Principal Software Engineer, Core Pricing

Upstart is hiring a Principal Software Engineer for its Core Pricing team, which builds the platform that creates loan offers across its products. The role sets technical direction and leads development of systems that use machine learning to optimize pricing and borrower-lender matching.

Responsibilities:

• 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

Requirements:

• 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
• 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 mindset that allows you to think in terms of ROI, risk, and trade offs
• Experience working at companies that have gone through periods of rapid business or organizational growth