Software Engineer, Core Pricing

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 Software Engineer at Upstart, you will implement and maintain features that manage the pricing process for all of Upstart’s product lines, ensuring that the output of ML underwriting models are accurately converted to measures of risk and profitability. You'll also contribute to the development of our product lines through the addition of new pricing features to increase borrower conversion and profitability per loan.

How you’ll make an impact

• Work closely with cross-functional teams to understand business goals and translate them into technical requirements.
• Develop robust, high-performance services that enable real-time pricing decisions.
• Optimize and refactor code for scalability and efficiency, ensuring low-latency responses in our pricing engines.
• Maintain and evolve our API infrastructure to support the growing volume of products and integrations.
• Ensure the quality and reliability of pricing models by writing unit and integration tests, participating in code reviews, and monitoring production systems.

What we’re looking for:

• Minimum requirements:
  
  • 3+ years of professional software development experience building scalable public or consumer-facing web and/or mobile products displaying a passion for user-experience, and a product-first mindset.
  • High level of proficiency coding in production with Python, Kotlin, or Go or languages with similar syntax.
  • Exhibits a growth mindset - you’re not afraid to pick up new technologies that are best for the task, and learn from others.
  • Experience with building scalable APIs and microservices in a cloud-based environment (e.g., AWS, GCP).Familiarity with data modeling, pricing algorithms, or fintech products is a plus.
  • Ability to work in a collaborative, agile environment and manage competing priorities.
  • Strong problem-solving skills with an emphasis on scalability and performance.
  • Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex technical topics to non-technical stakeholders.
  • Proven ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders, overcoming objections by presenting evidence through data.
  • Proven success independently leading small engineering teams on complex, multi-month initiatives meeting challenging but realistic deadline.
  • Exhibits a bias for action and comfortability persevering through ambiguity - you regularly practice critical thinking and love to solve difficult problems.
  • Exhibits a passion for mentorship and coaching junior-mid level Engineers.
• Preferred qualifications:
  • Background in finance / fintech, financial mathematics, statistics, or machine learning.
  • History of thriving in a variety of work environments: both collaborative and self-directed; remote and in-person.
  • Well versed with microservices, distributed systems, and cloud-native development (AWS or GCP preferred).
  • Knowledge of, or hands-on experience utilizing advanced CI/CD technologies with a focus on infrastructure/everything as code.
  • Contributes to the open-source community, educates others on software development best practices, or spends time outside of work staying up with the latest trends in modern SDLC.
  • You are the Subject Matter Expert or go-to for an important domain on your current or previous team, and love to teach others about it.
  
  

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

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 candidate_accommodations@upstart.com

https://www.upstart.com/candidate_privacy_policy