Senior Software Engineer, Payments

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 As a member of our Servicing Engineering team, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring smooth loan management, optimizing collections, and cultivating strong customer relationships — with a specialized focus on Payments. Our team’s mission is to build a best-in-class loan servicing and payments platform that enables flexibility, operational excellence, and innovation in how borrowers make and manage payments. We’re developing a cutting-edge platform that introduces business process automation, payment workflow orchestration, and a seamless user experience for both borrowers and internal stakeholders. About the Role Our Senior Software Engineers are trusted technical leaders who thrive across the full stack. You don’t wait for someone to pave the road—you build it. You bring deep technical expertise in payments systems, from NACHA nuances to payment rails architecture, and a strong understanding of the operational and technical challenges of scaling financial workflows. You’ll be a hands-on Team lead, shaping the direction of payment features, integrations, and standards that define how we transact with borrowers. You’ll collaborate closely with Product, Analytics, and Operations to ensure that our payments platform is reliable, extensible, and ready to support new financial experiences. How You’ll Make an Impact Lead successful cross-team or multi-quarter projects that expand the capabilities and reliability of our payments and servicing systems.

Design and build full-stack features, including new payment workflows, card payment expansion, and flexible payment timing options that empower borrowers.

Own the architecture for payment abstractions — ensuring idempotency, exactly-once semantics, and extensible contracts that safely integrate with other systems.

Set engineering standards for correctness, observability, and operational excellence in payment processing.

Collaborate with internal and external partners to evolve Upstart’s payment platform and maintain compliance with payment network rules and NACHA standards.

Mentor engineers across the team, sharing expertise on distributed systems, financial domain design, and scalable architecture.

Help grow the engineering team and foster a culture of technical rigor, ownership, and continuous improvement. What We’re Looking For

Minimum Requirements:

5+ years of professional software development experience.

Proven technical leadership experience in designing and operating distributed, microservices-based systems.

Deep understanding of release orchestration, deployment, logging, monitoring, and alerting at scale.

Demonstrated ownership of production-critical payment or financial transaction systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing and maintaining payments or transaction-oriented systems with strong reliability guarantees.
• Knowledge of ACH, NACHA, or card payment networks and related operational concerns.
• Experience writing clean, extensible APIs that abstract payment workflows and enable integration across platforms.
• Familiarity with Ruby on Rails or Kotlin in a microservices environment.
• Strong communication and mentoring skills, with the ability to influence cross-functionally.
• Growth mindset with a commitment to excellence and iterative improvement.
• Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote [A specific city/location is not required if the role does not have an in-person requirement]

Time zone requirements The team operates on the East/West coast time zones. [Only use this section if there are specific time zone requirements that this role must work in; if the role is remote-US or can work in any timezone in the US, please remove this section.] [OPTIONAL] In-Office requirements. You will be required to work from the {insert location} office x days per week/month. 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.

What you'll love:

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 #LI-REMOTE #LI-Senior At Upstart, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. The anticipated base salary for this position is expected to be within the below range. Your actual base pay will depend on your geographic location–with our “digital first” philosophy, Upstart uses compensation regions that vary depending on location. Individual pay is also determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process. In addition, Upstart provides employees with target bonuses, equity compensation, and generous benefits packages (including medical, dental, vision, and 401k). United States | Remote - Anticipated Base Salary Range $163,600—$226,400 USD Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to ensuring that underrepresented classes receive better access to affordable credit, and are just as committed to embracing diversity and inclusion in our hiring practices. We celebrate all cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences, and know that we can only become better together. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please email candidate_accommodations@upstart.com https://www.upstart.com/candidate_privacy_policy