Starling is the UK’s first and leading digital bank on a mission to fix banking! We built a new kind of bank because we knew technology had the power to help people save, spend and manage their money in a new and transformative way.

We’re a fully licensed UK bank with the culture and spirit of a fast-moving, disruptive tech company. We’re a bank, but better: fairer, easier to use and designed to demystify money for everyone. We employ more than 4,000 people across our London, Southampton, Cardiff and Manchester offices.

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.

About the Role and Opportunity

We’re open-minded when it comes to hiring and we care more about aptitude and attitude than specific experience or qualifications. The opportunity is to develop and deliver your managerial and leadership skills within the Cyber security group, we recognise that an individual's professional development, strengths and preferences will change over time and so will the demands and opportunities within the bank.

We value people being engaged and caring about customers, caring about the code they write or the business systems and processes they develop to make Starling Secure.

As a member of the Cyber Security team, whilst It is not expected that you will have worked in all of these areas, you will have a broad experience and knowledge across:

Essential

Hands-on experience with enterprise-grade security tooling.
Experience of delivering technology solutions in a highly regulated environment.
Proven experience in IAM leadership with end to end exposure to identity governance and access management.
Strong Knowledge of IAM principles and frameworks ( e.g RBAC, PAM, SSO, MFA, Zero Trust).
Demonstrated ability to lead and inspire cross-functional teams
Design, development (including scripting and configuration) and continuous improvement of security solutions.
Track record of delivery and service improvement.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills including the ability to explain complex security concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
Strong general Cyber Security domain knowledge, including Cloud security.

Desirable

Programming skills e.g. Python, Go, Java, Rust.
Experience with security control frameworks such as NIST CSF, CIS benchmarks, ISO27001, SOC2.

Requirements

Demonstrated leadership in managing a technical team, providing support across operations, projects, and engineering.
Experience implementing IAM solutions in hybrid or multi-cloud environments

Experience of design and delivery related to Identity Management Systems, e.g. Okta, EntraID, Ping, etc.

Experience of design and delivery related to Identity Governance Systems, e.g. Sailpoint, Saviynt, ConductorOne, etc.
Experience with automation and developer tooling (CI/CD) and Infrastructure as Code.
Understanding of best-practice credential management practices.
Understanding of modern authentication technologies, their application and strengths/drawbacks.
Strong identity knowledge, including Privileged Access Management, Role Based Access Control and Identity Governance.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor and develop the IAM team, building technical capability and strong stakeholder relationships
Contribute to and execute the IAM roadmap with the Information Security Lead - Identity and Access Management, ensuring alignment with business, compliance and security objectives
Oversee the full IAM lifecycle including identity governance, privileged access management, authentication, and authorisation.
Ensure access controls, policies, processes and procedures meet regulatory, audit, and security requirements
Drive modernisation initiatives such as zero trust, adaptive authentication and cloud based IAM
Collaborate with the wider business functions to embed IAM across enterprise services
Provide reporting and insights into IAM programme health, risks, and progress for senior leadership
Organise and manage the team to ensure operational coverage and that staff are appropriately skilled.
Responsible for the delivery of resilient Identity and Access Management services to the Bank. This includes both processes and technologies covering Identity Management, Authentication and Identity Governance.
Responsible for the processes and controls governing access to COTS and bespoke Banking tooling, including Role-Based Access Control.
Collaborate with engineering and business teams to facilitate delivery, including:

Review and analysis of proposed technical solutions and business processes to identify appropriate security controls.
Input and guidance to security related technical architecture and design decisions.
Code review of features and critical security components.

Advising on remediation of security issues and processes to address root causes.
Develop policies, standards, processes, guidelines, and documentation for consumption by internal teams.
Triage and management of IAM security events including, where necessary, participation in IAM security incident management.

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:

General Interview and Role Based Competency - Line Manager and Director of InfoSec
Technical Interview with our Information Security Director
Final Interview - Leadership (CISO)

Benefits

25 days holiday (plus take your public holiday allowance whenever works best for you)
An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off
16 hours paid volunteering time a year
Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme
Life insurance at 4x your salary & group income protection
Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton
Generous family-friendly policies
Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks
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.

Starling Bank is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Starling Bank are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. When you provide us with this information, you are doing so at your own consent, with full knowledge that we will process this personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice.

By submitting your application, you agree that Starling Bank may collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we may process, where we may process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal information.