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
Upstart’s Delivery team owns the platform that powers how engineers build, test, and deploy code for our AI-driven lending products. The team is responsible not only for maintaining a complex, high-traffic CI/CD environment—including legacy Jenkins systems—but also for defining and implementing the path forward toward modern, scalable deployment solutions.
We're looking for a seasoned Senior Engineering Manager to lead this team through a critical transformation. You’ll drive the architectural vision and execution for our build/deploy infrastructure, with a focus on pragmatic lift-and-shift modernization, automation, and platform reliability. This role blends technical leadership with strategic impact: you’ll help Upstart scale its delivery systems without scaling complexity.
We treat our internal platforms like products: we interview our users, prioritize based on feedback and data, and aim to maximize engineering velocity and quality. You’ll be leading a high-leverage team at the center of that mission.
The ideal candidate brings deep experience managing CI/CD systems at scale, leading through change, and delivering results with small teams by reducing complexity—not adding headcount.
Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Remote, Austin, Columbus, San Mateo
Time Zone Requirements - This team operates across all U.S. time zones.
Travel Requirements - This team has regular on-site collaboration sessions. These occur a few days per quarter at various locations in the US. If you need to travel to make these meetups, Upstart will cover all travel related expenses.
How you’ll make an impact:
- Lead the modernization of our legacy Jenkins footprint by developing a pragmatic, phased migration strategy toward scalable, cloud-native CI/CD platforms.
- Partner with platform, security, and product teams to standardize deployment patterns that enable zero-downtime rollouts, canaries, and safe rollback practices.
- Prioritize high-leverage internal tooling that allows a small team to reduce pipeline fragmentation and improve developer confidence across hundreds of services.
- Leverage metrics and team feedback to prioritize migration efforts, streamline build/deploy workflows, and systematically reduce delivery pain points across the organization.
- Build and mentor a high-performing team that treats reliability, automation, and incremental delivery as cultural values
What we’re looking for:
- Minimum qualifications:
- 7+ years of engineering management experience, including leading platform or infrastructure teams.
- Proven track record modernizing CI/CD systems, especially transitioning from legacy Jenkins to modern cloud-native pipelines.
- Deep understanding of deployment strategies (e.g., blue/green, canary, GitOps) and their implementation on AWS and Kubernetes (EKS).
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to drive change across multiple teams both internal and external to our platform organization.
- Preferred qualifications:
- Hands-on familiarity with GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, and GitOps-based deployment models.
- Demonstrated ability to execute lift-and-shift migrations using phased, low-risk strategies.
- Strong understanding of containerized build systems and artifact pipelines in Kubernetes/EKS environments.
- Background in developer experience, internal tooling, or platform enablement initiatives.
- Experience working within compliance- or security-sensitive environments (e.g., PCI, SOC2) without sacrificing delivery velocity.
- Proven ability to drive high-impact infrastructure change with limited resources by prioritizing well, reducing complexity, and leveraging automation effectively.
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).
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 [email protected]
https://www.upstart.com/candidate_privacy_policy
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