Company details

Madrid, Spain

HEADCOUNT

10000+

ORG TYPE

Corporate

SECTOR

Finance

WEBSITE

https://www.santander.com/

About the company

Santander is a global banking group providing retail and commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth management and insurance, and payments services. Santander serves customers through a mix of digital channels and physical branches, with business lines organised across multiple geographies. Santander’s corporate headquarters is based at Santander Group City in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid, Spain).

Locations and presence

Santander is headquartered in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) and operates across Europe, North America, and South America, with major country banks and group functions across those regions. Work style varies by entity and role, with examples ranging from hybrid internship schedules in US hub offices to location-anchored UK graduate programmes.

Palpable Score

73.7

/ 100

Santander offers several real early-career entry points across countries, including graduate programmes, apprenticeships, internships, and rotational tracks that lead into permanent roles. Santander is clearer than many banks on the “what happens next” part of applications in some markets, but the level of transparency and candidate experience consistency varies across the wider group. Outcomes look promising through structured post-graduation placement pathways, but Santander publishes limited cohort-level data on conversion, retention, and promotion.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

17.2

/ 20

The company runs multiple structured early-career routes across markets, including UK graduate programmes and apprenticeships plus US internships and post-graduation analyst programmes.
Santander offers both degree and non-degree entry points, including apprenticeships that span entry to degree-level qualifications and early-career programmes that target recent graduates.
The company advertises group-level early-career opportunities such as the Santander HQ Graduate Program, adding a pathway beyond local country hiring.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

14.2

/ 20

The company publishes a step-by-step application process in the UK that sets expectations on stages like online scenario gamification, pre-recorded video questions, shortlisting, and assessment days.
Santander provides concrete timing expectations in the UK process for several steps, but timing clarity is less consistent when you move across different Santander entities and geographies.
The company relies on online assessments for some roles, which can be fair when scoped well, yet public guidance does not consistently set out feedback expectations for early-career candidates.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

16.0

/ 20

The company builds structured learning into early-career tracks, including a dedicated learning bootcamp on the UK Global Retail Graduate Programme and formal training periods in US post-graduation programmes.
Santander describes internships and analyst programmes with structured professional development, mentorship access, and exposure to senior leadership rather than leaving development to informal team-by-team effort.
The company supports apprentices with training providers and access to an internal learning portal, alongside real placements across multiple teams over the programme length.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

14.1

/ 20

The company publishes a clear salary for at least one UK graduate programme and lists substantial employee-style benefits for UK apprentices, which supports pay fairness and stability for early-career entrants.
Santander posts pay ranges or stated salaries on some US internship listings, but those same listings also note that relocation support is not provided, which can limit access for candidates without local housing options.
The company has had public reporting on job reductions in parts of the Santander group, which adds some stability risk in certain locations even when entry-level pay is competitive.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

12.2

/ 20

The company describes early-career tracks that explicitly “graduate” participants into full-time roles after structured training and rotation requirements are met, which is a concrete outcome pathway.
Santander positions internships and graduate programmes around hands-on project work plus structured development, which supports real early-career skill growth even when conversion data is not published.
The company does not publish consistent cohort outcomes such as internship return-offer rates, 12–24 month retention, or time-to-promotion across the group, and public restructuring and branch-closure reporting creates uncertainty about predictability in some teams.