Payments Director

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.

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 3,000 people across our London, Southampton, Cardiff and Manchester offices.

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, we are in this together!

The way to thrive and shine within Starling is to be a self-driven individual and be able to 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're able to interact and collaborate in person. In Technology, we're asking that you attend the office a minimum of 1 day per week.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Payments Director to lead our Payments  function and ensure that our payments services operate safely, reliably and in line with our regulatory and scheme obligations.

Sitting within Technology and reporting to the Chief IT Control Officer, this is a senior leadership role with responsibility for providing effective oversight and control of the Bank’s payments ecosystem. You will lead the Payments team, ensuring payment risks are understood and appropriately managed, regulatory and scheme requirements are met, and our critical third party relationships are effectively governed.

You will work across Technology, Operations, Risk, Compliance and the wider business providing clear ownership and leadership when issues arise and helping us maintain a resilient, well controlled payments environment as the Bank continues to grow.

Why this role matters:

Payments are at the heart of our customers’ experience and are one of the most critical services we provide.

At Starling, we want to move quickly and continue to innovate, but we also need to ensure that our payments services remain safe, resilient, compliant and well controlled.

As Payments Director, you’ll play a central role in achieving the balance. You’ll bring together technology, risk, regulation, suppliers and schemes to ensure we understand our exposures, respond effectively when things go wrong and continue to strengthen our payments capability as the bank grows.

What you'll get to do

You will provide leadership and oversight across the Bank’s payments activities, with particular responsibility for: 

• Payment risk and control - ensuring risks across the payments estate are identified, assessed and effectively managed, with a strong and proportionate control environment.
• Regulatory and scheme compliance - ensuring the bank understands and meets its obligations relating to payments, including applicable regulatory requirements, industry standards and payment scheme rules
• Scheme Management - owning and overseeing key relationships with payment schemes and networks, including Mastercard, ensuring obligations are met and changes, issues and risks are appropriately managed
• Supplier and third party management - providing effective oversight of critical payment suppliers and partners, ensuring appropriate performance, governance, risk management and escalation arrangements are in place
• Incident Management - providing senior leadership and oversight of payment incidents, ensuring issues are managed effectively from identification through to resolution, with appropriate stakeholder communication, root cause analysis and remediation.
• Operational Resilience - ensuring payment services are resilient and recoverable, with appropriate contingency arrangements, testing and oversight of critical interdependencies
• Change and emerging risk - assessing the risk and control implications of changes to payment products, platforms, regulation, schemes and suppliers, ensuring appropriate controls are embedded from the outset.
• Governance and reporting - providing clear and insightful reporting on payment risks, incident, supplier performance, compliance and emerging issues to senior management and relevant governance forums.
• Leadership - leading and developing a high performing payments team, establishing clear accountability and building strong relationships across Technology and the wider bank.

You will bring significant leadership experience within payments, ideally gained within a bank, fintech, payments provider or similar regulated financial services environment.

You will have a strong understanding of the payments landscape and the risks associated with delivering critical payment services. You’ll be comfortable operating at the intersection of technology, operations, risk and regulation, and able to translate complex payment issues into clear decisions and outcomes.

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate:

• Deep knowledge of payment services, payment schemes and associated regulatory requirements
• Strong experience of payments risk management, controls, and governance
• Experience managing relationships with card schemes, payment networks, processors and other critical third parties
• A strong understanding of technology and operational risk within a regulated environment
• Experience leading the response to significant payment or technology incidents and driving effective remediation
• Knowledge of operational resilience and the management of critical services and third party dependencies
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the credibility to influence senior leaders, suppliers, schemes and other external parties
• The ability to provide constructive challenge while remaining pragmatic and commercially aware
• Proven experience leading and developing teams in a fast-moving environment.

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:

1. First stage with the two members of the Payments/Cards and Tech Risk teams ~ 45 minutes
2. Second stage with additional members of the Payments/Cards and Tech Risk, including the Chief Technology Risk Officer ~ 1 hour
3. Final stage with the deputy CIO ~ 45 minutes

• 33 days holiday (including public holidays, which you can take when it 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 & group income protection
• 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
• Incentives refer a friend scheme
• 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

About us

You may be put off applying for a role because you don't tick every box. Forget that! 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 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 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. 

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