Head of Credit Decision Modelling and Strategy

Head of Credit Decision Modelling and Strategy

Starling · London, United Kingdom (Hybrid) · Full-time · Posted 2026-11-11

Workplace: hybrid

Department: Risk

Description

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. Read more about our story here.

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 3,500 people across our London, Southampton, Cardiff and Manchester offices.

To support our ongoing growth, we’re looking to recruit a Head of Credit Risk Modelling and Strategy within the 2nd line Credit Risk Team. The role will play a pivotal role in safeguarding the financial stability of the Bank by leading the development and continuous improvement of regulatory and operational credit risk models and credit decisioning strategies. The role requires a deep understanding of credit risk principles, regulatory requirements, and credit model and strategy development. As part of the second line of defence, you will work closely with, and provide insight to, stakeholders across the business, while delivering robust credit risk models and strategies that align with the Bank’s overall risk appetite and strategy.

Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities

• Lead the development, monitoring and maintenance of the Bank’s credit risk decisioning models, including acquisition scorecards and affordability models.
• Develop and monitor automated decisioning strategies for the Bank’s lending products.
• Define standards for credit risk model development which align to the Bank’s Model Risk Framework, and ensure these are implemented within the team.
• Ensure all credit risk models and strategies comply with relevant UK regulatory standards, including PRA and FCA requirements.
• Collaborate with key internal stakeholders, including the first line Asset Management and Finance teams, to ensure models and strategies support business objectives.
• Ensure all models and standards are documented to a high standard, and present outputs to senior stakeholders and committees.
• Lead and develop a high performing team of risk modelling analysts, and support individual continuous professional development.
• Keep track of industry trends and regulatory requirements to continually enhance the Bank’s management of credit risk.

Requirements

• 10+ years’ experience in Credit Risk within a Banking environment.
• Strong experience of credit risk modelling, gained through model development or validation related roles.
• Strong understanding of retail and SME lending products.
• Experience of developing and maintaining credit risk strategies, ideally in an unsecured retail lending environment.
• Experience of a range of lending products (mortgages, unsecured retail lending, SME lending) preferred.
• Proven experience in influencing, negotiation and relationship management.
• Strong communication skills, with experience of preparing and presenting documents in relation to models.
• Coding experience in Python, R, SAS or similar.
• Good knowledge of model risk governance.

Benefits

• 25 days holiday (plus take your public holiday allowance whenever 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
• 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
• 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 and Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships

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.

By submitting your application, you agree that Starling Bank may collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we may process, where we may process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal information.

We use AI tools to support various parts of our recruitment process, helping our team manage applications and assessments more efficiently. These tools are strictly used for support and do not replace human judgment with all final hiring decisions being made by our team. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please reach out to us.

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