Director, Talent Acquisition

About Us at GoCardless

GoCardless is a global bank payment company. Over 100,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, use GoCardless to collect and send payments through direct debit, real-time payments and open banking. 

GoCardless processes US$130bn+ of payments annually, across 30+ countries; helping customers collect and send both recurring and one-off payments, without the chasing, stress or expensive fees. We use AI-powered solutions to improve payment success and reduce fraud. And, with open banking connectivity to over 2,500 banks, we help our customers make faster, more informed decisions.

We are headquartered in the UK with offices in London and Leeds, and additional locations in Australia, France, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal and the United States.

At GoCardless, we're all about supporting you! We’re committed to making our hiring process inclusive and accessible. If you need extra support or adjustments, reach out to your Talent Partner — we’re here to help! 

And remember: we don’t expect you to meet every single requirement. If you’re excited by this role, we encourage you to apply!

The role

We're looking for an exceptional Head of Talent Acquisition to lead our global hiring strategy and build the teams that will drive GoCardless's next phase of growth. This is a pivotal, strategic leadership role, not just a management position. You will own our talent acquisition function end-to-end, acting as a trusted advisor to our executive team and a coach to our Talent Acquisition team.

Based in Riga, you will be instrumental in shaping our workforce and culture across all our hubs, ensuring we attract and retain the world-class talent needed to achieve our vision of becoming the world’s bank payment network. This is a unique opportunity to build a modern, data-driven, and high-impact talent function from within.

GoCardless is in a unique and exciting phase of our journey. We are a global fintech scale-up with the stability of a mature business and the innovative spirit of a fast-growing tech company. This role is crucial to our next chapter of growth, as we integrate teams and scale our operations globally.

The majority of our hiring in the coming year will be focused on our key strategic hubs:

• Riga: A major Operations hub with a strong culture of innovation and collaboration.
• Leeds: A new hub where you'll be instrumental in building a new team from the ground up, drawing on the city's dynamic fintech talent pool.
• Lisbon: Our newest engineering hub, where you'll be instrumental in building our Engineering teams from the ground up.

You will lead a distributed team of talented Talent Partners and Talent Coordinators, collaborating with colleagues and leaders across all hub locations. You'll report directly to the Chief People Officer, working side-by-side as a strategic partner to our Executive and Senior Leadership teams.

What excites you 

• Architecting Our Strategy: You will own our global talent acquisition strategy end-to-end, acting as a trusted advisor to our executive team. This is a unique opportunity to build a modern, data-driven, and high-impact talent function from within.
• Leading a Global Team: You will coach, mentor, and empower a high-performing team of Talent Partners and Talent Co-ordinators across our key hubs. You'll ensure our team has the support and resources needed to excel in a fast-paced environment.
• Innovating with AI: You will have the knowledge and passion to implement AI and other transformative technologies to automate workflows and optimise our hiring engine. Your expertise will be key to making our processes smarter and faster.
• Shaping Our Future: You will be instrumental in shaping our workforce and culture across all our hubs, ensuring we attract and retain the world-class talent needed to make money simple and fair for everyone.
• Driving Excellence: You will define and optimise our hiring processes to be efficient, fair, and consistent, creating a remarkable candidate and hiring manager experience.

What excites us  

• A Strategic Builder: You have a proven track record of designing, implementing, and scaling an in-house talent acquisition function in a high-growth, global technology or fintech company.
• A People-Centric Leader: You are a trusted coach and mentor who excels at empowering and leading a high-performing, distributed team.
• A Data-Driven Communicator: You can use talent analytics to identify trends, pinpoint inefficiencies, and tell a compelling story to senior stakeholders.
• A Passion for AI: You have knowledge of and a desire to implement and leverage AI to solve complex hiring problems and transform talent acquisition workflows.
• A Business Partner: You are a natural relationship builder who can challenge, influence, and advise senior leaders, acting as a true consultant on all things talent
• A Talent Expert: You possess a deep understanding of the tech talent market, with a strong focus on roles across Engineering, Product, and Go-to-Market.
• Global Hiring Experience: You have experience with and are enthusiastic about building and growing teams across multiple international hubs, particularly in the UK and Europe.
• A Cultural Ambassador: You are passionate about building a diverse, world-class team and can act as a cultural champion for our values.

Salary range - the expected base salary range for this position is between €64,000 - €96,000 + company performance bonus

Base salary ranges are based on role, job level, location, and market data. Please note that whilst we strive to offer competitive compensation, our approach is to pay between the minimum and the mid-point of the pay range until performance can be assessed in role. Offers will take into account level of experience, interview assessment, budgets and parity between you and fellow employees at GoCardless doing similar work. 

The Good Stuff!

• Wellbeing: Dedicated support and medical cover to keep you healthy.
• Work Away Scheme: Work from anywhere for up to 90 days in any 12-month period.
• Hybrid Working: Our hybrid model offers flexibility, with in-office days determined by your team.
• Equity: All permanently employed GeeCees get equity to share in our success.
• Parental leave: Tailored leave to support your life's great adventure.
• Time Off: Generous holidays, 3 volunteer days, and 4 wellness days annually.

Life at GoCardless

We're an organisation defined by our values; We start with why before we begin any project, to ensure it’s aligned with our mission. We make it happen, working with urgency and taking personal accountability for getting things done. We act with integrity, always. We care deeply about what we do and we know it's essential that we be humble whilst we do it. Our Values form part of the GoCardless DNA, and are used to not only help us nurture and develop our culture, but to deliver impactful work that will help us to achieve our vision.

Diversity & Inclusion

We’re building the payment network of the future, and to achieve our goal, we need a diverse team with a range of perspectives and experiences. As of July 2024, here’s where we stand:

• 45% identify as women 
• 23% identify as Black, Asian, Mixed, or Other 
• 10% identify as LGBTQIA+ 
• 9% identify as neurodiverse 
• 2% identify as disabled 

If you want to learn more, you can read about our Employee Resource Groups and objectives here as well as our latest D&I Report 

Sustainability at GoCardless

We’re committed to reducing our environmental impact and leaving a sustainable world for future generations. As co-founders of the Tech Zero coalition, we’re working towards a climate-positive future. Check out our sustainability action plan here. 

Find out more about Life at GoCardless via X, Instagram and LinkedIn.