Starling Bank

Becky Jay, Business Specialist

I remember seeing the volunteering hours in the job description and thinking it was something I really wanted to do, says Becky Jay (pictured below). She joined Starling in September 2020. In 2021, Becky, 30, spent two days volunteering for RORO (Ride Out Ride On), a Bristol-based charity that helps people with mobility-impacting factors, such as a disability or long term health conditions, enjoy the freedom and fun of cycling.

They have adapted bikes, where you have one volunteer rider at the back and the client riding at the front. A bit like a tandem but more comfortable. The steering is controlled from the rear and the client can add power through the pedals if they want.

For both days, which were a month apart, she cycled with a woman who had a horse riding accident that impacted her physical mobility and heightened her anxiety. We went down the Bristol footpath to Bath, we had a whole day out, she says.

Being able to share my love of cycling with someone who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do that was fantastic. I also had a conversation with someone I otherwise wouldn’t have crossed paths with.

Gurmokh Sangha, Database Administrator

I think coding is as essential as basic Maths and English – it’s such a useful skill, says Gurmokh Sangha.

Gurmokh, 46, runs the Coding Club at his children’s primary school near Exeter. This involves guiding around ten children between the ages of 8-10. He uses his Starling volunteering hours to contribute to this commitment.

We follow tutorials and the kids can make their own games on Scratch, he says. Scratch is a popular coding resource for kids. One kid made a game that ran over three screens and involved three different levels, which for a 10-year-old isn’t bad.

He also runs ‘follow alongs’, where he will do something and the children copy his code. We made a rock, paper, scissors game. The kids had to turn elements of the game into code. For example, if rock and paper were combined, paper won.

Gurmokh joined Starling in November 2020. He previously worked in database administration for the NHS. Outside of work, he created an app that plays different sounds in the background, for example birdsong or people at a café. His advice for anyone keen to learn to code is: Pick something and build it – tutorials will only get you so far.

Vikki Williams, Customer Experience Officer

Vikki Williams joined Starling in October 2021 and has been using her Starling volunteering hours to contribute to her commitments as Chair of Governors for a secondary school in Northamptonshire.

The school is in Corby, one of the most deprived towns in the country, and has some of the best results among comprehensive schools. However it isn’t all about exam results, the ethos is about supporting all students to become good rounded human beings and giving everyone the opportunity to excel, she says.

As Chair of Governors I spend time with the Headteacher of the school and the Senior Leadership Team. I am available as a sounding board, an escalation point and as someone to have a chat with. Along with the other Governors, I go into the school once a quarter for a half day and observe lessons, attend assemblies, she says.

The volunteering hours from Starling allow me to accommodate these sessions in my working day, which is great.

Nicky Murphy, Credit Portfolio Manager

Nicky Murphy (pictured above right) and Martina Hennings (above left), both based in London, began their six-month placement with Starling in January 2022. Here, they tell us about their experience so far.

As a Credit Portfolio Manager, Nicky Murphy helps Starling acquire and manage its asset portfolios. She has 16 years experience in fixed income, structured credit and portfolio management. Nicky joined Starling following a period of time away from the market to focus on her family.

Her interest in Starling began when she did a 10-week FinTech programme, run by Saïd Business School (Oxford University). I really enjoyed updating my knowledge, she says.

When I saw the Returner programme at Starling, I thought it would be a great fit given my interest in FinTech and also as an advocate of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), which seems to be part of the Starling DNA. For example, Starling does not send out paper statements and provides debit cards made from recycled plastic.

I had a view of Starling being really agile and that’s certainly been borne out in the recruitment process, and in the weeks since I’ve joined. I’m especially enjoying how quickly things move. Everyone has been tremendously welcoming and I’ve been very impressed by the technology, which enables us to work more collaboratively.

Nicky has both a mentor and a buddy to provide ongoing support. Starling also organises a number of coaching sessions with Women Returners, which are particularly helpful when transitioning back to a full-time role. She greatly appreciates the peer support from others in the programme.

Martina Hennings, Customer Journey Lead

As a Customer Journey Lead, Martina Hennings helps create, develop and define new and existing processes for customers. One of her focuses will be the specialist support offered to customers with mental or physical health conditions, or customers that have experienced a sudden change, such as redundancy.

I always aim to give the best service and with my energy and experience in financial services, I thought I could add value and positively help Starling in its journey to making banking better for everyone, she says.

Martina came across our partnership with Women Returners just one day before the application deadline. Research shows that women can be reluctant to apply for a role if they don’t meet all the criteria and I definitely fit into that category. The Starling programme appealed because it acknowledged this and encouraged people excited by the opportunity to get in touch, she says.

She submitted her application in time and was offered a placement within our Operations team. She has joined Starling after taking a career break for family care.

People across the company have made time to welcome me and introduce me to what the bank is doing and what the priorities are. I’ve been asking lots of questions and the encouragement I’ve received has been amazing.

Saff Soobratty

What’s really interesting about Starling is that we build everything from scratch, says software developer Saff Soobratty, part of the Starling Banking Services team. We create direct integrations with payment systems like Faster Payments, which means that other FinTechs can cut their engineering costs. Saff, 32, started at Starling’s London office in 2019.

We still have the culture of a start-up. We have autonomy, there aren’t a lot of processes and when something doesn’t work, there isn’t a culture of blame. Our approach is to fix it, learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Saff studied Computer Science at university after spending a year at college doing IT. “I liked that it wouldn’t be tied to one specific company. It’s almost like a trade, something I can take with me wherever I go.”

Reshma Pinto

For software developer Reshma Pinto, the best part of working at Starling is the way everyone works together. I like that we’re a cross-functional team made up of platform engineers, app engineers and designers. We collaborate in shaping the features we’re working on and putting them through all the testing phases. This collective way of working feels very effective.

Reshma, 38, previously worked on apps in the gaming industry. As a team leader there, I didn’t get many opportunities to be hands-on. I’m an engineer at my core, which is what motivated me to start looking elsewhere, she says.

She joined in May 2020, two months into the national lockdown. As a working parent, I was anxious about how things would work with my kids being home-schooled, she says.

But I got really amazing support on flexible working from my manager and team leads. They checked that things were okay at home and made sure I wasn’t juggling too much. When you go through tough times and get that support – that’s what shows how supportive and empathetic the culture is.

Reshma, who is based in London, first learned to code through her degree in Electronic Engineering, but has mainly taught herself or learned on the job. During the interview process for Starling, I found that working on both iOS and Android was encouraged, which I was really interested in.

Since joining, she’s worked on both our iOS and Android apps, mainly as part of the team designing and improving the process of applying for a new Starling account.

David Sullivan

When David Sullivan decided to study Astronomy, he never imagined he’d end up working for a bank. It doesn’t feel like you’re working at a bank, says David, a software engineer and data scientist at Starling.

As a tech company, we make small changes to production every day. We’re also given a lot of breathing space and flexibility. We can explore different approaches and fail some of the time, before we arrive at a solution. When I left academia, I thought I would lose that freedom. But with Starling, I haven’t.

David, 31, did his PhD on the formation of galaxies. He went on to work as a data scientist and developer for a company focused on preventing copyright infringement. He joined Starling’s data science team in 2020 and is based in our Cardiff office.

Our team helps the bank make better data-driven decisions, he says. For example, with cheque imaging, we use machine learning to match the amount handwritten on the cheque with the details the customer has typed.

Harriet Rees, Chief Information Officer

When you work in data at Starling, you’re really empowered, says Harriet Rees, Starling’s Chief Information Officer (pictured below). We make sure that people from the data team are actively involved in discussions about the problems that need solving. It means that we can understand the nuance of what’s needed.

Harriet, who was brought up in Wales, joined Starling in 2018 as Head of Data Science, after hearing Starling’s CEO and founder Anne Boden on the radio. I myself was inspired by the fact that Anne is a Welsh woman in technology who wanted to inspire other women in technology and the FinTech space. I wrote her a letter. And the rest is history. Harriet, 32, previously worked in the insurance industry.

At Starling, she has helped develop a number of app features, as well as systems that simplify processes for staff. Some of my favourite implementations have been really customer-focused. I talk often about our in-app cheque deposit feature. I love this product because it has data science at its heart and it’s an example of us delivering something truly innovative that customers need, she says. We’re using technology and data for the good of the customer.

Rakhee, Data Analytics Lead

It’s an amazing place to work, says Data Analytics Lead, Rakhee. There are so many bright people in the team I talk to and learn from and there are opportunities to answer some of the most pressing questions within the bank. No day is the same, which is what makes it fun, and everyone has lots of autonomy.

Rakhee, 30, joined Starling’s London office in 2021. She previously worked for another bank. I wanted to work for an organisation that had technology at its core and where I felt like my work had an impact.

Rakhee was introduced to data science through a placement she did with the Welsh Government as part of her Masters in Statistics. I love how I can feed my curiosity as to why something happens in a certain way.

Sebastian, Data Scientist

Before joining Starling in 2021, Sebastian worked as a researcher in astrophysics, focusing on gravitational waves. Every massive object gives off gravitational waves when it accelerates, he says.

When I move my hand, I technically give off gravitational waves, only they’re so tiny, they’re almost impossible to detect. Gravitational waves were theorised by Einstein over 100 years ago but they were only detected from colliding black holes in 2015.

Sebastian, 32, completed his PhD in Cardiff in 2016, where he later became a researcher. In 2021, he joined Starling’s Cardiff office as a Data Scientist.

I wanted to see what life was like outside of academia and I knew I wanted to do something in data science because it’s a way that I can use my skills to hopefully make the world a better place, he says. Banking is something that everyone interacts with and something where there are lots of interesting problems to solve.

For Sebastian, the best part of his job is the variety of tasks he’s asked to complete and the trust that’s placed in him. Starling gives me the freedom to explore ideas.