I'm a recruiter, not a Brex recruiter, but I've coached several candidates through Brex processes this year and one of them gave me a solid debrief on the phone screen. Also know a few people in their talent org. Putting this together so people have realistic expectations.
The Brex recruiter screen is 30 minutes. Not 45, not an hour. 30.
What they cover:
The basics: Your current situation, why Brex, timeline. Standard. But "why Brex" gets more scrutiny than average. They're a company with a specific mission and customer set (enterprise finance teams, fast-growing companies) and the recruiter will notice if you give a generic fintech answer.
Comp: Brex asks about your current compensation expectations early. Be ready with a range. They also tend to share their band during or after this call, which is more upfront than most companies.
Basic technical calibration: For engineering roles, they might ask a couple of high-level technical questions to confirm level. Not a coding problem, more like "describe your experience with distributed systems" or "what's the most complex backend system you've worked on?"
Timeline and logistics: Are you interviewing elsewhere, when are you available, any competing offers.
What passes you through vs. doesn't: The most common screen failure I've seen is candidates who can't articulate why Brex specifically. Generic answers like "I love fintech" or "Brex has a great product" don't cut it. Research their actual customer base, understand what Brex Empower is, know the enterprise pivot they did. Show you did homework.
Response timeline after screen: candidates I've tracked typically hear back within 3-5 business days about next steps.