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.
Recurring Credit is one of Upstart’s most ambitious new product bets: a mobile-first line of credit designed to replace payday loans, cash advance apps, and subprime credit cards with something safer and more sustainable. The team is small, senior, and moving quickly—structured more like a startup inside Upstart than a traditional squad. We’re building both a new product and a new model for how engineering teams can operate in an AI-native way: lean, fast, and deeply focused on outcomes for underserved consumers.
How you’ll make an impact:- Design and build core backend systems that power instant disbursements, subscription billing, and repayment schedules.
- Develop distributed, event-driven services that guarantee reliability and scale—covering retries, ordering, schema evolution, and observability.
- Translate product intent into customer impact by collaborating closely with product and design to ship high-quality user-facing features quickly.
- Leverage AI-native workflows (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, LLM-powered tooling) to accelerate coding, testing, and analysis.
- Ensure trust and transparency at the system level by instrumenting metrics, logs, and traces tied to business and user outcomes.
- Balance speed and quality in a greenfield codebase, helping set the technical direction for a product with zero-to-one momentum and long-term scale.
- Shape engineering culture and velocity through thoughtful APIs, automation, and scalable practices.
What we’re looking for:
Minimum requirements:
- 4+ years of experience building backend systems in production, ideally powering consumer-facing products.
- Strong technical depth in distributed, event-driven architectures (Kafka, SQS, Kinesis, MQ) including idempotency, retries, DLQs, and ordering.
- Proficiency in an OO language (Java, Kotlin, C#, Python, Ruby) and comfort with relational databases, caching layers, and API design.
- Demonstrated ability to ship zero-to-one systems or products, making tradeoffs in ambiguous environments.
- A track record of connecting backend work to product outcomes (conversion, reliability, payments, onboarding).
- Experience designing with observability and reliability in mind (metrics, traces, logs, SLOs).
- Active use of AI tools in engineering workflows beyond autocomplete, with curiosity about how AI changes how teams build.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to explain complex systems and tradeoffs clearly.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with fintech or payments systems such as disbursements, billing, ledgers, KYC/IDV, or credit/underwriting flows.
- Practical experience with instant funding rails and the challenges of fraud, reconciliation, and compliance.
- Familiarity with schema evolution and contracts (e.g., Protobuf, Avro) and safe data migrations in distributed systems.
- Track record of building or scaling consumer-facing flows with measurable impact on conversion or reliability.
- Comfort navigating regulated domains and collaborating with legal, servicing, capital markets, or external partners.
- Evidence of tenure and progression within one company (promotions, expanding scope) and resilience through challenging product phases.
- Demonstrated interest in agentic or AI-assisted systems, applying LLMs to design, testing, analysis, or automation.
- 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
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.
#LI-REMOTE
#LI-Associate
#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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