About Starling
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 give 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 2300 across five offices in London, Cardiff, Dublin, Southampton, and soon to be Manchester. Our journey started in 2014, and since then we have surpassed three 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 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 your primary responsibilities, with innovation and collaboration at the core of everything you do. Help is never far away in our open culture. Our purpose is underpinned by five Starling values: Listen, Keep It Simple, Do The Right Thing, Own It, and Aim For Greatness.
Responsibilities
•Participate in end-to-end red and purple team operations, as well as designing and delivering cyber resilience exercises (e.g. threat modelling, tabletops, targeted testing, and simulations that evaluate Starling's response and recovery capabilities)
•Emulate real-world threat actors and leverage MITRE ATT&CK to test the organisation's defences across both cutting-edge cloud infrastructure and the endpoint estate
•Utilise dedicated research time to identify emerging threats, understand new vulnerabilities, and adapt Threat Actor TTPs that can be leveraged during assessments
•Work alongside defensive teams post-engagement to actively remediate vulnerabilities, refine playbooks, and improve the overall security and resilience posture of the organization
•Engage in continuous learning and professional development, keeping up to date with current trends in both offensive security and operational resilience
•Operations will emulate real threat actors and target cutting edge technology in Starling Bank's platform as well as range across the endpoint estate
•Use emerging threat intelligence to inform and develop effective attacks
•Be an early member of the team with the opportunity to shape the development and growth of the team
Requirements
•2+ years of experience in Offensive Security (Red Teaming, Pentesting) OR highly technical other cyber security domains, alternatively Cyber Resilience experience in delivering Response and Recovery focused cyber simulations (Threat Modelling, Tabletops, Targeted Testing)
•Experience emulating real-world cyber threats to test the organisation's defences and response capabilities
•Understanding of cyber kill chains and common MITRE TTPs
•Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CRTO, OSEP, OSMR, OSCP) OR equivalent practical experience in defensive, offensive, or cyber resilience operations
•Familiarity with standard C2 frameworks (e.g., Mythic, Cobalt Strike) and common offensive security tooling
•Strong network and operating system fundamentals, e.g. Windows, Linux
•Big picture understanding of cloud technology (AWS & GCP) and modern software engineering paradigms (CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code)
•Ability to work to defined rules of engagement, showing strong discipline, integrity, steady judgement, and the communication skills to bridge the gap between technical exploits and business recovery
Nice to have (not necessarily required)
•Experience chaining offensive operations directly into broader organisational resilience or response exercises
•Exposure to financial sector threat-led penetration testing frameworks (e.g., CBEST, STAR, or DORA) or operational resilience regulations
•Deep understanding of macOS operating system fundamentals
•Experience in payload modification, scripting (Python, Go, PowerShell, bash), or software engineering (Java, Kotlin, Go)
•Experience in Social Engineering such as phishing, physical break-in, or vishing
•Experience and enthusiasm for sharing knowledge internally to educate staff on the threat landscape and response processes
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, following a chat with one of our Talent Team, you can expect:
•Stage 1 - 45 mins with one of the team
•Stage 2 - 60 mins technical interview with two team members
•Stage 3 - 45 min final with 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 including discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton
•Generous family-friendly policies
•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
