Starling is the UK’s first and leading digital bank on a mission to fix banking! Our vision is fast technology, fair service, and honest values. All at the tap of a phone, all the time.
We are about giving customers a new way to spend, save and manage their money while taking better care of the planet which has seen us become a multi-award winning bank that now employs over 2800 across five offices in London, Cardiff, Dublin, Southampton, and Manchester. Our journey started in 2014, and since then we have surpassed million accounts (and four account types!) with 350,000 business customers. We are a fully licensed UK bank but at the heart, we are a tech first company, enabling our platform to deliver brilliant products.
Our technologists are at the very heart of Starling and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment that is all about building things, creating new stuff, and disruptive technology that keeps us on the cutting edge of fintech. We operate a flat structure to empower you to make decisions regardless of what your primary responsibilities may be, innovation and collaboration will be at the core of everything you do. Help is never far away in our open culture, you will find support in your team and from across the business, we are in this together!
The way to thrive and shine within Starling is to be a self-driven individual and be able to take full ownership of everything around you: From building things, designing, discovering, to sharing knowledge with your colleagues and making sure all processes are efficient and productive to deliver the best possible results for our customers. Our purpose is underpinned by five Starling values: Listen, Keep It Simple, Do The Right Thing, Own It, and Aim For Greatness.
Hybrid Working
We have a Hybrid approach to working here at Starling - our preference is that you're located within a commutable distance of one of our offices so that we're able to interact and collaborate in person. In Technology, we're asking that you attend the office a minimum of 1 day per week.
Here at Starling we are growing, and our first line Technology Risk (ITRM) Team is looking for an experienced, and talented Red Team Senior Operator to join our Cyber Resilience team to join our efforts in proactively identifying vulnerabilities within our systems and digital infrastructure to ensure continuous improvement in Starling’s resilience.
Reporting to the Technology Risk Adversarial & Cyber Resilience Testing Director, you will have responsibility for designing and executing red team operations and cyber resilience testing against Starling Bank. Operations will emulate real threat actors and target cutting edge technology in Starling Bank’s platform as well as ranging across the endpoint estate. You will use emerging threat intelligence to inform and develop effective attacks.
Key Responsibilities include:
Red Team testing
1. Lead the design and execution of red team operations against Starling Bank (including scoping, planning, payload/infrastructure development, execution, reporting and workshops)
2. Identify complex vulnerabilities and build advanced exploits
3. Continually improve the methodology and capability of the team
4. Mentor junior team members and share expertise
5. Develop and document reusable attack components using realistic TTPs
6. Lead purple team exercises and collaborate with the SOC team to enhance detection capabilities
7. Translate red team tactics into actionable intelligence for blue team operations
8. Develop advanced threat models and 'worst case scenario' playbooks based on emerging global risks (APTs, insider threats, supply chain compromise) and simulate complex real-world scenarios
Cyber Resilience Technical Testing
9. Lead cyber resilience testing initiatives to assess the Bank's ability to withstand and recover from cyber attacks, including controlled attack scenarios (ransomware, DDoS, data corruption) to evaluate resilience and recovery capabilities
10. Drive identification of vulnerabilities, improve defence strategies and validate recovery processes
11. Analyse complex test results, validate breach scenarios, document findings and provide strategic actionable recommendations
12. Coordinate multi-stage testing scenarios and lead cross-team activities
Requirements
You will need:
13. Experience leading red team operations and deep understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of different adversarial techniques
14. Ability to define rules of engagement and demonstrate strong discipline and steady judgement, working both independently and as part of a team
15. Experience conducting advanced security testing against cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure)
16. Advanced security testing certifications ( OSCP, CRTO, OSMR, OSCE, OSEP, cloud security or similar)
17. Deep familiarity with the cyber risks faced by Starling Bank and other financial institutions
18. Expert-level network and operating system fundamentals (MacOS, Linux and Windows)
19. Proficiency with modern software engineering paradigms (CI/CD, Infra as Code)
20. Leadership and mentoring experience
21. Capability to manage risk and controls around red team activities
The following skills and experience are desirable:
22. Expertise in AI/ML systems security, including LLMs, transformers and model interpretability
23. Advanced certifications such as CSSAS, CSSAM, CCT or similar
24. Extensive experience in incident response, threat intelligence, or ethical hacking at an enterprise level
25. Strong background in regulatory environments ( ISO 27001, SOCII, GDPR or AI Act compliance)
26. Software engineering expertise (Java, Kotlin, Go…) or advanced reverse engineering expertise
27. Proven track record in blogging and speaking both internally to educate staff and externally at conferences
28. Experience developing innovative security testing methodologies
Interview process:
Interviewing is a two way process and we want you to have the time and opportunity to get to know us, as much as we are getting to know you! Our interviews are conversational and we want to get the best from you, so come with questions and be curious. In general you can expect the below, following a chat with one of our Talent Team:
29. Stage 1 - 45 mins with one of the team
30. Stage 2 - 60 mins technical interview with two team members
31. Stage 3 - 45 min final with two executives
Benefits
32. 33 days holiday (including public holidays, which you can take when it works best for you)
33. An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
34. Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off
35. 16 hours paid volunteering time a year
36. Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme
37. Life insurance at 4x your salary & group income protection
38. Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton
39. Generous family-friendly policies
40. Incentives refer a friend scheme
41. Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks
42. Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing
About us
You may be put off applying for a role because you don't tick every box. Forget that! While we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we're always open to discussion. So, if you're excited about working with us, but aren’t sure if you're 100% there yet, get in touch anyway. We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. Whatever came before, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.