User Researcher

Starling is the UK's leading digital bank on a mission to make banking better! Our vision is fast technology, fair service, and honest values. All at the tap of a phone, all the time.

We are about giving customers a better 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 2,800 across five offices in London, Cardiff, Dublin, Southampton, and Manchester. Our journey started in 2014, and since then we have surpassed 3.5 million accounts. We are a fully licensed UK bank but at the heart we are a tech first company with a platform that enables our brilliant products.

Product is part of the technology team at the very heart of Starling. We work in a fast-paced environment that is all about making progress and building things that keep us on the cutting edge of fintech. We operate a flat structure to empower you to make decisions. 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 at Starling is to be someone who is motivated and inquisitive, keen to help us understand problems and work collaboratively to design and build smart, pragmatic things that 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're able to interact and collaborate in person. We don't like to mandate how much you visit the office and work from home, that's to be agreed upon between you and your manager. 

Our Product Environment

At Starling we spend our time building products that we're really proud of. We focus on the experience, often delivering things with real polish but sometimes making a fast strategic move. We're always working closely and collaboratively with our engineers to solve problems, build new products and improve existing ones. We focus on what is right for our customers and stick to our values.

We think being good at product requires clear communication, a sense of focus, and to challenge the conventional ways of doing things. We're open-minded when it comes to hiring, we care more about skills and attitude than specific experience or qualifications. If you care about finding elegant solutions to difficult problems and advocating for the customer, we'd love to hear from you.

We're looking to expand our product team to help us build products and features across our app, online bank and even our internal tools. There's a wide variety of things we work on and we're a small team that spends our time working alongside engineers to make our products the best they can be. There's lots of scope to get involved in all aspects of Starling and we're looking for someone who is keen to get stuck in and work collaboratively.

Applications close on 5th January 2025, but we encourage you to apply as soon as possible if you are interested in the role. Interviews will begin early January 2025.

What you'll be doing as you're settling into your new role:

• Get familiar with the world of banking and Starling as an organisation. 

• Work closely with the product team across different product areas to identify and shape tactical research initiatives for new and existing products. 
• Run tactical research projects and communicate actionable and impactful research findings.
• Identify opportunities for generative research that will have a positive impact on our customers and our business.

What you'll be doing after you've settled:

• Help build our understanding of the banking habits and attitudes of people in the UK in order to ensure we focus on the right things for customers.
• Work closely with the product team to identify and shape research initiatives that both fuel ideation and evaluate product experiences.
• Offer guidance, feedback, and support to non-researchers who need to learn from users as part of their role. 
• Plan, execute and deliver research, and apply the appropriate research methods to answer the teams' highest priority questions.

What you'll need:

• You have a few years of professional experience in applied user research for digital products. 
• You have experience with both generative and evaluative research and you're comfortable initiating, running and communicating research.
• You have experience using both qualitative and quantitative user research methods and you're knowledgeable about best practice. This role requires a good understanding of qualitative methods, such as contextual inquiry, interviews and usability testing, and a basic understanding of statistical concepts to support quantitative methods, such as quantitative surveys. 
• You're comfortable working across different product areas and you're flexible and able to adapt your approach to deliver the most important insights at the right time.
• You have great presentation skills, especially when it comes to sharing impactful insights.
• You're able to work closely with your team to act on your insights and ideate based on your findings.
• You see research as a team sport, and you're happy to collaborate and build relationships with your cross-functional team members.
• You have a portfolio showing clear examples of how your research has played an important part in building successful digital products that have had a positive impact on customers and the business.

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 below, following a chat with one of our Talent Team:

• Stage 1 - 45 mins with one of the team
• Stage 2 - 90 mins case study interview with two team members 
• Stage 3 - 45 min final with two executives

• 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, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing

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.