Top crypto firms souring on full time hiring, prefer temporary staff

It's a dangerous yet exciting time for crypto jobs, especially in the US. If you're worried that the number of full time jobs available have suffered over the past year, you should stay worried... but the major fintechs have been taking an interesting approach to keep the hiring market active.

Zach Plotkin, managing director of executive search firm Madison Davis, says crypto firms are "hiring more temporary employees than ever before." Plotkin, who specialises in legal and compliance roles, says the biggest players are being "strategic" by focusing on "cost-efficient short term solutions."

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This doesn't mean they're looking for quick, cheap labor. Plotkin says an executive director brought in on a 3-month basis "might be getting paid more in an hourly capacity than a full time employee." Companies will also bring in junior hires on a full-time basis for "business-as-usual" work, while the temporary senior hires do the complex projects and provide mentorship and guidance to the full-time recruits.

"Employees are always looking for something permanent," Plotkin says, "but if you're not working, three months of employment sounds great." 

So which firms are doing it? One is $18.5bn stalwart Coinbase. In March, it brought in Sara Robinson, formerly a senior program manager at Amazon, on a six-month basis. It's also hiring a Solidity engineer on-contract, paying a salary of up to $206k (per year) while the average salary for a full-time senior engineer in 2023 is $199k according to levels.fyi.

An interesting perk to the contract work is also the fact that many of the roles are remote while, for full time employees, Plotkin says "everyone is pushed to two or three days in the office." 

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