Director, Communications

San Francisco, CA (On-site)

$175K/yr – $220K/yrDirector/ExecutiveFull time

Posted 2 weeks ago

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Job Summary

Own Cardless PR program end to end, shaping press relations, executive visibility, partner launches, and operations to reinforce the company story across fintech, payments, and consumer brands.

  • Own media relations and messaging
  • Lead executive prep and launch storytelling

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Build and Maintain Press Relationships
  • - 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.
  • Drive Executive Visibility
  • - 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.

Requirements

  • 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.

Preferred

  • You want to direct an agency rather than do the pitching, writing, and relationship-building yourself — this role is hands-on, not managerial.
  • You think of PR as something that happens after the news is made — this role needs to be shaping how and when news happens in the first place.
  • You're only comfortable with planned, scripted moments — a real week here includes coverage you didn't ask for and have to respond to quickly.
  • You want PR and product marketing to operate independently — this role needs to be in lockstep with Product Marketing so the public story matches the sales story.
  • You're uncomfortable being the person who tells an excited internal team a launch isn't ready for press yet — sometimes the job is holding the line on timing.

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
Cardless logo

Cardless

3.4 Glassdoor

Cardless is the credit card platform for building native credit experiences that cover the full journey — trusted by Coinbase, Bilt, Alibaba, Qatar Airways, and more.

Founded in 2019
San Francisco, California, USA
64% recommend to a friend

Marketing Team

Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
3

Funding

Total Funding
$225M
Last Raise
$60M
Series C, 6 months ago

Funding History

  • Sep 2025
    Series C • $60M
  • Nov 2024
    Series C • $30M
  • May 2023
    Debt Financing • $75M

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