Starling Bank
Mobile banking for personal and business
Android Engineer
Located within commuting distance of the Manchester office; at least one office day per week is required.
About the job
- Experience developing Android applications with Kotlin.
- Ability to understand and prioritize security when implementing features, fixing bugs, and making technical improvements across application layers.
- Focus on accessibility and writing clean, maintainable code.
- Experience with automated testing using Espresso for user-interface and end-to-end tests and JUnit for unit tests.
- Ability to work across teams and apply engineering skills to a multitude of problems and challenges.
- Build, design, discover, ship, and maintain Android application features and tooling.
- Work in a cross-functional feature team and make platform decisions, providing insight to team leads on projects.
- Improve and develop the Android application, continuous-integration automations, and tooling.
- Commit, review, and ship new code from the first week.
- Understand and prioritize security across all application layers.
- Write clean and maintainable code and build and release new screens.
- Test features manually and work with quality-assurance engineers on complex feature delivery.
- Use Kotlin, Model-View-ViewModel, Jetpack Compose with Material 3, Kotlin Coroutines and Flow, RxJava, Dagger 2, Hilt, Realm, and Room in the Android application.
- Participate in the rotated release-manager role and use internal tooling to standardize release steps and safer app-store rollouts.
- Share knowledge with colleagues and improve processes for efficient and productive delivery.
About the company
Starling Bank is a digital bank in the UK offering personal and business current accounts through a mobile app. For individuals, it provides features like instant spending notifications, insights, and Spaces (pots) to separate money. For businesses, it offers business accounts with invoicing and accounting integrations. The app handles account management, payments, and budgeting in one place, with transactions processed online and via card payments. The bank earns revenue from card interchange fees, interest on balances held with the central bank, and lending (such as personal loans and overdrafts). Its approach combines mobile-first banking with a broad set of services in a single app, differentiating itself through the Spaces budgeting tool, real-time transaction insights, and a strong focus on both personal and business banking. Starling’s goal is to grow its customer base while expanding its lending portfolio and offering a complete digital banking experience in the UK.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
Debt Financing
Total Funding
$1.3B
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Founded
2014
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- On 21 May 2026, Starling posted its fifth straight profitable year with £217.1 million pre-tax profit.
- August 2026 launches brought a student account, weekly smart tools, and business AI assistants.
- The September 2026 iwoca partnership embeds up to £1 million SME loans directly in-app.
What critics are saying
- The FCA fined Starling £28.96 million in 2024 for sanctions-screening failures.
- On 3 July 2026, Starling cut 130 jobs while increasing AI spending.
- FY26 profit fell to £217.1 million as BBLS provisions and credit losses resurfaced.
What makes Starling Bank unique
- Starling pairs retail banking, SME accounts, and embedded lending inside one app.
- Its 2026 AI tools automate budgeting, scam detection, and compliance for customers.
- Starling’s fee-free travel stack now includes eSIMs across 130 countries, deepening retention.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Life Insurance
Unlimited Paid Time Off
Paid Vacation
Paid Sick Leave
Paid Holidays
Hybrid Work Options
401(k) Retirement Plan
401(k) Company Match
Mental Health Support
Wellness Program
Family Planning Benefits
Fertility Treatment Support
Professional Development Budget
Conference Attendance Budget
Gym Membership
Phone/Internet Stipend
Home Office Stipend
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 0%1 year growth
↑ 1%2 year growth
↑ 1%Starling Bank's Anne Boden wants to compete with Anthropic for talent at new AI fintech. 6 hours ago It has been over three years since Anne Boden stepped down as CEO of Starling Bank, the digital banking unicorn most recently valued at £4bn ($5.4bn). After an extended period of absence, she now looks to be back in the startup game and has some lofty hiring aspirations. Boden said in a LinkedIn post earlier today that she's hiring for a "MoonShot" project and wants to hire people who are deciding between "making your fortune at Anthropic, or launching your own AI start-up." Boden describes the new venture as "engineering led" and "well paid with equity." It's another fintech, rather than a new AI lab. Boden said that the company will be "right at the start of the next revolution in banking technology," and ideally wants people with three years of banking tech experience. Speaking at a conference in June, Boden said that banks will be "opening bank accounts to agents" rather than individuals, and that app-based banks will be a thing of the past. Her new project may have something to do with that. Boden has been working on AI quietly since 2023, when she renamed one of her companies 'AI by Boden.' In micro-accounts for 2025 released on Companies House, the entity had just 3 employees. She did not respond to a request for comment on whether this new initative will be an expansion of that entity or whether it will be a new, standalone project. Starling Bank has been pushing heavily into AI as well, launching an agentic money manager in March. It has also used AI to cut jobs; The Guardian reported in July that the bank was cutting 130 roles, but Starling said it was "continuing to hire tech and AI engineers." Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you'd like to share? Contact: WhatsApp: http://wa.me/442079977910 (+44 20 7997 7910), Telegram: @AlexMcMurray, Signal: @AlexMcMurrayEFC.88 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email [email protected]. Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate. The essential daily roundup of news and analysis read by everyone from senior bankers and traders to new recruits. Boost your career. Find thousands of job opportunities by signing up to eFinancialCareers today. Top Articles
