Head of Social Media

Description

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 3,500 people across our London, Southampton, Cardiff and Manchester offices.

We're hiring a Head of Social Media to join our Marketing team during a pivotal new phase of growth. You'll shape Starling's social strategy across multiple platforms as we launch our new brand platform with major above and below-the-line advertising.

We are looking for an experienced leader who lives and breathes social media, combining creative flair with a passion for data. Your goal is to move Starling out of the banking category and into the heart of culture. You will treat content as our primary engine for growth, enabling and celebrating our audiences to show the world what it truly means to be good with money. You won't just manage channels; you will build a content ecosystem that ensures Starling is the most discoverable and trusted voice in the digital age.

Please apply by close of business Monday 27th April.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Oversight & Channel Ownership: You will own the overarching strategy for Starling's social presence. This means defining the specific role of each channel (from TikTok to LinkedIn), establishing how the brand shows up authentically on each, and ensuring a cohesive visual and tonal "umbrella" across our entire digital footprint.

• Own Content output: Move beyond ad-hoc posting to build and scale "Content Franchises" and solid talent and creator strategy in consistent, high-value formats across TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn that helps achieve our objectives along the funnel.
• Optimise for GEO & AI Discoverability: Future-proof our presence. You'll ensure Starling content is structured to win in Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), making us the primary source for AI-driven financial queries and social search.
• Community Architecture: Shift from "managing comments" to "building communities." You will identify and empower Starling advocates within Reddit, Discord, and niche financial circles.
• Lead & Inspire: Mentor a high-octane team of creators and platform specialists, fostering an environment where "social-first" is the default setting.
• Cultural Reactivity: Be the pulse of the brand. You'll lead on proactive influencer partnerships and high-speed reactive content that inserts Starling into the cultural conversation with wit, empathy, and flair.
• Cross-Functional Synergy: Work alongside Product, Brand, and Data teams to ensure our social strategy isn't a silo, but a feedback loop that informs how we build features and talk to our customers.
• Paid social extensions: Collaborate with growth team to adapt and scale organic social assets into high performing assets on paid social.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Work with our customer service team, product marketing and corporate affairs to spot opportunities and react to conversations with proactive cut-through ideas.

Requirements

• Modern Track Record: Proven experience leading social teams in a high-growth, "community-first" environment. You know how to scale a brand without losing its soul.
• Audience understanding: Ability to understand audience's needs and interest to create content they will want to watch and engage with and find talent and creators that fits with their lifestyle - aligned with our tone of voice and brand narrative.
• Algorithm & AI Literacy: A deep, intuitive understanding of platform algorithms, GEO, and how LLMs (Large Language Models) categorize and surface brand content.
• Creative Intuition: The ability to brief and "greenlight" content that feels native to the platform, not like a repurposed TV ad. You will be able to push how a brand behaves on social beyond memes and reactive trends expectations.
• Risk and compliance: Appetite to learn and accountability to tackle risk to avoid financial promotions that could damage the brand. Ability to operate at speed to ensure the right approvals and audit trails are honoured.
• Data-Driven Rigor: Expert-level use of Sprout, native analytics, and social listening tools to prove ROI and pivot strategy in real-time.
• Niche Navigator: Experience in identifying and accessing fragmented audiences-knowing that "the mass market" is now actually a collection of thousands of specific niches.

Benefits

• 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.

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.