Software Engineer (ML Projects)

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 3,000 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 WorkingWe 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.Our Data EnvironmentOur Data teams are aligned to divisions covering the following Banking Services & Products, Customer Identity & Financial Crime and Data & ML Engineering. Our Data teams are excited about delivering meaningful and impactful insights to both the business and more importantly our customers. Hear from the team in our latest blogs or our case studies with Women in Tech.We are looking for talented engineers at all levels to join the team. We value people being engaged and caring about customers, caring about the code they write and the contribution they make to Starling. People with a broad ability to apply themselves to a multitude of problems and challenges, who can work across teams do great things here at Starling, to continue changing banking for good.About the RoleThe ML Projects team is at the forefront of bringing cutting edge machine learning to the core of what we do at Starling. As a software engineer on the ML Projects team you will work with other engineers and data scientists to design, implement and maintain features that make use of machine learning models under the hood. This could mean anything from creating a brand new ML-powered feature from scratch to seamlessly integrating a new model into our core banking platform. You might find yourself designing robust infrastructure and pipelines or discovering a completely new approach to a complex problem.We believe in empowering our engineers to take ownership and drive solutions from ideation to launch. This means you'll have the autonomy to shape your own path, identify challenges, and collaborate with colleagues across teams to deliver impactful solutions across a range of technologies.RequirementsWe are looking for a skilled software engineer who thrives on building and scaling complex systems. You should have a proven track record of delivering robust, multi-technology applications within an enterprise environment.We’re open-minded when it comes to hiring and we care more about aptitude and attitude than specific qualifications. We are very open about how we deliver software. We believe in clean coding, simple solutions, automated testing and continuous deployment. If you care enough to find elegant solutions to difficult technical problems, we’d love to hear from you.The main part of our Tech Stack is listed below, we don't ask that you have experience in all of this, but if you do, that's great!PythonJava, which makes up the majority of our backend codebaseJavaScript, particularly React, which makes up our frontendPostgres and SQLAWS & GCP - we're cloud-nativeTeamCity for CI / CD (lots of teams are releasing code 15-20 times per day!)TerraformPrometheus and GrafanaIf you have built and deployed complex Python applications or have hands-on experience with generative AI and LLMs, we would be especially keen to talk. We are moving fast in the AI space and want people who are excited to help us define what comes next.Interview processInterviewing 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:Stage 1 - 45 mins with one of the teamStage 2 - Take-home challengeStage 3 - 90 mins technical interview with two team membersStage 4 - 45 min final with an two executivesBenefits33 days holiday (including public holidays, which you can take when it works best for you)An extra day’s holiday for your birthdayAnnual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off16 hours paid volunteering time a yearSalary sacrifice, company enhanced pension schemeLife insurance at 4x your salary & group income protectionPrivate Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and PelotonGenerous family-friendly policiesIncentives refer a friend schemePerkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perksAccess to initiatives like Cycle to Work, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasingAbout UsYou 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 will collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we will process, where we will process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal information.

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 3,000 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.

Our Data Environment

Our Data teams are aligned to divisions covering the following Banking Services & Products, Customer Identity & Financial Crime and Data & ML Engineering. Our Data teams are excited about delivering meaningful and impactful insights to both the business and more importantly our customers. Hear from the team in our latest blogs or our case studies with Women in Tech.

We are looking for talented engineers at all levels to join the team. We value people being engaged and caring about customers, caring about the code they write and the contribution they make to Starling. People with a broad ability to apply themselves to a multitude of problems and challenges, who can work across teams do great things here at Starling, to continue changing banking for good.

About the Role

The ML Projects team is at the forefront of bringing cutting edge machine learning to the core of what we do at Starling. As a software engineer on the ML Projects team you will work with other engineers and data scientists to design, implement and maintain features that make use of machine learning models under the hood. This could mean anything from creating a brand new ML-powered feature from scratch to seamlessly integrating a new model into our core banking platform. You might find yourself designing robust infrastructure and pipelines or discovering a completely new approach to a complex problem.

