Company details

HEADCOUNT

100-499

ORG TYPE

Non-profit

SECTOR

Finance

WEBSITE

http://www.cifas.org.uk/

About the company

Cifas is a UK non-profit that runs cross-sector fraud risk data sharing and intelligence services to help organisations prevent fraud and financial crime. The organisation operates products such as the National Fraud Database and an Insider Threat Database, alongside intelligence-sharing activity with members. Cifas also runs training through the Cifas Fraud and Cyber Academy. Public updates in the latest annual report highlight growing membership and continued investment in new fraud-prevention products and services.

Locations and presence

Cifas lists headquarters in London and describes a predominantly remote working model with regular in-person collaboration days. Cifas also publishes a “New York” careers location page describing a drop-in collaboration office.

Palpable Score

69.1

/ 100

Cifas offers a credible early-career on-ramp through a paid apprenticeship role with a visible hiring process, plus several support and analyst-style roles with published compensation and hybrid working details. The score is held back mainly by limited public evidence on early-career progression outcomes such as promotions, retention over 12–24 months, and repeat junior hiring across multiple teams.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

13.0

/ 20

The company advertises an “Intelligence Researcher – Apprenticeship Program 2026” (Level 4) with a clear entry route for candidates without a full prior career history.
Cifas also hires roles like “Data Integrity Support Officer”, which reads as an accessible early-career operations or support pathway inside a regulated-data environment.
The company does not show a broad set of 0–3 year roles across many functions at once (for example multiple junior roles in product, engineering, commercial, and operations), so entry-level access looks real but not high-volume.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

15.0

/ 20

The company publishes a structured hiring flow for the apprenticeship (staged steps such as application review and telephone screening), which helps first-time applicants know what to expect.
Cifas includes salary information on at least some role pages (for example the apprenticeship salary and a salary band for a support officer role), reducing guesswork for early-career candidates.
The company’s careers hub still does not make every role equally transparent (for example not all postings are easy to find from the main careers landing page), so consistency is hard to judge from one place.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

15.7

/ 20

The company lists benefits and policies that tend to support juniors day-to-day, including a “ways of working” approach with regular collaboration days and flexible patterns.
Cifas states in the annual report that Cifas has introduced degree-level and graduate-level professional apprenticeships and runs mentoring and coaching schemes to help staff progress.
The company describes internal wellbeing support (mental health first aiders and wellbeing champions), but the public material rarely shows role-by-role learning mechanics like buddying, formal ramp plans, or review cadence.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

14.7

/ 20

The company offers a standout pension contribution (15% employer contribution on top of the employee contribution) and a large annual leave allowance, which supports stability for early-career hires.
Cifas posts clear compensation for the apprenticeship role (£25,000 per year), which is unusually concrete for early-career openings in this niche.
The company does not consistently publish salary ranges for every role, which caps confidence for candidates trying to compare offers across teams.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

10.7

/ 20

The company has public employer signals like Investors in People Gold and Best Companies recognition, but these do not replace hard early-career outcome data.
Cifas has some positive third-party employee sentiment available (for example reviews mentioning reasonable remuneration and flexibility), but the review volume is small for making strong claims about junior progression.
The company does not publish clear early-career outcomes like apprenticeship-to-permanent conversion rates, typical promotion timelines, or retention stats, so this pillar stays cautious.

Useful links & resources

Careers at Cifas (jobs hub)Intelligence Researcher – Apprenticeship Program 2026 (LinkedIn job post)Annual Reports (governance and people signals)