Job Description
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 1800 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
Upstart’s GenAI Core Platform team builds the foundational Platform that democratizes access to generative AI across the company. As a Principal Engineer - GenAI/LLM you will provide technical leadership across multiple cross-functional teams shaping the vision architecture and adoption strategy for our new GenAI platform for Engineers and non-Engineers alike.
You will work closely with engineering leaders ML researchers and product stakeholders to ensure Upstart can scale the safe efficient and responsible use of LLMs across all business domains.
This role goes beyond delivery. It is about setting long-term direction de-risking our most ambitious AI initiatives and raising the bar for technical excellence across the organization. In short you will have a direct influence and impact on how we enable and implement GenAI and LLMs internally at Upstart.
How You’ll Make an Impact
- Define and drive the multi-year technical roadmap for the Core GenAI Platform influencing adoption and alignment across several engineering teams
- Collaborate with CTO/VP-level and above leadership to influence business strategy with technical insight
Lead architecture and design of large-scale mission-critical systems for model inference orchestration and compliance
Identify and solve systemic technical risks that impact the entire company and business-critical AI initiatives - Represent Upstart internally and externally as a thought leader in GenAI systems through executive reviews cross-company forums and industry venues
Establish operational standards for GenAI integrations ensuring security fairness and reliability at scale - Build high-leverage generalizable platform components that meaningfully accelerate the productivity of engineers across Upstart
- Mentor senior engineers other principal engineers and shape the growth of future technical leaders fostering a culture of learning and excellence
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering or Mathematics or a related field (or its equivalent) + 8 years of experience
- Deep expertise in LLM-specific infrastructure such as inference optimization (quantization ONNX streaming).
- Ability to design scalable RAG architectures and manage the lifecycle of models from experimentation to high-availability production environments including vector databases.
- Proven experience building robust automated evaluation pipelines using both heuristic metrics and 'LLM-as-a-judge' frameworks to ensure model accuracy and safety.
- Hands-on experience with LLM toolchains such as LangChain LlamaIndex or OpenAI APIs
- Experience designing and operationalizing ML/LLM platforms at scale including optimization for cost latency and reliability and the platform infrastructure needed to support them.
- Deep Expertise in best practices and risks for GenAI including hallucination mitigation fairness explainability and data privacy
Preferred Qualifications
- 12+ years of experience and 5+ leading cross functional technical initiatives
- Proven ability to execute or guide model fine-tuning and alignment (RLHF/DPO) to optimize LLM performance for specialized consumer use cases and proprietary datasets.
- Full-stack engineering experience (Python FastAPI Kotlin Spring React/TypeScript or similar)
- Deep expertise in backend systems and infrastructure technologies such as Kubernetes Docker Terraform and cloud-native architectures
Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote USA/Canada with quarterly travel.
Time zone requirements The team operates on the East/West coast time zones.
Travel requirements As a digital first company the majority of your work can be accomplished remotely. The majority of our employees can live and work anywhere in the U.S but are encouraged to to still spend high quality time in-person collaborating via regular onsites. The in-person sessions’ cadence varies depending on the team and role; most teams meet once or twice per quarter for 2-4 consecutive days at a time.
#LI-REMOTE
#LI-Director
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).
What you'll love
At Upstart our benefits are designed to support your health financial well-being family and personal growth. Here’s what you can expect:
- Competitive compensation including base pay bonus opportunities and annual equity grants that vest quarterly
- Generous 401(k) plan with Upstart matching $2 for every $1 contributed up to $15000 per year
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees
- Affordable medical dental and vision coverage with multiple plan options - Upstart covers 90% to 100% of the cost depending on the plans you choose
- Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans
- Income protection benefits including company-paid Basic Life AD&D and Short- and Long-Term Disability coverage with options to purchase supplemental coverage
- Paid time off sick and safe time and company holidays
- Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments
- Family-centered benefits through Carrot and Cleo supporting fertility parenthood and caregiving
- 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
- 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
- Connection and community through team events and onsites all-company updates and employee resource groups (ERGs)
- Onsite perks including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our four offices located in the Bay Area Austin Columbus and New York City (opening Summer 2026!).
Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Just as we are dedicated to improving access to affordable credit for all we are committed to inclusive and fair hiring practices.
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 [email protected]
https://www.upstart.com/candidate_privacy_policy
Top Skills
What the Team is Saying
What We Do
Upstart is the leading AI lending marketplace connecting millions of consumers to more than 100 banks and credit unions that leverage Upstart’s AI models and cloud applications to deliver superior credit products. With Upstart's AI lenders can approve more borrowers at lower rates across races ages and genders while delivering the exceptional digital-first experience customers demand. More than 80% of borrowers are approved instantly with zero documentation to upload. Founded in 2012 Upstart’s platform includes personal loans automotive retail and refinance loans home equity lines of credit and small-dollar “relief” loans. If you are energized by the impact you think you could make at Upstart we'd love to hear from you!
Why Work With Us
Connection to our mission creates a special environment where people feel passionately about the impact they make in the world. Upstart is fast-paced and we encourage ownership at all levels of the organization. As a result culture at Upstart is driven by Upstarters. Upstarters are proactive talented multi-dimensional and collaborative.
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Upstart Offices
Remote Workspace
Employees work remotely.
Upstart has a digital-first model enabling most Upstarters can live and work anywhere in the U.S. We also offer in-person options from our office locations in San Mateo California; Columbus Ohio; Austin Texas; and New York City NY.
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Date Posted
04/23/2026
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