Monzo is one of the UK’s most well-known neobanks, with more than 13m customers and £16bn in customer deposits. The challenger bank makes most of its money from banking and lending to retail customers in its home country, and has offices in London and Cardiff.
And in recent years, it’s also made a push elsewhere. In June this year, Monzo moved into an office in Ireland as part of its expansion across the European Union; in July it also opened an engineering hub in Barcelona. Monzo is also available to US customers via a partnership with Ohio-based Sutton Bank, and has an office in San Francisco.
Since its founding in 2015, the neobank’s employee numbers have increased eightyfold, from just 47 employees in 2017 to close to 4,000 today. According to its website, it is currently hiring for more than 80 roles, with 15 of those in engineering.
Monzo’s VP of people, Tara Ryan, tells Sifted the fintech has spent a significant amount of time ensuring its hiring processes for those jobs are not only efficient but also inclusive by aiming to hire from diverse backgrounds. “We’re committed to ensuring that our process is as inclusive as possible,” she says.
Sifted asked Ryan what the company looks for in all incoming candidates.
What kinds of qualifications do you look for in potential candidates?
As part of our recruitment efforts, we are always looking for candidates who demonstrate customer centricity, structured thinking, active problem-solving abilities, an innovative approach and who are constantly challenging themselves in applying their skills and knowledge to an unfamiliar situation. We really value transferable skills and experience, as we know someone’s capability is more than just looking at grades or what university a candidate went to.
Of course there are some roles, such as within our finance or legal teams, which require formal technical qualifications, but we also really value candidates who have taken the initiative to proactively upskill themselves, for example, through training programmes and courses, or by learning new tools or approaches.
What's the job interview process like?
We have spent a significant amount of time enhancing our hiring processes as we have continued to grow and scale, by building out tools that make the overall experience more efficient and better for candidates.
Our hiring process includes technical- and values-based interviews designed to allow candidates to show off their skills. This enables us to select the best candidates who are aligned with our mission and have the skills and experience to do a great job. We believe a multi-interview process also supports the candidate to meet multiple members of the team and ask questions to make sure Monzo is the right next step for them.
Our interview process typically has three to five stages. For a lot of roles, applicants will speak to an in-house recruiter as a first point of contact. This conversation will focus on the core skills and capabilities that we are looking for.
Then there will be a more in-depth technical interview or task-focused on the core role that the candidate is interviewing for. The goal of the task is to better understand an applicant’s approach to problem-solving and their thought process, rather than a test of technical knowledge.
Each task will be tailored to the role that the candidate applied for, for example, a candidate for a marketing role may be tasked with sharing some ideas for a campaign for a Monzo product. The candidate is not expected to present a fully fledged campaign but demonstrate their thinking. This is an opportunity for people to share their skills and experience in different ways as we know not everyone thrives in a live interview format.
And finally, a behavioural interview which focuses on how prospective candidates do their work and their approach to leadership. The interview will include questions about values, leadership and day to day ways of working. In this interview we're looking for candidates to share examples of how they've utilised feedback, how they bounce back when things don't go their way as well as other key traits that are important for a mission-driven fast paced working environment.
What are the first few months like for a new hire?
We are committed to creating an inclusive environment which is focused on providing new employees with everything they need to settle in and ramp up quickly to their new life at Monzo.
All new employees follow a specific onboarding process with fellow new joiners, and have access to a range of resources to help them get up to speed on all things Monzo.
All employees are required to complete multiple mandatory training modules, which are refreshed every year. Topics covered include banking regulations, inclusion, data protection, fraud, security and accessibility and some relevant to their roles, such as financial promotions for marketing and product roles, for example.
One unique aspect of our onboarding process is a writing training session that our team runs, which helps our new team members become more confident at writing using the Monzo tone of voice.
Do you have an internal training or mentoring schemes for new hires?
We are particularly proud of our leadership academy, which has just entered its second year. Every manager of more than three people at Monzo is enrolled and it creates a community to lean on and learn from. In 2024, we ran 15 in-person sessions and 60 virtual sessions with nearly 300 managers.
We also have mentor schemes across the organisation. We’ve just launched our Diversity and Inclusion career mentoring programme to support people in employee networks to get access to mentoring at Monzo. This programme is designed to focus on the career and skills aspirations of Monzonauts with the aim of partnering them with someone who has the experience and insight to spark inspiration.
In early 2025, Monzo launched its official Women's Network as a key part of its broader diversity and inclusion strategy. At Monzo, we’re committed to building a workplace where everyone can thrive and bring their unique perspectives to the table. We know that diverse voices drive innovation, creativity and better decisions.
