Senior Product Manager, Small Dollar Loans - Growth

About Upstart

Upstart is a 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 two-thirds of Upstart loans are approved instantly and are fully automated.

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

Upstart’s Small Dollar Lending team is on a mission to put technology to work for everyday Americans. Every year, millions of people turn to high-cost payday and cash advance loans to cover short-term needs, often paying excessive fees and interest to make ends meet. We’re looking for people who want to build products instead that help our customers stabilize their lives and build real financial security. We believe AI can be an agent for opportunity, that financial systems should serve people - not the other way around - and that we have a choice: to be part of the problem or to help finally change the game. Hint: we’re called Upstart for a reason.

As a Senior Product Manager, SDL - Growth, you’ll define and execute our distribution strategy to drive organic adoption among the many Americans who otherwise rely on exploitative debt to manage urgent financial needs. Operating at the intersection of product and marketing, you’ll rapidly test, iterate, and embed growth levers directly into the product experience.

Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Remote

Time Zone Requirements - This 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.

How you’ll make an impact:

• Develop a deep understanding of our customers and design empathetic product experiences: address our customers’ real-world needs, meeting them where they are financially and personally.
• Define and own our organic distribution strategy: Identify the key channels, tactics, and in-product features that naturally bring new users to our products and retain them without relying on heavy paid acquisition.
• Work with engineering to embed growth levers: Partner closely with developers to design, build, and test product capabilities (e.g. referrals, social sharing) that scale organic adoption.
• Collaborate with marketing teams to support scalable, cost-effective growth: Work with lifecycle, partnerships, and other existing channels to expand reach while aligning with sustainable unit economics.
• Use data to guide rapid iteration: Analyze user behavior, funnel metrics, and unit economics to refine approaches quickly, doubling down on what’s effective while discarding what isn’t.

What we’re looking for: 

• Minimum requirements:
  • 4+ years of product management experience, preferably in consumer software or growth. You’ve shipped great software before that delights the customers and delivers business results.
  • Gets results. You have a track record of setting and delivering on ambitious goals.
  • Strong technical abilities. You’ve written detailed requirements for engineering, including detailed process flows. 
  • Analytically rigorous. You bring structure and order to ambiguous problems. You write your own SQL queries and pull your own data. You’ve run or analyzed experiments yourself.
  • Cross-functional project management. You work seamlessly across marketing, product, engineering, and data / analytics teams. You keep the trains running and hit your target dates. 
  • Ownership and growth mindset. You act like an owner. You’re often right, but humble and open minded about being wrong. You’re perpetually dissatisfied and striving to improve yo