-francisco-7qm0by930v2t) — San Francisco, CA