Hundreds of thousands of people applied for jobs at this fintech. Hardly any got in
UK-based payments firm Checkout.com is a popular place to work. Last year, it received 208,000 applications for 700 jobs but grew its headcount by just 100 people. It had an acceptance rate of less than 0.4% for its jobs, making it more choosy than Goldman Sachs, which hires 1% of its yearly applicants.
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Checkout's CEO, Guillaume Pousaz, released a 2025 annual letter stating that Checkout ended last year with 2,000 staff, up from 1,900 at the end of 2024. This is a far cry from 2020 and 2021, when he said that the firm hired 1,500 people. The pace of hiring may soon increase though; Pousaz said Checkout is eyeing a headcount of “2,500 professionals worldwide” by the end of 2026.
Only 15% of roles at Checkout were filled internally. The fact that 700 jobs lead to headcount growth of just 100 would therefore suggest that many roles weren't filled. A Checkout spokesperson said the 700 figure includes "growth positions, internal promotions that create backfill vacancies, pipeline hiring that spans year-end, and roles that may be posted but not ultimately filled within the calendar year."
Checkout may have decided not to hire certain roles as it adopted AI. Pousaz said that 97% of Checkout staff use the technology daily and that its engineers write “2.7 million lines of AI generated code monthly.” Checkout has fully automated some tasks with AI, including handling disputes for rejected transactions, “previously a manual task.”
The hiring is happening away from Checkout’s UK headquarters. Of its 169 currently open jobs, just 72 are in London. Headcount in the UK has decreased in recent years; accounts filed across its UK entities via Companies House show headcount fell from 1,157 in 2023 to 1,066 in 2024. This is down from a high of 1,242 in 2022. UK staff still appear to be the majority at Checkout, but barely.
Checkout’s hiring in the US is more abundant. Pousaz said US hiring was up 80% in 2025 and that it opened new offices in both San Francisco and Atlanta last year.
Pousaz's letter touted a net promoter score (NPS) in the “top quartile of technology businesses;” those disgruntled by Pousaz’s decision to bring staff into the office three days per week back in 2023 seem to have learned to live with it or moved on.
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