Founding Recruiter (Fixed-Term)

Spade•New York, NY

7d•$140,000 - $160,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Financial institutions process billions of transactions every day across cards, ACH, wires, and third party aggregators. But most of that data is difficult to use. Descriptions are inconsistent, merchant names don’t match, and categories vary by payment type. Spade’s API takes these raw, messy transactions, and in <50 ms, returns clean, structured records linked to verified businesses in our proprietary database. Building on that foundation, our agent layer leverages this enriched data to automate insights and decision-making. Customers including Stripe, FIS, Bilt, Corpay, and Mercury use Spade to authorize more transactions, personalize experiences, power rewards programs, and more. We lead the market in merchant coverage, speed of enrichment, and data accuracy, enriching hundreds of billions of dollars in transaction volume every month. Spade is a fast growing, Series A company backed by industry experts and top tier investors (including a16z, Flourish Ventures, Y-Combinator, and Gradient Ventures). We’re a lean and execution-oriented hybrid team, passionate about building exceptional products for our growing customer base. We care deeply about diversity of background, experience, and opinion. We value empathy, curiosity, and passion, and strive to create an environment where individuals have autonomy and the ability to take ownership over their work. At Spade, hiring is a core strategic function as we scale the team and product. We're looking for a Founding Recruiter to join Spade for a 6-month fixed-term engagement. This is a hands-on, high-impact role where you'll own recruiting end-to-end and build the foundation for our talent function as we scale our team from 20 to 40+ in 2026. You’ll partner closely with founders and leadership to hire across technical (engineering, data science, product) and G&A (commercial, support, operations, finance) roles.

Requirements

NYC based
6+ years of recruiting experience, including time in-house at a high-growth startup
Experience building or significantly evolving a recruiting function (processes, tools, playbooks)
Proven ability to recruit across both technical (engineering, data, product) and business (commercial, G&A) roles
Comfort with and excitement about owning full-cycle recruiting independently, from sourcing to closing candidates
Experience partnering directly with founders and senior leadership, acting as a thought partner and expert in shaping and running recruiting processes
Hands on experience with modern recruiting tools, including AI tools and ATS software (we use Greenhouse and Juicebox)

Nice To Haves

Experience as an early or founding recruiter at a startup
Background hiring in fintech, data, or infrastructure companies
Experience scaling teams rapidly (e.g., doubling headcount within a year)
Prior experience hiring and managing recruiting teams
Familiarity with employer branding and early-stage talent marketing

Responsibilities

Own recruiting end-to-end, from role intake and sourcing strategy through offer close and onboarding — driving hiring for both technical and non-technical roles, flexing as business priorities evolve
Partner closely with founders and hiring managers to define hiring plans, headcount priorities, and timelines
Drive initiatives that improve Spade’s recruiting processes, tooling, and best practices
Develop scalable sourcing strategies to attract top-tier talent in a competitive market
Ensure a high-quality, inclusive, and thoughtful candidate experience that reflects Spade’s values
Manage ATS (currently Greenhouse), including job setup, workflows, interview plans, reporting, and candidate experience
Track and report on hiring metrics, funnel health, and hiring velocity to inform decision-making
Lay the foundation for a future recruiting team, with the opportunity to hire and manage recruiters as the company grows