Executive Search Lead

About the role

Own executive recruiting end to end across the Payward platform spanning C-level, Board, VP+ and bespoke Advisor mandates. Partner directly with the Co-CEOs and the executive team on the searches that matter most, absorbing their pace and operating as a trusted advisor. Run board and advisory mandates with the discretion they require. Confidentiality here is structural, not a preference. Define how executive hiring scales as a shared service across a growing, multi-brand platform. Own the external search partner strategy: managing relationships with key retained firms, and ensuring seamless partnership if and when they are engaged. Report to the Head of Talent and operate as a member of the talent leadership team, with a dotted line into the Chief People Officer.

What You Bring

• 6+ years of executive recruiting experience, with demonstrable ownership of executive searches (VP, C-level, Board) from mandate through close.
• A selection mindset over a screening one. You calibrate candidates against business strategy and can defend a shortlist to a skeptical executive audience.
• Closing and negotiation strength at executive level: pre-closing, offer construction, equity and comp complexity.
• Experience partnering closely with Compensation & Benefits and the HR business partners to ensure full alignment throughout a search lifecycle.
• Business acumen to understand and pitch a complex platform business credibly. Executive candidates buy the thesis, not the job spec.
• Proven agency and retained-firm management — briefing, accountability and spend control.
• Exceptional written and verbal English at executive register.
• Discretion by default, with a track record of executive searches quietly.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity, with responsiveness to candidates and executives across all time zones.
• Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, given the proximity this role requires to our executives and to board and advisory mandates.

Nice to haves

• In-house executive recruiting experience at a fintech, brokerage, exchange or payments company.
• Background inside a retained executive search firm, in addition to in-house work.
• Experience building executive recruiting as a shared service across multiple entities, or across multiple portfolio companies.
• Exposure to crypto or digital assets.

Pay

$127.2K - $254.4K