Security Engineer - Engine by Starling

At Engine by Starling, we are on a mission to find and work with leading banks all around the world who have the ambition to build rapid growth businesses, on our technology. 

Engine is Starling's software-as-a-service (SaaS) business, the technology that was built to power Starling Bank, and a year ago we split out as a separate business. 

Starling Bank has seen exceptional growth and success, and a large part of that is down to the fact that we have built our own modern technology from the ground up. This SaaS technology platform is now available to banks and financial institutions all around the world, enabling them to benefit from the innovative digital features, and efficient back-office processes that has helped achieve Starling's success.

Our technologists are at the very heart of Engine 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 Engine is to be a self-driven individual and be able to take full ownership of everything around you: From building things, designing, and 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 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 Engine - our preference is that you're located within a commutable distance of our offices so that we're able to interact and collaborate in person.

About the role:

We are looking for an experienced Security Engineer to join our growing Security Engineering team, working closely with the GRC & compliance team and the various Engine Technology teams to make sure security is at the heart of all our technical processes. Your place within the team will depend on your individual strengths and interests.

This role will cover a wide array of security areas across our multi-tenant SaaS cloud environments and internal infrastructure and will require a skilled individual to spearhead efforts in fortifying both infrastructure and application platforms, against potential threats.

Engine by Starling engineers are excited about helping us deliver new features, regardless of what their primary tech stack may be. Hear more from the team in some case studies, below, and our work with Women In Tech.

• Day in the Life of a Software Engineer
• Running a Backend Team

What you’ll get to do?

• Collaborate with stakeholders to define our Google Cloud security architecture (Cloud identity, runtime security, security posture)
• Create security tooling to enhance our specific security landscape
• Be part of the team responsible for safeguarding our systems, applications, and data by ensuring secure user access, authentication, and authorisation mechanisms are in place
• Help us to stay nimble by building compliance and security control automations
• Drive security infrastructure deployments across our growing environments

• Perform regular security assessments, audits, threat modeling and architecture design reviews to identify risks and vulnerabilities, triage found risks, identify improvements appropriately and design controls to implement as corrective actions
• Lead incident response efforts, including investigation and remediation of security breaches
• Support our internal security awareness and training programs and advocating the DevSecOps mindset that we have created across our technology teams

Requirements

What skills are essential:

• You have an in-depth knowledge of security principles, technologies, best practices and threat detection and mitigation strategies
• Knowledge of common attack vectors and methodologies (OWASP Top 10, Mitre ATT&CK Framework and social engineering tactics
• The ability to identify potential threats, attack vectors, and vulnerabilities in systems and applications
• Ability to document security requirements from various stakeholders
• Mature understanding and experience with cloud security architecture (AWS, Google Cloud) with a proven track record
• Excellent problem-solving, communication and active listening skills with an innate passion for security 
• Ability to identify security gaps and create solutions to minimise the risk and impact to us
• A proactive approach to staying updated with the latest security threats, vulnerabilities, and mitigation techniques
• Strong programming skills, in security we write our own scripts for automation in Python, Go and other languages while contributing to open-source tools so we can utilise them 
• Experience in automating security controls and compliance checks against standards and frameworks which include SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS/3DS
• Thorough understanding of the incident response process (preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery, lessons learned)

What skills are desirable:

• Hands on experience taking your company through security and compliance frameworks like NIST, SOC2, ISO27001, PCI-DSS
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and infrastructure provisioning tools (Cloudformation, Terraform)
• Expertise in Kubernetes, securing clusters and meshes (Cilium is preferable), networking best practices and RBAC implementation (CKA, CKS qualifications are a plus)
• Container security knowledge including container image provenance (e.g. Sigstore, Notary) with an in-depth knowledge of container runtimes
• Strong understanding of network protocols & practices, firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems and WAFs
• Understanding of integrating security into the software development lifecycle
• Experience performing secure code reviews and security approvals including the use of static and dynamic application security testing (SAST/DAST) tools.
• Experience in Cryptography management & enhancements
• Experience configuring and utilising cloud-native security logging, monitoring, and detection services
• Relevant security certifications such as ISC2 CC, CISSP, CCSP, CISM, AWS Security Specialist or GCP Professional Cloud Security Engineer

Our 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:

• Initial interview with our deputy CTO - ~45 minutes
• Technical interview with some of our Security Engineers - ~1.5 hours
• Final interview with our CTO / BISO ~45 minutes

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.

Engine by 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 Engine by 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. 

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