iwoca brings £1m SME loans to Starling Bank users. September 04, 2026 iwoca CCO Colin Goldstein shares how Starling Bank, embedded finance and API data sharing are enabling self-serve SME loans for business customers iwoca is embedding its SME lending directly inside Starling Bank's mobile and online banking through a full API integration, allowing business customers to apply for loans of up to £1m (US$1.4bn) without leaving their banking environment. The deal showcases how embedded finance is shifting from pilot projects to core distribution for specialist lenders, with data sharing and automated decisioning now table stakes for serving small businesses at scale. The Starling partnership extends iwoca's long-running embedded finance strategy, which began with its 2017 Tide integration and now spans more than 50 active partnerships across banking, accounting and marketplace platforms. By meeting SMEs inside the tools they already use, iwoca reduces friction at the "moment of need" and increases approval velocity through real-time data access. "Starling has built one of the UK's leading digital banks by obsessing over the customer experience and that's exactly the mindset we share," iwoca's Chief Commercial Officer Colin Goldstein exclusively tells FinTech Magazine. "The full API integration means their business customers can now access iwoca's funding seamlessly, right inside the app they already bank with. It's why embedded finance is the present and the future of SME lending. "Partnerships like this are central to how Fintech Magazine grow: with more than 50 active partnerships, Fintech Magazine has the potential to reach millions of small businesses through the platforms they already use every day. "Small businesses are the foundation of its economy and when they have access to finance at the moment of need, the positive effect is felt everywhere. That's exactly what Fintech Magazine has been doing for 15 years. "In the UK, iwoca's lending supported £3.5 billion (US$4.7bn) of GDP and 51,600 jobs over the last 12 months. "Fintech Magazine is also having a huge impact on individual businesses: its research shows that firms which access the funding they need go on to grow their revenue and succeed for longer. "Every partnership like this one takes us closer to our mission of financing one million businesses and creating even more value for the economy." The benefits of the partnership. Starling business customers can now apply for iwoca funding from within the Starling app, sharing their data seamlessly via API integration. They can access loans of up to £1m over five years to support their growth, through a fully self-serve journey with automated decisions and customer support available when needed. The integration removes manual document collection and shortens time-to-cash, a critical advantage for cash-flow-constrained SMEs. The offering is positioned as "fast, flexible business loans" with a predictable, fixed monthly term loan from £1,000 up to £1m, fast decisions and no hidden fees - with checking eligibility not affecting a customer's credit score. Key features of the embedded offering: * In-app application flow inside Starling's mobile and online banking, typically completed in about five minutes * API-based data sharing for real-time eligibility checks and automated underwriting, with soft credit checks on application * Loan sizes £1,000 to £1m, with terms from one to five years and monthly interest rates starting from 1.5% per 30 days (49% APR representative) * Instant decisions on loans up to £100,000 and typical decisions within 24 hours for larger amounts * No early repayment fees, with interest charged only for the days the loan is outstanding * Funds paid directly into the customer's Starling business account once the offer is accepted Economic impact and mission scale. Research from Capital Economics, commissioned by iwoca, shows its lending supported £3.5 billion of UK GDP and 51,600 jobs in the 12 months to January 2026, with every £100 deployed generating around £230 of economic activity. Since 2012, the lender has provided more than £4.5 billion to more than 100,000 UK businesses and has committed at least £1.5 billion of new funding for 2026. The Starling integration is designed to accelerate progress toward iwoca's mission of financing one million small businesses. Capital Economics analysis commissioned by iwoca finds SMEs that receive a specialist loan are 70% more likely to still be trading three years later than the UK average, with 80% of 2021-incorporated iwoca customers still on the Companies House register in 2025 versus 46% of all peers. The research also finds that cash flow remains a persistent barrier, with 48% of microbusinesses reporting cash-flow challenges in 2026, while challenger and specialist lenders now account for 68% of UK SME lending, up from 39% in 2012. Christoph Rieche, CEO and Co-Founder of iwoca, says: "Small businesses with real potential are being held back because many can't access the finance they need at the right moment, it's certainly not a lack of ambition. "What this research shows is that when finance is delivered, businesses are much more likely to weather difficult periods and succeed over the longer term. "With better financial support, SMEs tend to grow revenues, hire, build something sustainable, and contribute substantially to the economy." iwoca has funded more than 100,000 businesses, lending more than £4.5 billion since 2012. It has an ecosystem of partners including: * Starling Bank: UK digital bank serving millions of personal and business customers, known for app-first UX and open-banking capabilities. Its API ecosystem enables third-party services like iwoca to embed lending directly in the banking journey * Tide: Business banking platform and early embedded finance partner for iwoca, helping prove the model of in-app SME lending via API data sharing and automated decisions * Love Finance: Fast-growing UK SME lender and broker that integrated iwoca's API in late 2025 to speed decisioning and expand flexible funding options for small businesses * Binq: Business marketplace that connected to iwoca's broker API using Open Banking data and AI chat to surface funding from £1,000 to £1m in real time * Zempler Bank: Digital bank for start-ups and microbusinesses that partnered with iwoca to broaden its SME product set with quick-decision, flexible-repayment Executives. * Christoph Rieche CEO & Co-founder * Colin Goldstein Chief Commercial Officer, UK * James Dear Co-founder | Head of Systems & Numbers Company Portals
UK neobanks tested and upgraded: Monzo, Starling, and mobile wallets. Monzo survived a major outage using backup infrastructure, Starling rolled out AI banking tools, and nearly two-thirds of UK adults now use a mobile wallet. Here's what it all means for your money. share Share campaignWhat happened. Monzo, one of the UK's largest digital banks, suffered a notable service disruption that left thousands of customers temporarily locked out of their accounts. According to Finextra, the neobank activated a pre-built backup banking infrastructure to contain the damage - and the situation was resolved the same afternoon. In parallel, fellow UK neobank Starling unveiled a new set of AI-powered tools that allow businesses and developers to build customised banking services and automated workflows on top of its platform, Finextra reports. Separately, new data cited by Finextra shows that close to two-thirds of UK residents are now registered with at least one mobile wallet - even as physical cards continue to dominate actual transaction volumes. lightbulbWhy it matters. The Monzo outage is a timely reminder that app-only banks, however polished, depend entirely on technology staying online. What made the story notable is that Monzo had a backup system ready to deploy - a sign that the neobank sector is maturing and taking resilience more seriously. Starling's AI move, meanwhile, reinforces a growing trend: digital banks are competing not just on customer apps but on the infrastructure they sell to other businesses. The mobile wallet data rounds out the picture, confirming that digital-first financial habits are now the norm rather than the exception in the UK. account_balance_walletImpact on personal finance. If a digital bank is your only account, an outage can block access to your money at the worst possible moment - whether you're at a checkout or trying to transfer rent. Keeping a backup payment option, such as a card linked to a separate account, is a practical safeguard worth having. The rise of mobile wallets adds convenience but also brings new responsibility: more financial touchpoints mean more potential entry points for fraud or phishing. As AI tools become embedded in banking platforms, everyday users may eventually benefit from smarter, more personalised budgeting features and automated savings triggers - though those consumer-facing benefits are still developing. arrow_rightRegional perspective. These three stories are UK-specific, but the underlying dynamics - neobank resilience, AI-driven banking services, and the shift toward mobile payments - are unfolding across Europe and beyond. Users of digital-only banks in any region should periodically check whether they have a reliable backup way to access funds if their primary app goes down. Run these numbers on your own money. Treziqo shows you where your money actually goes, when a cash-flow gap is coming, and what to do about it. Budgets, debts, investments and receipts in one place. No spam. Just launch info and beta access notifications. Unsubscribe anytime. info This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment or financial advice. It was created with AI assistance under human editorial review, drawing on publicly available sources listed below.
Starling Bank launches AI assistant for business customers. By Rory Bathgate 24/08/2026 Starling Bank has announced the expansion of its agentic AI assistant, which the bank says can boost productivity and detect scams, to business accounts. Starling Assistant is freely available within the Starling app. The bank said it can benefit small businesses and fulfil complex banking commands. These include tax ring fencing, with Starling Assistant capable of calculating figures and setting money aside in response to the prompt "put 20 per cent of last month's earnings aside for VAT", as well as assessing invoices for potential scams or fraud. Starling added that the assistant can answer common compliance questions, such as when users are liable under HMRC's new Making Tax Digital (MTD) rules. Where relevant, Starling Assistant will also share links to MTD documents on HMRC's website. Harriet Rees, group chief information officer at Starling, said: "Fstech know that managing finances can be a major drain on time for small businesses. "Starling Assistant changes this by automating routine tasks and taking the guesswork out of money management. We're committed to boosting SME productivity, as Starling's own research shows that if more small businesses adopted digital financial tools their growth could add £25.3bn to the UK economy." Later this year, Starling intends to add functionality to the tool that will let it analyse and extract information from receipts. The bank said businesses will be able to ask Starling Assistant to complete prompts such as "summarise the amount I've spent on paint in the last week from receipts", and be given a personalised response drawn from receipts data. Starling first rolled out Starling Assistant for personal current account users in March and expanded its fraud detection functionality in June. In August, it said it was the first UK digital bank to introduce a student account, which comes with embedded AI features such as personalised spending tools.
Starling Bank has introduced AI-powered "smart tools" in its app, allowing customers to create custom features for money management. The bank will roll out new tools weekly, including tax analysis, spending quizzes, student budget planners, automated savings calculations, and fraud controls. Customers can submit their own smart tool concepts through the bank's agentic AI assistant, with crowdsourced ideas potentially made available to all users. "AI has become second nature to many of our customers, who engage with Starling Assistant daily," said Harriet Rees, group CIO at Starling. She added that smart tools "perform specific tasks and have specific pre-programmed prompts that customers can use with a simple tap." Rees noted that whilst money management tools are now common across banks, AI remains distinctive for neobanks.