Software Engineer (ML Projects)

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. 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. 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. The way to thrive and shine within Starling is to be a self-driven individual and 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 can interact and collaborate in person.

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. 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.

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 care more about aptitude and attitude than specific qualifications. 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 includes:

• Python
• Java
• JavaScript, particularly React
• Postgres and SQL
• AWS & GCP
• TeamCity for CI / CD
• Terraform
• Prometheus and Grafana

If you’ve built and deployed complex Python applications or have experience with generative AI, we’d be especially keen to hear from you.

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 following stages:

• 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 two executives

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (including public holidays)
• An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
• Annual leave is increased with length of service
• 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
• Generous family-friendly policies
• Incentives refer a friend scheme
• Perkbox membership
• 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. We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking - and that starts with our brilliant team. We’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems. Engine by Starling is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace.