Head of Legal - Starling Bank (UK Bank) - London

Hello, we're Starling. 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. 

We are looking for an experienced lawyer to join our team as Head of Legal for Starling Bank (the UK bank). This is a new role, which will take responsibility for all legal matters relating to the UK bank. 

The new Head of Legal will have deep experience in UK retail and SME banking matters, the regulatory regime in which Starling Bank operates and significant experience in leading and motivating legal teams.  Experience of working at Board and Executive level, building relationships across legal teams and building consensus with other functions within the bank, in particular with Risk, Compliance and Governance will also be key.

Responsibilities include:

• Provision of legal advice and support in respect of all matters relating to the UK bank at all levels of the organisation where needed
• Leading and developing high performing teams of legal professionals
• Representing Legal on relevant internal governance committees and fora
• Identifying, managing and reporting all relevant risks and issues as they relate to the UK bank in a timely manner
• Working with other teams across the bank, including in particular Risk, Compliance & Governance to ensure legal advice is communicated correctly to all relevant stakeholders and all risks and issues are proactively managed to resolution
• Taking responsibility for cross team projects and initiatives where necessary

• Qualified lawyer with significant previous experience in retail and SME banking and the regulatory environment in which Starling Bank operates
• Demonstrative previous experience of leading and developing legal teams
• Extensive previous experience and understanding of legal operations for an in house team
• Confident communicator, with the ability to distill and present complex legal issues to stakeholders
• Ability to exercise critical judgement and challenge robustly where necessary across all levels of the organisation

Applications for this role will close at 5pm on January 10th 2025.

• 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.

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