Careers

For most roles, no. Sector knowledge is learnable, and we’d rather hire someone strong in their discipline who’s curious about financial services than someone with sector experience and weaker craft.

What does matter is your attitude to the constraints. Financial services work involves compliance review, regulatory language, and a slower path from idea to live than you’d get in retail or hospitality. Some people find that interesting – the puzzle of doing distinctive work inside real limits. Others find it stifling. The second group tends not to stay, however good they are.

Where we do look for existing sector knowledge, the advert will say so explicitly.

What this means for you: Don’t rule yourself out for lack of financial services experience. Do think honestly about whether working inside regulatory constraint appeals to you, and say so either way in your application – we’d rather know.

We’re happy to receive speculative applications. We’re a small team and we don’t have roles open continuously, so a good speculative approach sometimes arrives at the right moment. Tell us what you do and what you’re looking for, and we’ll be straight with you about whether anything is likely.

We do not work with recruitment agencies, and we aren’t accepting calls about our open roles. That isn’t a reflection on any particular agency – we simply hire directly.

What this means for you: Come to us directly. A speculative application costs you very little and occasionally lands well; a recruiter’s approach won’t get a response.

Yes – there’s a professional development budget and training support, and how it’s used is largely down to you and your line manager rather than a fixed curriculum.

Realistically, the biggest driver of development here is the work itself. In a small team you take on things earlier than you would elsewhere, usually with support rather than in spite of it. That suits people who learn by doing; it’s less comfortable if you want a structured programme with defined stages.

We’re also actively changing how we work – particularly around AI tooling and our own platform – so there’s a standing expectation that everyone keeps learning rather than settling into a fixed way of operating.

What this means for you: Come with a view on what you want to get better at. The budget is more useful to people who have a plan for it than to people waiting to be told what training to do.

Everyone gets the same package. Benefits at Creode aren’t tiered by role or seniority – a new starter and a director are on the same terms, with the single exception of the company bonus scheme, which relates to salary.

The core of it: 25 days holiday plus the 8 bank holidays, with three of those days set aside for the period between Christmas and New Year when the office is closed. A pension contribution. Private healthcare. And a bonus scheme that runs across the whole company rather than being reserved for particular teams or levels.

Alongside that there’s a professional development budget and training support, discounts through our employee portal, and a social fund. For the days you work from home, we’ll carry out a workstation assessment on request and contribute towards the equipment you need to work safely.

Time off is managed through CharlieHR, so you can see your allowance and book leave yourself rather than routing routine requests through a manager.

What this means for you: You won’t need to negotiate your benefits, and you won’t find that something you were counting on turns out to apply only above a certain grade. Ask about anything that matters to you during the process – but the answer will be the same one everyone else gets.

Apply through the role advert on this site. We review applications ourselves rather than passing them through a filter, so a short covering note explaining why this role and why Creode does make a difference.

The process usually runs in three stages. First an initial chemistry meeting – a conversation to see whether there’s a fit on both sides, without either of us over-investing. Then a one-to-one interview in person, which includes a task relevant to the role; that stage is scored, so assessment is consistent between candidates rather than down to who interviewed you. Where there are outstanding questions after that, there may be a short second interview, in person or online, to resolve them.

Depending on the role we may also ask you to complete psychometric profiling. Before any offer is confirmed we check right to work, review public online and social media presence, and take up references – we always take references, rather than treating them as a formality.

We’ll give you a decision either way. If you’re unsuccessful after an interview and you’d like feedback, ask and we’ll give it to you honestly.

What this means for you: Apply directly and write something specific rather than generic. Prepare properly for the task stage – it’s scored, and it’s the part that most distinguishes candidates. And ask us questions throughout: the process works better when it runs in both directions.

Our clients are financial services brands – building societies, fintechs, insurance and wealth management businesses among them. Most are organisations trying to compete against much larger players, which is usually what makes the work interesting.

Because we’re a small team, you won’t be working on one account in isolation. Most people touch several clients, and the mix changes as projects move through phases. That gives you variety, but it also means context-switching is part of the job rather than an occasional inconvenience.

What this means for you: You’ll get broader exposure than you would on a single large account, and more direct client contact than most agencies of our size would give you. If you prefer going very deep on one brand over a long period, that’s a different kind of agency.

We’re a small team in central Leeds, which shapes most of what it’s like to work here. There’s no layer of account handlers between you and the work, and no anonymity either – what you do is visible, and so is its effect on clients.

We specialise in financial services, which means the work is more constrained than at a general agency. Compliance is part of the brief rather than an obstacle to it, and the brands we work with are often navigating real regulatory pressure. People who enjoy it tend to be the ones who find constraint interesting rather than frustrating.

We’re also building our own technology – Mosaic, our WordPress platform – and integrating AI into how we work day to day. That means the way we deliver changes reasonably often, and we’d rather people engaged with that than waited for it to settle.

What this means for you: If you want deep specialism, visible impact and a say in how things get done, that’s what a small specialist agency offers. If you want the scale, structure and defined lanes of a large agency, we’re probably not the right fit – and it’s worth being honest with yourself about that before applying.

Our office is in central Leeds, and we work on a hybrid model: three days a week in the office – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – and the remaining two wherever suits you.

The office days are fixed rather than flexible, and that’s deliberate. A small team loses a lot when nobody overlaps: the informal problem-solving, the overheard context, the quick conversation that saves a week of misdirected work. Fixed days mean everyone gets that reliably rather than occasionally.

For the days you work from home, we’ll help you set up properly – a workstation assessment on request, and a contribution towards the equipment you need to work safely and comfortably.

What this means for you: Three fixed days in Leeds is a real commitment, so be realistic about the commute before you apply. We’d much rather you ruled us out early than discovered in month three that the travel doesn’t work.