Principal Software Engineer, Core Pricing

About the role

The Core Pricing Team at Upstart is responsible for building a best-in-class platform to accurately create loan offers for all of Upstart's loan products like Personal Loans, Auto loans, and Home loans. The services owned by the team are responsible for validating applicant data, interfacing with Machine Learning models to calculate borrower risk, matching applicants to lenders, and calculating interest rates, fees, etc. We are developing new capabilities for Upstart’s loan products and building a next generation software platform to accelerate innovation on behalf of our customers.

Responsibilities

• Define the long-term technical direction and roadmap for Pricing in alignment with Upstart’s business objectives.
• Lead the design and development of a system that continuously optimizes the matching of supply and demand for Upstart’s borrower-lender marketplace.
• Work closely with ML scientists to improve and develop new models that improve core business metrics.
• Guide the architectural evolution of Pricing engineering systems with an emphasis on scaling innovation across multiple engineering teams.
• Uncover and drive alignment across complex technical requirements, designs, trade-offs, influencing product direction.
• Proactively evaluate, prototype, and roll out new technologies/frameworks to help cultivate a culture of innovation.
• Lead from the front, while mentoring and developing technical leaders.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics, or a related field (or its equivalent)
• + 8 years of experience
• Experience building highly scalable systems using containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience building flexible, extensible and consistent APIs
• Solid grasp of software development principles and best practices for creating scalable, extensible and maintainable systems
• Proficiency in one or more object oriented programming languages like Python, Java, C#, C++
• Strong communication skills and ability to explain complex business and technical concepts to all audiences
• Track record of successfully mentoring and developing technical leaders
• Ability to balance the needs of the business with the needs of engineering improvements
• Passion for clean code and architecture and initiative to “level-up” the engineering team with better practices & design

Qualifications

• High proficiency with Python
• Experience with A/B testing, GRPC, and Kafka
• Background in statistics, mathematics, or econometrics is a big plus
• Experience designing and building microservice-based architectures
• Experience developing large scale distributed systems in AWS
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for the quality and timely delivery of work
• Able to lead and resolve company-wide technical discussions and collaborate with cross-functional teams (security, devops, data, compliance and product)
• Good sense for build-vs-buy and prioritizing the highest ROI architectural investments

Skills

• Experience working in dynamic fast paced organizations
• Ability to thrive both in self-directed work environments and in collaborative settings, contributing positively to team dynamics
• Ability to take feedback well and actively incorporate it into work with a desire to continuously improve
• Strong product and analytical mindset that allows you to think in terms of ROI, risk, and trade-offs
• Experience working at companies that have gone through periods of rapid business or organizational growth

Benefits

• Competitive compensation, including base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly
• Retirement benefits to help you plan for the future, including 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 (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees (US only)
• Comprehensive health coverage designed to support you and your family, including medical, dental, vision, and wellness resources for US and supplemental health coverage for Canada
• Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans (US only)
• Income protection benefits, including life insurance and disability coverage for added financial security
• Paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, in line with local requirements
• Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments (duration varies by country)
• Family-centered benefits to support fertility, parenthood, and caregiving needs
• 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 (US Only)
• 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
• Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our offices in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!)