Case Study: Starling Bank achieves 225% engineering growth and £184,766 in agency savings with Talentful

Growing Starling Bank’s engineering team by 225%

Starling Bank, a London-based digital challenger bank, was struggling with an inefficient, fragmented hiring process that relied heavily on agencies and direct applications—especially after shifting engineering hiring to a smaller candidate pool in Southampton. To tackle these challenges, Starling engaged Talentful for a dedicated recruitment partnership focused on scaling their engineering team.

Talentful embedded two Talent Partners onsite for 12 months, centralised Starling’s hiring, implemented a formal headhunting approach, trained the in-house team, and provided best-practice documentation and employer-branding events. The partnership grew engineering headcount from 60 to 135 (225% growth), saved £184,766 versus traditional agency models, and achieved a 10.39% effective rate while exceeding revised hiring targets.

Starling Bank

Becci Freeman

People Business Partner