Principal Software Engineer, Core Pricing

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. But the numbers only hint at the impact. Every idea, every voice, and every contribution moves us closer to a world where credit never stands between people and their financial progress. We’re proudly digital-first, giving most Upstarters the flexibility to do their best work from wherever they thrive, alongside teammates across 80+ cities in the US and Canada. Digital-first doesn’t mean distant. We’re intentional about in-person connection through team onsites, planning sessions, and moments that spark creativity and trust. And whether you choose to work primarily from home or collaborate in-person from one of our offices in Columbus, Austin, the Bay Area, or New York City (opening Summer 2026), you’ll have the support to work in the way that works best for you. If you’re energized by tackling meaningful problems, excited to innovate with purpose, and motivated by work that truly matters, we’d love to hear from you. The Team:  The Core Pricing Team 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. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will drive technical excellence and innovation within the Core Pricing team, with a focus on Personal and Unsecured Loans, one of Upstart’s primary revenue drivers. You will set the technical vision and direction for the team, working backward from our product strategy. You will lead efforts to deliver software that uses machine learning to optimize pricing and continuously improve the efficiency of our borrower-lender marketplace. You will have the opportunity to design and build large-scale systems, partner closely with machine learning scientists, and work in a highly collaborative, fast-paced environment. We are looking for a seasoned technical leader with a passion for machine learning, finance, experimentation, and distributed systems. If this sounds exciting, we would love to hear from you. How you’ll make an impact 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 Minimum Qualifications  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 Experience working in dynamic fast paced organizations 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 You are able lead and resolve company-wide technical discussions and are able to collaborate and include input from cross-functional teams (security, devops, data, compliance and product) You have a good sense for build-vs-buy and are able to prioritize the highest ROI architectural investments Preferred Qualifications High proficiency with Python Experience with A/B testing, GRPC, and Kafka Experience working in Fintech, Pricing, Ads, or ML. 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 Ability to thrive both in self-directed work environments and in collaborative settings, contributing positively to team dynamics Demonstrated ability to take feedback well and actively incorporate it into work with a desire to continuously improve Ability to influence and lead without direct authority Strong product and analytical mind