Job description

ABOUT CARDLESS Cardless is building the infrastructure for the world's best companies to design, build, and launch financial products. Companies like Coinbase and Bilt use Cardless to create credit cards that feel entirely their own. In an industry where branded financial products usually mean shared logos and shared control, Cardless is built to disappear. Our APIs and components shape the journey from the first application to every purchase, reward, and moment of support that follows, while we handle lending, compliance, and operations behind the scenes. In September 2025, we raised a $60 million Series C led by Spark Capital, bringing our total funding to $170 million. The team is over 70 people and scaling toward profitability by year-end 2026. We're looking for kind, humble people with high standards and low egos. We take the work seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. We see what could be improved, make it so, and leave every product, system, and team better than we found it. ABOUT THE ROLE You will work extremely closely with, and act as a force multiplier to the founder and president: taking on our hardest, most complex, most interdisciplinary problems… to make sure the company runs well and wins!! YOU SHOULD EXPECT THE ROLE TO PROGRESS AS FOLLOWS: 1. First day: Welcome to the team. 👋 2. Shadowing: Shadow the founder to understand how the company works, and rapidly accumulate context on our business. You’ll join exec team meetings, external pitches, interviews, product workshops – travel to visit partners and customers, and go very very deep on the most important problems. 3. Solve your first problem: You’ll eventually get bored and feel compelled to dive in and start solving problems. At this stage you take on your first problem and solve it. This could be anything across the business… rebuilding an operational or product process, designing a new product feature, creating a new business line, etc… 4. Take on harder and harder problems: You’ll continue operating as a problem solver across the business, and as you become formidable, the problems will grow more complicated and more impactful. Over time, you may fall in love with a specific part of the company and move into it full-time, or help us launch a new business line, or even (if /when the time is right) leave to start a company! WHY YOU SHOULD NOT JOIN: - This is an IC role – if you’re looking to manage large teams of people, this role is not for you. If you’re looking to become a very effective problem solver, and learn founder leadership skills, this could be the right place! - We plan to hire multiple CoS’in the company. If it’s important to you to be the only person in this role at the company, this role is not for you. However, we run our team lean, to ensure a very healthy opportunity: people ratio so opportunity will still abound! - We work very hard – long hours, often on weekends (often on Sundays but never on Saturdays). We understand that winning takes a level of intensity and dedication that others are simply unwilling to. - Wherever you are weak, this role will push you to grow. You will face unfamiliar problems that demand you learn quickly and improve continuously. Learning and growing is kind of painful, and this role expects you to lean into that discomfort, over and over again. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR: - Intellectual vitality, you are endlessly curious about how to build a great business, and more broadly, how the worlds of finance and technology work. - Extremely driven – motivated to build an amazing company and an incredible career, because you love seeing what you’re capable of. - 5+ years experience doing hard things: this could be through any of a wide range of experiences: consulting, banking, engineering, product, operating, founding a company, taking over a family business, etc… - Analytical and not afraid of data, but also able to think intuitively. - You use writing as a tool to think precisely and clarify messy problems. - Technical. It’s a way of thinking, not a store of knowledge (especially these days). - Move quickly and take ownership, by default. You feel pain when something isn’t working well and an almost compulsive desire to fix it. - Humility. COMPENSATION This role has an annual starting salary range of $150,000 - $235,000 + equity + benefits (see below). Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience, and specific work location. BENEFITS 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 Jackson Square. We’re in the office at least three days a week, and most of us are there more than that, because we do our best thinking and building together in person. We’re looking for someone who’s genuinely excited to be there alongside the team.

Requirements

Must-haves

You will work extremely closely with, and act as a force multiplier to the founder and president: taking on our hardest, most complex, most interdisciplinary problems… to make sure the company runs well and wins!!
YOU SHOULD EXPECT THE ROLE TO PROGRESS AS FOLLOWS:
First day: Welcome to the team. 👋
We work very hard – long hours, often on weekends (often on Sundays but never on Saturdays). We understand that winning takes a level of intensity and dedication that others are simply unwilling to.
Intellectual vitality, you are endlessly curious about how to build a great business, and more broadly, how the worlds of finance and technology work.
Extremely driven – motivated to build an amazing company and an incredible career, because you love seeing what you’re capable of.
5+ years experience doing hard things: this could be through any of a wide range of experiences: consulting, banking, engineering, product, operating, founding a company, taking over a family business, etc…
Analytical and not afraid of data, but also able to think intuitively.
You use writing as a tool to think precisely and clarify messy problems.
Technical. It’s a way of thinking, not a store of knowledge (especially these days).
Move quickly and take ownership, by default. You feel pain when something isn’t working well and an almost compulsive desire to fix it.

Nice-to-haves

None flagged.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

Platform: ashby
Effort: quick

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Dental

Vision

401k

Pto

Parental Leave