Director of Communications, Cardless
$175-220k
+ Equity
5 days a week in office (Jackson Square, CA)
Co-branded credit card creation platform
Be an early applicant
Co-branded credit card creation platform
21-100 employees
Be an early applicant
$175-220k
+ Equity
5 days a week in office (Jackson Square, CA)
21-100 employees
Company mission
To make credit more engaging, rewarding, and accessible.
Role
Who you are
- Media Relationships: You already have real relationships with reporters and editors who cover fintech, payments, or the consumer brand space — not a list of names, but people who take your calls
- News Judgment: You know what's actually a story and what isn't, and you can shape a company update into something a reporter wants to write
- Executive Prep: You can sit with an executive before a big interview and make them sound sharper and more confident than they would on their own
- Writing: You write clean, fast, accurate press materials — releases, statements, talking points — without needing multiple rounds of rewrites
- Cross-Functional Coordination: You can run a joint announcement with a partner's comms team, and with Cardless's own product and partnerships teams, without dropping a detail or missing a deadline
- Composure Under Pressure: You stay level-headed and clear-eyed when a story isn't going the way anyone wanted, and you respond rather than react
What the job involves
- As Director of Communications, you will own Cardless's public relations function — building and running the press, media, and executive visibility strategy that gets Cardless, and the partners who trust it, covered accurately and credibly
- You'll pitch journalists, draft releases, and line up the interviews and speaking opportunities that put Cardless leadership in front of the right audiences
- You will work closely with Product Marketing so the story you're telling the press is the same one showing up on the website and in the sales deck, and with Business Development and Account Management so partner launches land publicly the way they were promised to land privately. This role reports to the Chief Business Officer
- This is a hands-on, individual-contributor role: you pitch the press yourself, you write the releases yourself, and you build and maintain your own relationships with the reporters and outlets who cover fintech, payments, and the brands Cardless partners with
- You will be evaluated on the quality, frequency, and accuracy of the coverage you generate, and on how well partner and company milestones land publicly when they matter
- Build and maintain relationships with the reporters, editors, and outlets who cover fintech, payments, and the consumer brands Cardless partners with — before you need something from them, not just when a launch is imminent
- Understand each outlet's beat and angle well enough to pitch stories they'll actually want, instead of sending the same release to everyone on a list
- Track the trade and business press landscape closely enough to know who's writing about card programs, co-brand partnerships, and embedded finance right now
- Represent Cardless credibly in direct conversations with press — on background, on the record, and everything in between
- Identify and pursue the interviews, bylines, panels, and speaking opportunities that put Cardless leadership in front of the audiences that matter
- Prepare executives for press interactions — talking points, likely questions, and the version of the story that's true and compelling at the same time
- Build a cadence of thought leadership that reinforces Cardless's positioning over time, rather than one-off appearances with no throughline
- Work with Product Marketing to make sure what executives say publicly matches what the company says everywhere else
- Plan and execute PR around new brand partnerships going live — Coinbase, Bilt, and whoever's next — including joint announcements co-owned with the partner's own communications team
- Navigate partner comms approval processes so joint announcements land on time, accurately, and in a way both companies are comfortable with
- Turn each partner launch into a press moment that reinforces Cardless's broader market narrative, not just a standalone announcement
- Coordinate timing across press, product, and partnerships so a launch lands as one coherent moment instead of a scattered series of updates
- Draft and manage press releases, media kits, and briefing documents, keeping them accurate and current as the company and product evolve
- Track coverage and the quality of placements — not just volume — and report honestly on what's working and what isn't
- Maintain your own media list and outreach systems so relationship-building is repeatable, not dependent on memory
- Flag reputational risks or brewing negative coverage early, and work with leadership on how to respond before it becomes a bigger problem
Our take
Cardless is a financial technology company attempting to modernise co-branded credit card programs. There are around 200 brands in the U.S. with traditional cards that haven't been modernised in over 20 years. These traditional cards, from the likes of Costco and Sam's, enable shoppers to collect reward points that they can use for things like travel.
Cardless’ co-founders are no strangers to the financial industry. Michael Spelfogel spent time at Visa, and Scott Kazmierowicz worked in banking for Goldman Sachs. Through their experiences, they spotted a gap in the market for simple, credit card loyalty programs that focus on customer experiences. For example, it helps popular consumer brands launch credit cards that can engage with their fans and reward them with bespoke benefits.
The global credit card market is valued at over $100 billion. It's certainly big enough for consumer brands to enter; however, with Cardless acting as a middleman, there's always a risk that it could get frozen out by the big banks. Nevertheless, it secured $60 million in Series C funding in 2025, which will be used to expand its products, partnerships and card programmes.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-30% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Sep 2025
$60m
SERIES C
Nov 2024
$30m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $140m
Company benefits
- 💸 Competitive salaries, equity, and a 401(k) plan
- 🏥 Top-of-the-line healthcare (medical, vision, and dental), with 100% primary coverage and 75% dependent coverage for medical
- 🌴 Unlimited paid time off, with a minimum of 15 days off per year
- 👶 Parental leave for birthing and non-birthing parents
- ✈️ Team trips & offsites
- For in-office employees:
- 🍱 Catered lunch at the office every day, plus plenty of snacks & drinks
- 🚎 $250/month commuter assistance for public transit or our parking garage
- For remote employees:
- 🖥️ $500 remote setup stipend to help you do your best work
Company HQ
Mission District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Scott Kazmierowicz
(Co-Founder & CEO)Former Investment Banker at Allen & Company and Bank of America. Former Software Engineer at Goldman Sachs. BS in Computer Science at Stanford University.
Michael Spelfogel
(Co-Founder & President)Former Data Scientist at Lyft and Rent the Runaway. Formerly in Commercial Card Management at Visa. BASc in Management Science and Engineering at Berkley.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 17 more jobs at Cardless