Head of Recruiting
$170k - $230k USD
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.