Red Team Operator (Cyber Resilience)

Starling; Cardiff; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

33 days holiday

Birthday leave

Private medical insurance

Pension scheme

Cycle to work

Wellness benefits

Job summary

Starling Bank is seeking an experienced Offensive Security professional to join as a Red Team specialist. You will design and run adversarial simulations, test cloud and endpoint defences, and use threat intel to shape resilient response strategies.

You will work closely with defensive teams to remediate findings and continually enhance our security posture in a fast-paced fintech environment.

Qualifications

• Experience in offensive security testing and threat emulation.
• Understanding of cyber kill chains and MITRE ATT&CK.
• Familiarity with red-team tools and blue-team collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute end-to-end red/purple team operations.
• Emulate real threat actors and test defences across cloud and endpoint environments.
• Utilise threat intelligence to adapt attack simulations and improve resilience.
• Collaborate with defensive teams to remediate vulnerabilities and improve playbooks.
• Keep up-to-date with trends in offensive security and resilience.

Skills

Offensive security

Red Teaming

Pentesting

MITRE ATT&CK

Cloud security (AWS/GCP)

IaC & CI/CD

Networking fundamentals

Windows/Linux

Scripting (Python/PowerShell)

Communication

Education

CRTO/OSEP/OSCP or equivalent

Tools

Cobalt Strike

Mythic

PowerShell

Burp Suite

NMAP

Wireshark

Job description

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. All at the tap of a phone, all the time.

We are about giving customers a new 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 2300 across five offices in London, Cardiff, Dublin, Southampton, and soon to be Manchester. Our journey started in 2014, and since then we have surpassed three million accounts (and four account types!) with 350,000 business customers. We are a fully licensed UK bank but at the heart, we are a tech first company, enabling our platform to deliver brilliant products.

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.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Participating in end-to-end red and purple team operations, as well as designing and delivering cyber resilience exercises (e.g. threat modelling, tabletops, targeted testing, and simulations that evaluate Starling's response and recovery capabilities)
• Emulating real-world threat actors and leveraging MITRE ATT&CK to test the organisation's defences across both cutting-edge cloud infrastructure and the endpoint estate
• Utilising dedicated research time to identify emerging threats, understand new vulnerabilities, and adapt Threat Actor TTPs that can be leveraged during assessments
• Working alongside defensive teams post-engagement to actively remediate vulnerabilities, refine playbooks, and improve the overall security and resilience posture of the organization
• Engaging in continuous learning and professional development, keeping up to date with current trends in both offensive security and operational resilience

Operations will emulate real threat actors and target cutting edge technology in Starling Bank's platform as well as ranging across the endpoint estate. You will use emerging threat intelligence to inform and develop effective attacks.

You will be an early member of the team and have the opportunity to shape the development and growth of the team.

Requirements

You will have:

• 2+ years of experience in Offensive Security (Red Teaming, Pentesting) OR highly technical other cyber security domains. Alternatively, Cyber Resilience experience in delivering Response and Recovery focused cyber simulations (Threat Modelling, Tabletops, Targeted Testing)
• Experience emulating real-world cyber threats to test the organisation's defences and response capabilities. Understanding cyber kill chains and common MITRE TTPs
• Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CRTO, OSEP, OSMR, OSCP) OR equivalent practical experience in defensive, offensive, or cyber resilience operations
• Familiarity with standard C2 frameworks (e.g., Mythic, Cobalt Strike) and common offensive security tooling
• Strong network and operating system fundamentals e.g Windows, Linux
• Big picture understanding of cloud technology (AWS & GCP) and modern software engineering paradigms (CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code)
• Ability to work to defined rules of engagement, showing strong discipline, integrity, steady judgement, and the communication skills to bridge the gap between technical exploits and business recovery

Though not necessarily required, the ideal candidate would also bring:

• Experience chaining offensive operations directly into broader organisational resilience or response exercises
• Exposure to financial sector threat-led penetration testing frameworks (e.g., CBEST, STAR, or DORA) or operational resilience regulations
• Deep understanding of macOS operating system fundamentals
• Experience in payload modification, scripting (Python, Go, PowerShell, bash), or software engineering (Java, Kotlin, Go)
• Experience in Social Engineering such as phishing, physical break-in, or vishing
• Experience and enthusiasm for sharing knowledge internally to educate staff on the threat landscape and response processes

Interview process:

• Stage 1 - 45 mins with one of the team
• Stage 2 - 60 mins technical interview with two team members
• Stage 3 - 45 min final with two executives

Benefits

• 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! 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. When you provide us with this information, you are doing so at your own consent, with full knowledge that we will process this personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice.