About Upstart
Upstart is the leading AI lending marketplace partnering with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit. By leveraging Upstart's AI marketplace, Upstart-powered banks and credit unions can have higher approval rates and lower loss rates across races, ages, and genders, while simultaneously delivering the exceptional digital-first lending experience their customers demand. More than 80% of borrowers are approved instantly, with zero documentation to upload.
Upstart is a digital-first company, which means that most Upstarters live and work anywhere in the United States. However, we also have offices in San Mateo, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin, Texas.
Most Upstarters join us because they connect with our mission of enabling access to effortless credit based on true risk. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Upstart, we’d love to hear from you!
The Team
Upstart’s Core Pricing team drives key initiatives that directly influence Upstart’s revenue streams and product strategies. This includes developing the common systems used to calculate risk and profitability for each loan we originate, as well as providing a top-notch borrower experience by supporting our product development teams.
You will be joining a dynamic, cross-functional team that works closely with data scientists, product managers, and business stakeholders to deliver scalable, high-impact solutions.
As a Senior Software Engineer on Core Pricing, you’ll play a critical role in evolving the systems that power Upstart’s loan pricing across multiple product lines. You’ll design and implement highly scalable, low-latency services that convert ML underwriting outputs into accurate risk and profitability measures, while helping define the future of Upstart’s pricing platform.
How You’ll Make an ImpactLead the design and development of scalable, high-performance services that enable real-time pricing decisions across multiple products.
Collaborate with data scientists and product managers to translate business goals into robust technical solutions.
Drive architectural improvements in the pricing platform to support rapid growth, new products, and evolving modeling needs.
Mentor and coach engineers across the team, elevating best practices in system design, testing, and operational excellence.
Ensure the quality and reliability of our pricing engines through comprehensive testing, code reviews, and production monitoring.
Champion improvements in developer experience, automation, and observability to increase team velocity and platform resilience.
What We're Looking For
Minimum Qualifications5+ years of professional software development experience building scalable public or consumer-facing products.
High level of proficiency coding in production with Python, Kotlin, Go, or languages with similar syntax.
Proven ability to independently own and deliver complex, multi-month engineering projects in fast-paced environments.
Experience designing and building scalable APIs and microservices in a cloud-based environment (AWS or GCP).
Strong problem-solving skills with an emphasis on scalability, performance, and system reliability.
Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex technical topics to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Demonstrated experience mentoring and coaching engineers, influencing technical direction, and raising the bar for the team.
Exhibits a bias for action and comfort navigating ambiguity while driving towards impactful outcomes.
Background in finance / fintech, financial mathematics, statistics, or machine learning.
History of thriving in diverse work environments: both collaborative and self-directed; remote and in-person.
Deep experience with distributed systems, cloud-native development, and advanced CI/CD pipelines (infrastructure-as-code focus).
Recognized as a subject matter expert or technical owner for a critical domain, with a passion for sharing knowledge and best practices.
Active contributor to the tech community through open source, technical talks, or mentorship.
Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Remote, San Mateo, Columbus, Austin
Time Zone Requirements - This team operates across all U.S. time zones.
Travel Requirements - This team has regular on-site collaboration sessions. These occur 3 days per quarter at an Upstart office. If you need to travel to make these meetups, Upstart will cover all travel related expenses.
What you'll love:
- Competitive Compensation (base + bonus & equity)
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart
- 401(k) with 100% company match up to $4,500 and immediate vesting and after-tax savings
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
- Life and disability insurance
- Generous holiday, vacation, sick and safety leave
- Supportive parental, family care, and military leave programs
- Annual wellness, technology & ergonomic reimbursement programs
- Social activities including team events and onsites, all-company updates, employee resource groups (ERGs), and other interest groups such as book clubs, fitness, investing, and volunteering
- Catered lunches + snacks & drinks when working in offices
#LI-REMOTE
#LI-MidSenior
At Upstart, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. The anticipated base salary for this position is expected to be within the below range. Your actual base pay will depend on your geographic location–with our “digital first” philosophy, Upstart uses compensation regions that vary depending on location. Individual pay is also determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.
In addition, Upstart provides employees with target bonuses, equity compensation, and generous benefits packages (including medical, dental, vision, and 401k).
Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to ensuring that underrepresented classes receive better access to affordable credit, and are just as committed to embracing diversity and inclusion in our hiring practices. We celebrate all cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences, and know that we can only become better together.
If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please email [email protected]
https://www.upstart.com/candidate_privacy_policy
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