Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Upstart is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for its Unsecured Installments team, which builds and operates its digital lending product. The role leads backend and full-stack initiatives, sets technical direction for services and systems, and partners across teams to deliver reliable borrower experiences while mentoring engineers.
Responsibilities
- Own the design and delivery of large, complex backend and full-stack initiatives, from planning and sequencing through launch and long-term maintenance
- Set technical direction for the team's service architecture, APIs, data models, and system integrations, owning a 3–6 month roadmap and proactively addressing systemic gaps that threaten reliability or team effectiveness
- Partner closely with product, frontend, design, platform, and other backend engineers to translate roadmap priorities and borrower needs into scalable, high-quality systems
- Raise the bar for engineering excellence through thoughtful service and API design, data integrity, testing, observability, security, and operational rigor across business-critical lending workflows
- Lead through ambiguity by breaking down loosely defined problems into clear, testable plans and using data to inform tradeoffs involving scope, scalability, performance, reliability, and customer experience
- Mentor and grow other engineers through code reviews, design reviews, and technical guidance, and serve as a trusted collaborator across the team
- Contribute to how the team uses AI in development workflows and product capabilities, with a pragmatic view of where it can create meaningful leverage
Skills
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience, and 6+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Deep proficiency designing and building backend services and APIs in a language such as Python, Java, Kotlin, Go, Ruby, or Node.js
- Strong experience with service architecture, API design, data modeling, relational or non-relational databases, and distributed systems
- Track record of independently leading the design and delivery of large, business-critical backend or full-stack projects in production
- Experience building reliable production systems, including testing, monitoring, incident response, performance optimization, and long-term operational ownership
- Ability to work effectively in ambiguous environments where product requirements, constraints, and system boundaries evolve over time
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs and align product and engineering partners
- Experience serving as the backend or full-stack technical lead for a product team or business-critical system
- Experience building consumer-facing products or high-volume transactional systems with strong requirements around reliability, scalability, correctness, and security
- Background in fintech, lending, payments, or other regulated financial products involving complex workflows and high quality expectations
- Experience with distributed systems, asynchronous processing, event-driven architectures, or service-oriented architectures
- Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, relational and non-relational data stores, messaging systems, and CI/CD workflows
- Experience with experimentation, feature flagging, or platform capabilities that support iterative product improvements in production
- Hands-on experience leveraging generative AI in product features or internal engineering workflows
- Passion for building products that expand access to credit and improve financial outcomes for consumers
Benefits
- Digital-first work, with flexibility to work remotely or from an office; most employees can live and work anywhere in the U.S. Regular in-person onsites are encouraged; cadence varies by team and role, with most teams meeting once or twice per quarter for 2–4 consecutive days.
- Target bonuses
- Equity compensation and annual equity grants that vest quarterly
- Retirement benefits: a 401(k) or Group Retirement Savings Plan with a company match of $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 annually (USD in the US, CAD in Canada)
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees (US only)
- Comprehensive health coverage, including medical, dental, vision, and wellness resources for US employees; supplemental health coverage for Canada employees
- Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans (US only)
- Life insurance and disability coverage
- Paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, in line with local requirements
- Paid family and parental leave (duration varies by country)
- Family-centered benefits supporting fertility, parenthood, and caregiving
- Employee Assistance Program offering mental health support and life-centered resources
- Financial planning tools and a financial concierge service (US only)
- Annual wellness allowance supporting physical and emotional well-being and personal development
- Annual productivity allowance for relevant work tools and resources
- Team events, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs)
- Catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from offices in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City
Company Overview
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