Software Engineer (Python, Kotlin, or Java) - Remote

About the Company

Upstart is an AI-powered lending marketplace focused on reducing the cost and complexity of borrowing for Americans. The company partners with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit through advanced AI, data-driven underwriting, and technology designed to support better lending decisions.

Upstart operates as a digital-first organization, with employees across more than 80 cities in the United States and Canada. Team members can work remotely or collaborate from offices in Columbus, Austin, the Bay Area, and New York City, with regular in-person gatherings that support teamwork and planning.

About the Role

Upstart is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for its Core Pricing team. This team develops and maintains the systems that translate underwriting insights into accurate pricing and profitability decisions across the company's lending products.

In this role, you will shape the long-term architecture, strategy, and operating model of the pricing platform, working across Engineering, Machine Learning, Product, and business teams. You will lead the development of scalable, low-latency, highly reliable services supporting Personal Loans, Auto, HELOC, and related platforms. The position combines company-wide technical direction with hands-on engineering, helping the platform evolve as Upstart expands into new products and capabilities.

The technology stack includes Python (Django, FastAPI, and Celery), Kotlin/Spring Boot, gRPC/Protobuf, Temporal, AWS, Kubernetes/Helm, and Datadog.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision and roadmap for Upstart's pricing platform, aligning priorities across Pricing, Personal Loans, Auto, HELOC, Machine Learning, and Product teams.
• Lead the architectural evolution from tightly coupled, sequential workflows toward modular, reusable capabilities that can support multiple lending products.
• Design and improve Tier 0 and Tier 1 services where latency, throughput, availability, and financial correctness are critical.
• Partner with machine learning scientists and engineers to establish reliable, scalable boundaries between models and production pricing systems.
• Balance engineering, machine learning, and product requirements while making practical architectural decisions that support broader business and technical goals.
• Establish clear service, API, configuration, and ownership boundaries across Pricing, Personal Loans, Auto, HELOC, and adjacent platform teams.
• Evaluate programming languages and runtime choices, including Python, Kotlin, Rust, and Go, based on long-term system requirements.
• Reduce operational burden through improved testing, observability, failure isolation, incident learning, and architectural decisions that limit the impact of failures.
• Lead technical discussions across Engineering, Machine Learning, Product, Data, Security, Compliance, and business teams, clearly communicating trade-offs and building alignment.
• Remain involved in implementation through design reviews, prototypes, critical code contributions, and key technical decisions.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders, helping them expand their capabilities and effectiveness.
• Prioritize technical debt and platform investments according to business value, risk reduction, and long-term returns.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience, plus at least 8 years of software engineering experience.
• Demonstrated experience setting architectural direction for large, complex distributed systems used across multiple teams or products.
• Deep backend engineering experience and production proficiency in at least one of Python, Kotlin, or Java, with the ability and willingness to work effectively in a predominantly Python environment.
• Experience designing or operating Tier 0 or Tier 1 services with demanding latency, throughput, availability, and correctness requirements.
• Strong understanding of APIs, service-oriented or modular architectures, containerization, cloud infrastructure such as AWS, and maintainable software design.
• Sound technical judgment, with the ability to move from high-level strategy to detailed designs, prototypes, debugging, and critical implementation decisions.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex systems, constraints, and trade-offs to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Demonstrated success leading technical decisions across organizations, balancing engineering, machine learning, and product priorities while influencing teams without direct authority.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and developing the effectiveness and scope of other technical leaders.
• Strong product and business judgment, including the ability to balance delivery, reliability, technical debt, risk, and long-term investment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building calculation-heavy, real-time decision-making, pricing, marketplace, risk, fraud, payments, trading, auction, or advertising systems.
• Experience partnering with machine learning teams or deploying models into production at scale, including defining clear boundaries between modeling workflows and production services.
• Experience modernizing mature or tightly coupled platforms through staged migrations while continuing to deliver customer and business value.
• Experience with AWS, Kubernetes, microservices, event-driven systems, and production observability.
• Additional production experience with Rust or another performance-oriented programming language.
• Background or applied experience in statistics, mathematics, economics, econometrics, financial systems, or other quantitative fields.
• Experience working in a rapidly scaling or changing organization where system architecture must evolve alongside business needs.

Salary & Benefits

The anticipated U.S. remote base salary range is $195,300 to $270,400 per year. Actual compensation depends on geographic location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Upstart uses location-based compensation regions, and recruiters can provide specific salary details during the hiring process.

Additional compensation and benefits include:

• Competitive base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly.
• A 401(k) or Group Retirement Savings Plan, with a company match of $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 annually in the applicable currency.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan with discounted stock purchase options for eligible U.S. employees.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and wellness benefits in the United States, with supplemental health coverage in Canada.
• Health Savings Account contributions for eligible U.S. plans.
• Life insurance and disability coverage.
• Paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays in accordance with local requirements.
• Paid family and parental leave, with duration varying by country.
• Family-focused benefits supporting fertility, parenthood, and caregiving.
• Employee Assistance Program providing mental health support and personal resources.
• Financial wellness resources, including financial planning tools and a financial concierge service for U.S. employees.
• Annual wellness allowance supporting physical and emotional well-being and personal development.
• Annual productivity allowance for work-related tools and resources.
• Team events, company-wide updates, and employee resource groups.
• Catered lunches and stocked micro-kitchens for employees working from the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City offices.

Work Arrangement & Travel Requirements

This is a remote position. Most work can be completed remotely, and the majority of employees can live and work anywhere in the United States. Employees are encouraged to participate in regular in-person team gatherings. Most teams meet once or twice per quarter for two to four consecutive days, although the schedule varies by team and role.

For positions based in Canada, Upstart is currently unable to hire candidates located in Quebec.

Equal Opportunity & Accommodations

Upstart is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to inclusive and fair hiring practices. Candidates who require reasonable accommodation during the application process, interviews, pre-employment testing, or other stages of the employee selection process may contact Upstart through its designated accommodation channel.