Principal Software Engineer, Core Pricing

Upstart • San Mateo, CA

96d

About The Position

The Pricing Platform team builds and owns the core systems that power our pricing and revenue models across the company. This highly collaborative team sits at the intersection of engineering, product, capital, and machine learning-enabling data-driven pricing strategies that impact profitability and customer experience. We build robust backend services in Python that abstract pricing logic for use across multiple product teams. Our work has direct implications on how we optimize fees, launch experiments, and ensure our pricing strategy scales with the business.

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including time as a Staff or Principal Engineer.
• Proven track record of building distributed backend systems in Python or similar languages.
• Experience leading technical direction for platform teams that serve multiple product surfaces.
• Demonstrated ability to connect engineering efforts with business outcomes, especially in revenue optimization or monetization.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; comfortable interfacing with ML, product, and finance stakeholders.
• Hands-on experience with launching experiments and interpreting their impact on revenue or growth metrics.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience in fintech, ecommerce, or other domains with complex pricing and monetization logic.
• Background in applied math, financial modeling, or economics.
• Experience working closely with ML and Capital teams to influence model design and business strategy.
• Familiarity with pricing engines, experimentation platforms, or fee optimization frameworks.
• Passion for building platforms that empower other teams to move faster and make better decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical direction of our pricing platform, developing scalable backend services in Python that power dynamic pricing and revenue models.
• Translate high-level business objectives-like margin optimization and monetization-into concrete engineering initiatives.
• Drive experimentation infrastructure and collaborate with ML and capital teams to build models and tools for pricing optimization.
• Architect systems that expose pricing logic as reusable services across multiple product areas, enabling other teams to build quickly and consistently.
• Serve as a thought partner to product and business leads, bringing strong business acumen and a quantitative mindset to decision-making.
• Actively code and mentor engineers across the team, setting a high technical bar while remaining hands-on.
• Ensure our pricing systems evolve to meet the needs of a fast-scaling fintech environment without drifting into infrastructure or DevOps scope.

Benefits

• Competitive Compensation (base + bonus & equity)
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart
• 401(k) with 100% company match up to $4,500 and immediate vesting and after-tax savings
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Life and disability insurance
• Generous holiday, vacation, sick and safety leave
• Supportive parental, family care, and military leave programs
• Annual wellness, technology & ergonomic reimbursement programs
• Social activities including team events and onsites, all-company updates, employee resource groups (ERGs), and other interest groups such as book clubs, fitness, investing, and volunteering
• Catered lunches + snacks & drinks when working in offices

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Industry: Credit Intermediation and Related Activities
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees