Interviewing for a new role can feel daunting, especially when processes vary from company to company. Not knowing what to expect can add unnecessary stress, particularly for leadership roles where the scope is broader and expectations can feel less defined.

This guide is designed to give you a high-level overview of what to expect when interviewing for leadership roles (L50+) across data disciplines at Monzo. While the structure outlined here is consistent, each role and team will have its own areas of focus. Throughout your process, you’ll work closely with your recruiter to understand where to prioritise your time and how to best prepare for the specific role you’re applying for.

At Monzo, we default to transparency. That means being open not just internally, but also with our customers, board members, investors—and our prospective hires. Our interview process is no exception.

We hire for strengths, and our interviews are designed to help us understand yours. We genuinely want you to do well. Ultimately, the process is about answering two questions:

While we assess different skills depending on the role, our leadership interview process broadly consists of five stages:

The recruiter call is a chance for us to get to know each other. We’ll talk through your career journey and leadership experience, what you’re looking for next, and why Monzo. We’ll also give you a clear overview of the role and hiring process, and explore how your leadership style aligns with how we work. There’ll be plenty of time for your questions too, so you can decide if this feels like the right fit.

The initial call with the hiring manager is a 45-minute conversation where we’ll go deeper into your experience. We’ll explore your technical background, how you work with stakeholders, and your approach to leading and developing high-performing teams. It’s also a chance to talk through how you think about problems and make decisions, while giving you space to ask questions and get to know the team and role in more detail.

This behavioural interview is focused on how you work. We’ll ask you to talk through real examples from your experience, looking at how you approach problems, make decisions, and work with others.

We’re less interested in technical depth here (that’s covered elsewhere), and more in your role in the work, what you did, how you did it, and what you learned along the way. We’re particularly looking at things like stakeholder management, navigating challenges, using data to influence decisions, and how you’ve helped leave things better than you found them.

You can expect a conversational format with follow-up questions to go a bit deeper, and we’ll leave time at the end for any questions you have too.

In this interview, you’ll work through a problem relevant to the role you’ve applied for. This could involve strategy, analysis, product thinking, or a mix of these, depending on the team.

We’re interested in how you:

This isn’t about getting to a “perfect” answer. We care more about your approach, how you think, and how you involve others in solving complex problems.

In this interview, we’ll explore your experience as a leader and people manager. We’re interested in how you structure and support your team, collaborate with peers, and measure your effectiveness. We’ll also ask about how you handle different performance levels, approach hiring and diversity, and respond to feedback and challenges. This is an opportunity for you to share specific examples that demonstrate how you develop individuals, build inclusive teams, and grow from your experiences.