Robinhood wants to hire fewer "higher cost" New Yorkers
Online brokerage fintech Robinhood has been having a solid start to 2024, with Stock prices up 35% since the start of December, but it's not done reducing costs yet. In its Q4 earnings call, CFO Jason Warnick called "increasing revenue per employee" a "real opportunity," and it appears they're doing so by hiring outside their New York and Californian offices.
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"Today, the vast majority of our head count is in higher cost US geographies," Warnick said, "and there's opportunity there over time." The fintech employs more than 1,000 people across New York and California.
While other fintechs can compensate for this through remote hiring, Robinhood is a bit more stubborn on insisting people are in the office. In the US, Robinhood tends to demand four days in the office for its employees.
Robinhood's open listings show how much cheaper hiring outside those locations can be. For one engineering manager role, pay in 'Zone 1' (featuring California, New York, and Washington) can earn a minimum salary of $217k, and a maximum of $255k. In 'Zone 3', featuring Lake Mary in Florida, minimum pay is just $169k and salaries will not go above $200k.
Robinhood is also keen on hiring in Canada, and is possibly taking inspiration from other fintechs like Coinbase. 28 of Robinhood's 44 engineering job listings are in its Toronto office, with all but one exclusively available there. Unlike the lower cost US areas, the fintech doesn't show salary ranges in Canada, but on Levels.fyi, one engineer that joined Robinhood this year in the country did so on a salary of $162k with seven years experience.
Robinhood's average headcount is down 8% year-on-year, with 2189 people currently working there. While it has made a few hires since the April layoffs, don't expect a significant shift; Warnick says headcount will stay "roughly flat to slightly up this year."
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