Senior Software Engineer, Marketplace Optimization

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.

We're proudly digital-first, giving most Upstarters the flexibility to do their best work from wherever they thrive. Whether you choose to work primarily from home or collaborate in-person from one of our offices, you'll have the support to work in the way that works best for you.

The Team

Marketplace Optimization builds the intelligent systems that power Upstart's AI lending marketplace. Our teams make real-time decisions about how borrowers are matched with capital, how offers are constructed, and how the marketplace evolves through experimentation.

Within Marketplace Optimization, engineers join one of two closely related teams:

• Monetization: Builds the marketplace services that optimize marketplace economics through origination fees, offer construction, and experimentation capabilities.
• Matching & Offer Selection: Builds the real-time decision engine that intelligently matches borrowers with capital providers while balancing borrower outcomes, investor commitments, and marketplace efficiency.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you'll partner closely with Product, Machine Learning, Pricing, Capital Markets, Lending Partnerships, and Analytics to build highly reliable distributed systems that power millions of lending decisions.

How you'll make an impact

• Design, build, and operate highly available backend services that power Upstart's real-time lending marketplace.
• Develop scalable systems that enable rapid experimentation while maintaining the reliability of business-critical production services.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to translate complex business problems into elegant technical solutions.
• Build flexible platform capabilities that enable new marketplace optimization and monetization strategies.
• Improve the scalability, observability, and operational excellence of systems responsible for real-time marketplace decisions.
• Participate in architecture discussions, code reviews, testing, and operational ownership of critical production systems.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 5 years of professional software engineering experience building backend or distributed systems.
• Experience developing production services using one or more of Ruby on Rails, Python, or Kotlin.
• Experience designing APIs and building scalable distributed systems.
• Experience operating business-critical production services with an emphasis on reliability, monitoring, testing, and operational excellence.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and modern cloud-native application development.
• Experience collaborating across engineering, product, and business stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building marketplaces, recommendation systems, optimization engines, or financial systems.
• Experience with event-driven architectures, Kafka, workflow orchestration, or real-time data processing.
• Experience partnering with Machine Learning or Data Science teams.
• Experience improving platform scalability and evolving distributed system architecture.
• Interest in solving complex optimization problems that combine technical and business tradeoffs.

Compensation and Benefits

The anticipated base salary for this position is $166,900 - $230,900 USD. Your actual base pay will depend on your geographic location, skills, experience, and relevant education.

Upstart offers a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Competitive compensation, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants.
• Retirement benefits with company match.
• Comprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision).
• Paid time off, sick leave, and parental leave.
• Financial wellness resources and annual wellness/productivity allowances.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and family-centered benefits.

Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. If you require reasonable accommodation in the application process, please email [email protected].