Senior Software Engineer, Lifecycle

Upstart is an AI lending marketplace focused on reducing the cost and complexity of borrowing. The Senior Software Engineer will design and operate scalable lifecycle communication platforms, including backend services, real-time messaging systems, APIs, and data workflows for personalized customer engagement. The role also involves leading projects and collaborating with product, marketing, analytics, data platform, and machine learning teams.

Responsibilities:

• Design and build scalable backend services that power our unified communications platform across SMS, email, push, and future channels
• Develop systems for real-time, event-triggered messaging and self-serve marketing automation and experimentation capabilities
• Translate large, complex datasets into high-leverage marketing capabilities through APIs, streaming pipelines, and reverse ETL workflows
• Partner closely with product managers, lifecycle marketing, data insights, analytics, and data platform teams to define requirements and deliver impactful, data-driven solutions
• Lead medium-sized projects independently—proactively identifying risks, managing ambiguity, and driving execution from design through launch
• Strengthen our engineering culture by improving system reliability, accelerating iteration, and clearly communicating technical trade-offs to cross-functional stakeholders

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics, or a related field (or its equivalent) + 6 years of experience
• Experience building and operating microservices and APIs in a cloud environment (preferably AWS)
• Proficiency in at least one backend language such as Kotlin, Java, Ruby, or Python
• Demonstrated ability to independently execute on projects, navigate ambiguity, and collaborate effectively with cross-functional partners
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work in a distributed team
• Experience supporting Marketing, Growth, or GTM teams, particularly in environments involving CDPs, customer segmentation, or campaign orchestration
• Experience with reverse ETL tools (e.g., Hightouch, Census), data pipeline tooling (e.g., Airbyte, Fivetran, Databricks), or marketing automation platforms (e.g.,Iterable, Braze, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud)
• Familiarity with real-time event streaming systems and high-throughput messaging architectures
• Experience integrating with third-party APIs and building systems that ingest, transform, and expose large volumes of data
• Track record of leading medium-to-large projects and contributing to system design decisions with long-term platform impact