We believe in empowering our engineers to take ownership and drive solutions from ideation to launch. This means you'll have the autonomy to shape your own path, identify challenges, and collaborate with colleagues across teams to deliver impactful solutions across a range of technologies.

Requirements

We are looking for a skilled software engineer who thrives on building and scaling complex systems. You should have a proven track record of delivering robust, multi-technology applications within an enterprise environment.

We’re open-minded when it comes to hiring and we care more about aptitude and attitude than specific qualifications. We are very open about how we deliver software. We believe in clean coding, simple solutions, automated testing and continuous deployment. If you care enough to find elegant solutions to difficult technical problems, we’d love to hear from you.

The main part of our Tech Stack is listed below, we don't ask that you have experience in all of this, but if you do, that's great!

• Python
• Java, which makes up the majority of our backend codebase
• JavaScript, particularly React, which makes up our frontend
• Postgres and SQL
• AWS & GCP - we're cloud-native
• TeamCity for CI / CD (lots of teams are releasing code 15-20 times per day!)
• Terraform
• Prometheus and Grafana

If you have built and deployed complex Python applications or have hands-on experience with generative AI and LLMs, we would be especially keen to talk. We are moving fast in the AI space and want people who are excited to help us define what comes next.

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:

• Stage 1 - 45 mins with one of the team
• Stage 2 - Take-home challenge
• Stage 3 - 90 mins technical interview with two team members
• Stage 4 - 45 min final with an two executives

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (including public holidays, which you can take when it 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
• Incentives refer a friend scheme
• 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 will collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we will process, where we will process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal information.

Join our teamWe’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. We know that our bank is only as good as the people who build it. From customer support and engineering to marketing and business development, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.What to expectCreativity and collaborationWe’re growing fast – and no two days here at Starling are quite the same. We care about getting stuff done, not process, and our culture is decidedly entrepreneurial in spirit (you’ll be encouraged to pitch your ideas, however big or bold!). It’s a fast-paced, exciting and creative place to work where there’s plenty of collaboration and ownership of your own projects.Great techAs you’d expect from a technology company, we’ll make sure you have all the tools you need to get your job done – and that they’re the very best in the business. We work on MacBooks and you’ll receive anything else you might need on request.An open approachLots of companies talk about transparency – but it’s something we really care about. We communicate and collaborate through Slack, including a channel dedicated to updates from the leadership team.But wait... there’s moreIt’s important to us there’s more to life here than just work, so get to know your colleagues at socials, cheese & wine nights or learning lunches. Enjoy fresh fruit and coffee every day, free breakfasts and Perkbox, through which we offer the Cycle to Work scheme and salary-sacrificed gym memberships. We also offer private health insurance for all employees.We offer 33 days holiday (including public hols), plus an extra day on your birthday; you also get 16 hours of paid leave a year to do voluntary work.Ready to come on board?Browse our current openings below.

Join our team

We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. We know that our bank is only as good as the people who build it. From customer support and engineering to marketing and business development, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.

What to expect

Creativity and collaboration

We’re growing fast – and no two days here at Starling are quite the same. We care about getting stuff done, not process, and our culture is decidedly entrepreneurial in spirit (you’ll be encouraged to pitch your ideas, however big or bold!). It’s a fast-paced, exciting and creative place to work where there’s plenty of collaboration and ownership of your own projects.

Great tech

As you’d expect from a technology company, we’ll make sure you have all the tools you need to get your job done – and that they’re the very best in the business. We work on MacBooks and you’ll receive anything else you might need on request.

An open approach

Lots of companies talk about transparency – but it’s something we really care about. We communicate and collaborate through Slack, including a channel dedicated to updates from the leadership team.

But wait... there’s more

It’s important to us there’s more to life here than just work, so get to know your colleagues at socials, cheese & wine nights or learning lunches. Enjoy fresh fruit and coffee every day, free breakfasts and Perkbox, through which we offer the Cycle to Work scheme and salary-sacrificed gym memberships. We also offer private health insurance for all employees.

We offer 33 days holiday (including public hols), plus an extra day on your birthday; you also get 16 hours of paid leave a year to do voluntary work.

Ready to come on board?

Browse our current openings below.