About Upstart
At Upstart, we’re united by a mission that matters: to radically reduce the cost and complexity of borrowing for all Americans. Every day, we bring creativity, experimentation, and advanced AI to reshape access to credit, helping millions move forward financially with clarity and confidence.
As the leading AI lending marketplace, we partner with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit through technology that’s both radically intelligent and deeply human. Our platform runs over one million predictions per borrower using more than 1,800 signals, powering smarter, fairer decisions for millions of customers. But the numbers only hint at the impact. Every idea, every voice, and every contribution moves us closer to a world where credit never stands between people and their financial progress.
We’re proudly digital-first, giving most Upstarters the flexibility to do their best work from wherever they thrive, alongside teammates across 80+ cities in the US and Canada. Digital-first doesn’t mean distant. We’re intentional about in-person connection through team onsites, planning sessions, and moments that spark creativity and trust. And whether you choose to work primarily from home or collaborate in-person from one of our offices in Columbus, Austin, the Bay Area, or New York City (opening Summer 2026), you’ll have the support to work in the way that works best for you.
If you’re energized by tackling meaningful problems, excited to innovate with purpose, and motivated by work that truly matters, we’d love to hear from you.
The Team:
We’re a small team building our own business. Our first product, launched summer ‘23, is a home equity line of credit (HELOC) for homeowners. Our next product is a home loan (mortgage) for homebuyers. It will be the most complex product Upstart has built to date, and we need more talented, creative engineers to help us make it happen!
Why Mortgage? This industry is the largest category of consumer credit in the US, with over $2 trillion in originations last year. This is where Upstart can make its biggest impact.
Why us? The market has left behind millions Americans with imperfect credit or difficult-to-document income. Serving these customers is Upstart’s bread and butter, and it’s core to our mission. Because we use machine learning to assess creditworthiness versus a fixed formula more than a decade old (FICO), we’re able to extend loans to prospective homeowners that our competitors just can’t. We’ve proven this model with personal loans and auto loans, and now we want to bring this access to where families feel it the most: where they live.
We want our team to reflect the people we’re serving. To serve customers at the fringes, we need people who think at the fringes—weird, quirky, out-of-the-box do-ers who reason from first principles and not from the status quo. We leave our ego at the door and crave being proven wrong. We're a high-empathy team, and we succeed as a team first, individuals second.
As a senior engineer on one of Upstart’s newest teams, you’re a leader who can work across the whole stack, who doesn’t need roads paved for you before you take action. You can work in the frontend (React) or the backend (Kotlin), but you might specialize in one. You’re an individual contributor who uses tech to ply your craft, but you excel at thinking like a product manager and a business owner when needed. You can handle high-stakes calls with 3rd parties and customers, and you thrive on making decisions that impact not just how we build but what we build. Finally, you’re a mentor, and you take seriously the responsibility to coach and grow each of the engineers around you.
How you’ll make an impact:
Beyond leveraging our existing tech (AWS, Kafka, Spring Boot, Next.js, Kubernetes, Kotlin, React), here’s how you’ll make an impact:
- Lead successful cross-team and/or multi-quarter, multi-engineer projects
- Proactively search out ways to expand impact that extends well beyond the Jira board
- Turn team-specific projects into opportunities to up-level the team and the org’s tech platform
- Know the product as well as the EM and PM and contribute to the product vision/strategy
- Propose and deliver new ideas that achieve meaningful improvements to our team’s business metrics
- Contribute in a meaningful way to quality improvements within our team
What we’re looking for:
- Minimum requirements:
- 5+ years professional experience in fullstack software
- 3+ years proficiency in Kotlin, Java, or C#. (Our backend is in Kotlin, but Java and C# are similar enough that you can learn on the job.)
- Some hands-on experience with a JavaScript framework like React
- Some hands-on experience with SQL databases and domain modeling
- Preferred qualifications:
- Excellent written and verbal communication. As a senior engineer, a big part of your job will be mentoring others and representing our team in cross-functional, cross-team, or even cross-company conversations. And you’ll need to tailor your communication style to fit these different audiences’ needs.
- Preference for face-time and synchronous collaboration. We’re a distributed team of remote workers (from coast to coast), and while we predominantly build asynchronously, we prefer facetime when collaborating in a tight feedback loop. You’ll need to be comfortable with a few hours of Zoom per day (e.g. mob programming) to excel in this role.
- Enthusiasm for non-coding responsibilities. Design and coding will be ~70% of your job. The rest will be influencing the direction of the people and the product around you—for instance, by researching and proposing a new product idea to key stakeholders.
- Comfortable challenging authority. We want engineers who can push back on their managers when they think we’re going down the wrong path. Related: you thrive in environments where you are expected to think like an owner and make decisions like one.
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
- Generous 401(k) plan with Upstart matching $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 per year
- 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).
What you'll love
At Upstart, our benefits are designed to support your health, financial well-being, family, and personal growth. Here’s what you can expect:
- Competitive compensation, including base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly
- Generous 401(k) plan with Upstart matching $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 per year
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees
- Affordable medical, dental, and vision coverage, with multiple plan options - Upstart covers 90% to 100% of the cost depending on the plans you choose
- Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans
- Income protection benefits, including company-paid Basic Life, AD&D, and Short- and Long-Term Disability coverage, with options to purchase supplemental coverage
- Paid time off, sick and safe time, and company holidays
- Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments
- Family-centered benefits through Carrot and Cleo, supporting fertility, parenthood, and caregiving
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering mental health support and life-centered resources
- Financial wellness resources, including access to financial planning tools and a financial concierge service
- Annual wellness allowance to support your physical and emotional well-being and personal development, based on what matters most to you
- Annual productivity allowance to invest in relevant tools and resources you need to do your best work, no matter where you work from
- Connection and community through team events and onsites, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs)
- Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our four offices, located in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!).
Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Just as we are dedicated to improving access to affordable credit for all, we are committed to inclusive and fair hiring practices.
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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