Senior Manager, Software Engineering - Personalization and ML Enablement

Upstart • San Mateo, CA

14d • Remote

About The Position

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 Servicing Personalization and and ML Enablement team at Upstart is pioneering how we adapt borrower experiences using machine learning. Today, all borrowers are treated uniformly regardless of their financial situations. This team is changing that by introducing intelligent, adaptive systems that personalize communication, outreach, and servicing strategies. As the Senior Engineering Manager, you’ll play a foundational role in building this capability from the ground up—defining both the technical vision and team culture. Reporting to a Sr Director of Engineering, you’ll lead the creation of a new team spanning ML engineers and software engineers focused on personalization, selection, and experimentation infrastructure.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years in people management roles.
• Hands-on experience with ML systems, personalization engines, recommendation platforms, or experimentation infrastructure.
• Deep technical understanding of machine learning fundamentals, data pipelines, and deploying models at scale.
• Proven ability to hire and grow high-performing ML and engineering talent in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
• Strong strategic thinking with the ability to connect engineering efforts to business and borrower outcomes.
• Effective communication skills and a track record of cross-functional leadership.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with large-scale ML serving systems, online learning, or ranking/recommender systems.
• Familiarity with experimentation methodologies such as multi-armed bandits or reinforcement learning.
• Experience working with MLOps, data engineering, and applied ML research teams.
• Awareness of ethical AI topics including fairness, explainability, and model governance.
• Demonstrated success deploying ML systems in production environments serving millions of users.
• Strong systems thinking approach to infrastructure that enables scale, reliability, and iteration.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the multi-year technical roadmap for personalization and selection systems across Upstart’s servicing domain.
• Build and scale a high-caliber team of engineers and ML practitioners that can deliver both infrastructure and ML models in production.
• Launch ML-powered personalization models that adapt borrower experiences in real time, reducing delinquencies and increasing satisfaction.
• Lead the development of experimentation platforms (e.g., A/B testing, bandits) that accelerate model iteration and feature evaluation.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Data Science, and ML leadership to ensure alignment with borrower and business outcomes.
• Embed fairness, explainability, and governance into all personalization efforts to ensure responsible AI practices at scale.
• Establish clear metrics for model impact (e.g., lift, latency, precision/recall) and build observability practices for robust operations.

Benefits

• At Upstart, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package.
• In addition, Upstart provides employees with target bonuses, equity compensation, and generous benefits packages (including medical, dental, vision, and 401k).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees