Senior Software Engineer, Conversion Rate Optimization

About Upstart

Upstart is the leading AI lending marketplace partnering with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit. By leveraging Upstart's AI marketplace, Upstart-powered banks and credit unions can have higher approval rates and lower loss rates across races, ages, and genders, while simultaneously delivering the exceptional digital-first lending experience their customers demand. More than 80% of borrowers are approved instantly, with zero documentation to upload.

Upstart is a digital-first company, which means that most Upstarters live and work anywhere in the United States. However, we also have offices in San Mateo, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin, Texas.

Most Upstarters join us because they connect with our mission of enabling access to effortless credit based on true risk. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Upstart, we’d love to hear from you!

The Team

The Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) team is focused on improving the borrower journey from application initiation through rate acceptance. Our mission is to build fast, intuitive, and impactful user experiences that directly drive Upstart’s revenue by increasing conversion metrics. We operate as a full-stack team and are deeply collaborative—engineers, product managers, and designers work closely to scope, build, and iterate on features that enhance our funding flow. Our team thrives on curiosity and iteration. We prioritize delivering atomic commits to accelerate development and reduce cognitive load. Whether it’s implementing a new API endpoint or enhancing front-end performance, we’re committed to code quality and meaningful business impact.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be directly responsible for helping build critical functionality that impacts Upstart’s core business and help improve the user experience when completing applications, which translates into increased conversion metrics and revenue.

How you’ll make an impact:

• Design and implement user-facing features that streamline and enhance the loan funding experience.
• Lead end-to-end development of experiments that help improve conversion rates across the funnel.
• Partner closely with product and design teams to scope and deliver impactful features.Contribute to key architectural decisions as the team continues to modernize its platform and services.
• Take ownership of feature development, from idea to measurement, working across the stack.
• Help shape our technical culture through mentorship, documentation, and best practices.
• Improve the observability and monitoring of our systems to ensure high-quality user experiences.

What we’re looking for: 

• Minimum requirements:
  • 5+ years of experience as a software engineer, with at least 1+ years in a senior or tech lead role.
  • Strong experience in at least one backend language such as Ruby or Kotlin.
  • Demonstrated experience building scalable APIs and services, ideally in production.
  • Proficiency with modern frontend technologies and frameworks (e.g., React, Vue, or similar).
  • Comfort working in a full-stack environment, with experience shipping end-to-end features.
  • Experience with experimentation platforms, A/B testing frameworks, or data-driven decision-making.
  • Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset.

• Preferred qualifications:
  • Prior experience in fintech or a regulated industry where data quality and compliance matter.
  • Familiarity with Spring Boot, Kafka, and distributed system architecture.
  • Proficiency in Docker, GitHub Actions, and cloud environments like AWS.
  • Demonstrated success in mentoring teammates and guiding project execution.
  • Proven experience writing unit and end-to-end tests to maximize code coverage.
  • Experience paying down tech debt or refactoring legacy services with domain-driven principles.
    Passion for improving user experience through best practices and metrics-driven development.

 

Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Remote, San Mateo, Columbus, Austin 

Time Zone Requirements - This team operates across all U.S. time zones.

Travel Requirements - This team has regular on-site collaboration sessions. These occur 3 days per quarter at an Upstart office. If you need to travel to make these meetups, Upstart will cover all travel related expenses.

 

What you'll love: 

• Competitive Compensation (base + bonus & equity)