Learning and Development Lead

cardless; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful startup equity

100% health, vision & dental coverage

Catered lunches

$250/month Commuter benefit

Flexible PTO with minimum 15 days off

Job summary

A forward-thinking fintech company in San Francisco is seeking an experienced Learning and Development leader to build a comprehensive training program from the ground up. You will take on high-impact work, designing onboarding, ongoing training, and performance coaching. The ideal candidate has 3–5 years in L&D or a related field, with proven experience in creating effective training solutions. This role offers a competitive salary of $140k-$170k annually plus equity and benefits, with in-office requirements five days a week.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years in Learning and Development or related field.
• Experience in building or rebuilding a training program.
• Familiarity with fintech, financial services, or regulated industry.

Responsibilities

• Design the Learning and Development function end-to-end.
• Identify skill gaps and create targeted training.
• Define and track KPIs for L&D effectiveness.

Skills

Strong writing and communication skills

Data-driven iteration

Building training programs

Familiarity with QA frameworks

Job description

We're looking for a builder to own Learning and Development at Cardless from the ground up. You'll design the systems that turn new hires into confident specialists, close skill gaps across the CS team, and make sure our training keeps pace with fast-moving fintech. It's cross-functional, high-ownership work, and the impact is visible.

The Job

This isn't a "maintain the existing program" role. You'll build the L&D function from scratch (i.e. onboarding, ongoing training, performance coaching, and knowledge management). You'll partner directly with Product, Compliance, and Operations to translate complexity into training that actually sticks, and you'll measure whether it's working.

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.

• You'll be building, not inheriting. There's only a nascent program to plug into. You'll be starting from a blank canvas — and that should excite you, not unsettle you.

• Fintech complexity is real. Credit cards sit at the intersection of product, compliance, fraud, and banking. You'll need to get fluent quickly and build that fluency into everything you create.

• Speed matters. Our product, policies, and team evolve fast. Training materials and documentation have a short shelf life if you're not staying ahead of them.

Why This Role Is Cool

• You own the whole function. There's no L&D team above you. You're setting the strategy, building the content, and measuring the results. High autonomy, high impact.

• Your work compounds. A great onboarding program pays dividends every time a new hire ramps faster. A well-written SOP reduces escalations for months. The work you do here has a long tail.

• The team is motivated. These are people who want to grow. Building for an engaged team makes the work more rewarding.

If that sounds like your kind of work, keep reading.

Responsibilities

• Design the L&D function end-to-end: onboarding, ongoing training, performance coaching, and knowledge management.

• Identify skill gaps across the CS team and build targeted training to close them.

• Create and maintain SOPs, process guides, and customer-facing resources.

• Partner with Product, Compliance, and Operations to translate complexity into usable training.

• Define and track KPIs for L&D effectiveness — ramp time, CSAT correlation, assessment scores.

Requirements

• 3–5 years in L&D, training, customer service enablement, or a related field.

• Proven experience building or significantly rebuilding a training program (not just maintaining one).

• Strong writing and communication skills. You'll produce a lot of content and quality matters.

• Comfortable with QA frameworks and data-driven iteration.

• Fintech, financial services, or regulated industry experience is a strong plus.

• Startup experience or demonstrable comfort with fast-moving, resource-constrained environments.

• Availability to travel to outsourced BPO locations for training.

• San Francisco-based and in-office 5 days a week.

Compensation

This role has an annual starting salary range of $140k-$170k + 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 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. This role is in-office 5 days a week.