It all began with a classic case of LinkedIn inbox blindness in 2022. Monzo reached out, and I? Well, let’s just say their messages might have been mistaken for... spam? Who knows. Anyway, the recruitment team tried again. And this time, it turns out, I’d already been low-key sold by Monzo’s very entertaining and seriously relatable LinkedIn posts. And that was before the whole Greg@Monzo phenomenon, which, by the way, if you're missing out on, you need to fix that ASAP!

What started as a "let’s have a casual chat about your skills and our open roles" quickly turned into… an actual thing, however with no fancy cover letter or an overly formal application; instead I found myself navigating a series of very engaging interviews. Months later, here I am, officially a Monzonaut, and apparently, I get to write about it!

As it turns out I showed up at the right time, like a pizza delivery just when everyone's starving. Four different Data Science Management roles were up for grabs! With my past experience leaning heavily towards Marketing Analytics, I decided to throw a curveball and aim for something different - the role in Operations. The interviews were as you’d expect: plenty of questions about collaborating across teams, walking through past team management & leadership gigs, and then BAM - the most exciting part: a take-home exercise to flex my metric-designing and experiment-scoping muscles. Because that's how we roll at Monzo. 

Fast forward three months: I joined Monzo. For anyone joining the Data discipline, the journey at Monzo starts with a month of serious brain-loading: two weeks of company-wide onboarding, with another two weeks of data training happening either after or concurrently. This is genuinely 10/10 material with topics ranging from Monzo Values and What It Is Like to Work for a Bank to dbt training, teaching newbies how to build data pipelines, Looker sessions, and getting up to speed with Experimentation at Monzo. Once this is completed, new joiners typically tackle an onboarding project to warm up, but I joined at a time when my squad was running pretty lean on data support. So instead of easing in, I got tossed straight into the squad rituals. No complaints - it felt like skipping the tutorial and diving straight into the main quest. The quest? Teaming up with folks from data, engineering, and product - the usual suspects in the tech jungle - to tackle real business problems with smart, scalable solutions.

The tech squad I joined supports Workforce Management (WFM), a key part of Operations. For the curious, WFM is basically the art (and science!) of making sure the right number of people with the right skills are working at the right time on the right tasks to keep everything ticking like clockwork. Think of WFM as the backstage crew making sure the show goes on - no chaos, no missed cues.

The squad’s role? We’re the tech wizards behind the scenes, building and maintaining the tools that help those WFM heroes do their magic. At the core of this is a drive to increase automation, ensuring our incredibly skilled human workforce can focus their efforts on the complex problems that machines are not able to tackle. As our CTO recently said, "Automating isn't about reducing jobs, it's about helping our Monzonauts be freed up more to work on the most important things."

Our responsibilities in the squad span across several key areas. This includes making sure our Customer Support platform - the place where our customer chatter happens - runs smoothly, and that we are constantly improving it. We're also in charge of predicting the future (no tarot cards here though, just a rigorous analysis of how many customers are going to need us) so that we can schedule work accurately. And last but not least - as you may expect - we collect and analyse data to help our colleagues understand their own performance. All this, so our customers get the kind of support that makes them say "Wow!" (or maybe "Woohoo!").

And who are the real stars of the show? Our COps (Customer Operations folks) - the friendly humans who unblock your card, investigate anything suspicious, or guide you through repayment plans when life gets a bit bumpy. Yep, those are the heroes you chat with when you need assistance.

Well, I’m only eight months in, but honestly, the list is already longer than the number of Slack channels I’m a member of (and trust me, it is a long one!)

Monzo might be a bank, but don’t let that fool you - it’s a tech wonderland. Every data model is just a few clicks away - like following a breadcrumb trail from a Looker dashboard all the way down to the raw events table. It’s data detective work at its finest.

Picture this: Monzo’s data disciple is a well-oiled machine with four main data roles. We make a pretty clear call on who does what, though sometimes there’s a bit of fun overlap - because hey, great data work is a team sport. However, each role brings its own superpowers to the table:

And management? They’re like the conductors of this orchestra, ensuring everyone plays in harmony. Plus, Monzo’s been doing a great job lately of drawing clear lines between individual contributor and management roles - which means less confusion, more focus, and a better sense of what growth can look like in either path. However, this clarity doesn’t imply rigidity - the structure permits flexible transitions between paths. 

Monzonauts are simply magicians. Super sharp, super helpful, and with banter that’s as real as your morning coffee fix. I lose count of how many times someone slides into my DMs with a “Need a hand?” or “What do you reckon?” Honestly, it feels like being part of a really clever, friendly (and slightly geeky) crew.

The problems we tackle here? Very interesting, and honestly, some deserve their own blog posts [which is on my to do list to write about next!]. Take one recent example: improving the Task Routing System using smart prioritisation formulas. Imagine hundreds of customer tasks waiting in a queue. How do you decide which to tackle first? Do you stick with a simple first-in-first-out rule, or get a bit more intelligent? Tasks that could lead to bigger losses - for both the customer and Monzo - get priority, even if they crash the party a little late. It’s a neat blend of science, tech, and business strategy all wrapped up in one challenge - and solving it makes a real difference.

Ah yes, the question on everyone’s lips (right after “Do you get free Monzo merch?” - ‘Yes we do!”) “How flexible is the work, really?” So let me spill the tea: You're basically the boss of your own office vibe. Want to rock your pajamas from the couch? Absolutely. Missing the office hustle? Come on in! 

As long as you're getting things done, you're golden. And for those of us juggling parental duties or other caregiving gigs? Just give a shout! I, for instance, can keep Wednesday afternoons free to hang out with my tiny humans. Meanwhile my colleagues can choose different patterns that work for them, without needing to reduce their contracted hours. 

Here’s the real talk: you can’t do everything, and trying to do so will only lead to chaos. You’ve gotta get laser-focused on what moves the needle the most. Luckily, the team helps you figure out what’s hot and what’s not - but you’ve got to speak up and claim your space. Leadership’s got your back, but you’re the one holding the map.

If what you’ve read here resonates and you’re passionate about making money work for everyone, we’re hiring designers, engineers, product managers and many more across Monzo! Take a look at our careers page to see if we have the right role for you.