Principal DevOps Engineer

Posted Aug 21

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 Cloud Platform Team builds and maintains the Cloud Infrastructure and Compute foundation for our AI lending products. Our mission is to create and maintain a Cloud Platform that is highly reliable, efficient, and scalable, powering Upstart’s lending products. We empower our product teams by implementing self-service mechanisms that provide an easy interface for creating new services and their underlying infrastructure. The Cloud Platform Team is also responsible for the service mesh technologies that connect Upstart’s distributed systems and service-oriented architecture.

As a  Principal DevOps Engineer on our Cloud Platform Team at Upstart, you will be a technical leader responsible for driving major architectural changes, executing on technical vision, and fostering healthy collaboration within and across teams. You will play a critical role in shaping the future of Upstart’s Cloud Platform while balancing business-driven initiatives that support our mission of providing affordable credit through data-driven decisions.

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

Time Zone Requirements - This team operates on the East/West Coast time zones.

Travel Requirements - This team has regular on-site collaboration sessions. These occur 2-4 days per quarter at one of our company offices. If you need to travel to make these meetups, Upstart will cover all travel related expenses.

How you’ll make an impact:

  • Strategic Technical Leadership: Define and drive the near, mid, and long-term technical vision for Upstart’s Cloud Infrastructure, Compute/Kubernetes, and Service Mesh technologies. Ensure that the Cloud Platform is aligned with the company’s broader technical and business goals.  
  • Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with adjacent platform teams to ensure technical alignment and foster collaboration across the organization. Build and maintain strong relationships with other teams to ensure cohesive systems architecture and technical implementations.
  • Infrastructure and Compute Ownership: Lead the management and continuous improvement of Infrastructure as Code, Kubenetes/EKS compute , GitOps tooling and pipelines, and service meshes. Implement and refine self-service solutions that empower product teams to efficiently deploy services and infrastructure.
  • Architectural Excellence: Drive innovation in distributed computing, orchestration, and service mesh technologies. Ensure the Upstart’s Cloud Platform is scalable, reliable, and efficient, meeting the demands of Upstart’s rapidly growing product offerings.
  • Mentorship and Influence: Mentor engineers across the platform teams, sharing knowledge and best practices in cloud infrastructure, service mesh technologies, and DevOps methodologies. Serve as a role model for operational excellence and continuous improvement.
  • Operational Excellence: Establish and drive the development of key performance indicators (KPIs), service level indicators (SLIs), and service level objectives (SLOs) that are crucial to the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of the Cloud Platform. Collaborate closely with SRE and adjacent teams to ensure these metrics are aligned with broader business objectives and provide actionable insights for continuous improvement. Lead initiatives to monitor and optimize these metrics, ensuring the Cloud Platform consistently meets or exceeds its operational targets.

What we’re looking for: 

  • Minimum requirements:
  1. 8+ years of experience in a DevOps or related role
  2. 3+ years of experience working with Ruby/Python or similar programming languages
  3. Expertise with major public cloud providers, particularly AWS
  • In-depth knowledge of distributed computing and orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes) and managed Kubernetes services
  1. Experience with Kubernetes scaling technologies, and monitoring & logging tool stacks
  2. Expertise in Infrastructure as Code tools (e.g., CDK, Terraform) and GitOps practices
  3. Strong understanding of service mesh technologies and their role in service-oriented architectures
  4. Deep knowledge of Linux architecture, administration, troubleshooting, and production operations
  5. Proven experience as a technical leader, with the ability to work across domains and influence technical direction
  6. Aptitude and willingness to mentor others, with a balance of humility and confidence
  7. Experience in leading incident response and remediation efforts, with a strong grasp of SLI/KPI metrics that inform SLO definitions
  • Preferred qualifications:
  1. Experience working with Developer Experience teams to create low-friction interfaces for cloud infrastructure and service deployment.
  2. Strong knowledge of SRE best practices and experience collaborating with SRE teams.
  3. Experience with performance and load testing tooling.
  4. Familiarity with Ruby, Python, and Kotlin applications.

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-MidSenior

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

$180,600—$250,000 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