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Upstart

Runs an AI lending marketplace for consumers

Principal Product Manager - Growth

Full-Time
$187.9k - $260k
Expert
Remote in USA+1 moreMore locations: Remote in Canada
RemoteRegular in-person onsites are encouraged, usually once or twice per quarter for 2–4 consecutive days.
ProductProduct Management
Company Historically Provides H1B Sponsorship

About the job

Requirements
  • At least 8 years of product management experience, including significant business-to-consumer ownership of high-scale mobile and desktop consumer experiences with proven business impact.
  • Demonstrated success materially improving a complex conversion funnel through product strategy, experimentation, analytics, and customer insight, with a track record of leading a team to specific key performance indicators such as conversion improvements or revenue.
  • Exceptional quantitative judgment, including assessing funnel data, segmenting behavior, sizing opportunities, interpreting experiments, and recognizing unintended downstream effects.
  • Strong experimentation skills, including hypothesis development, experiment design, A/B testing, funnel and results analysis, and knowing when a test is or is not the right decision-making mechanism.
  • Strong consumer product intuition, particularly around high-consideration decisions involving trust, uncertainty, or meaningful tradeoffs.
  • Ability to move quickly between strategic questions about what prevents users from getting what they came for and detailed product questions about what should happen on a screen for a user segment.
  • Track record of leading complex cross-functional initiatives and aligning diverse stakeholders, from executive leaders to cross-functional partners, without relying on organizational authority.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to turn ambiguous problems into clear priorities and decisions.
Responsibilities
  • Own and evolve the strategy for the end-to-end conversion experience, from application start through offer acceptance and beyond.
  • Address difficult conversion problems with a customer-first approach, including helping users whose offer differs from what they requested understand their options and move forward with confidence.
  • Optimize across the credit portfolio, growing the core personal loan business while helping users find the product that best fits their needs.
  • Set success metrics for the area and use them to prioritize high-return opportunities, experimenting when an experiment is the right way to decide.
  • Use segmented data analysis to identify user problems that aggregate conversion rates may conceal.
  • Build customer understanding with research, consumer insights, and product marketing to make the borrower experience intuitive and human.
  • Influence engineering, design, analytics, machine learning, marketing, compliance, and executive leadership without direct authority, creating clarity where ownership crosses teams.
  • Use generative AI to synthesize qualitative input, conduct exploratory analysis, and prototype concepts to sharpen product conversations.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience in fintech, lending, financial services, marketplaces, insurance, or another regulated, high-consideration industry.
  • Experience with personalization, recommendation systems, matching, pricing, or machine-learning-powered consumer experiences.
  • Familiarity with identity, bank linking, income verification, Plaid, or similar financial-data infrastructure.
  • A track record of building and scaling multi-product ecosystems or marketplaces in a business-to-consumer environment.

About the company

Upstart runs an online lending marketplace where banks and credit unions use its AI models to decide which consumers get loans and at what rates. In 2017, it received the first no-action letter issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a statement that the regulator had no plans to act against its AI lending model. Borrowers apply through Upstart or a partner lender's website for personal loans, auto loans, home equity lines of credit, and Cash Line, a revolving line of credit. Lenders pay Upstart fees for referring and approving borrowers and for collecting payments, while partner lenders and investment funds put up most of the money lent. Upstart was founded in 2012 and is based in Burlingame, California.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Burlingame, California

Founded

2012

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Lending is surging: loans through Upstart jumped 50% from a year earlier to $4.2 billion in the June 2026 quarter.
  • Upstart is becoming a bank: in July 2026, a federal regulator conditionally approved Upstart Bank to take over its lending.
  • Work from almost anywhere in the U.S.: 79 of Upstart's 85 open roles in October 2026 were listed as remote.

What critics are saying

  • AI lending rival Pagaya is more profitable: it earned $45 million in the June 2026 quarter to Upstart's $16.5 million.
  • Job security leans on three lenders: they made 83% of Upstart's 2025 loans and paid 61% of its revenue.
  • Stock grants have shrunk: Upstart shares fell 45% from January to October 2026, more than peers SoFi and Pagaya.

What makes Upstart unique

  • Its loan model reads far beyond credit scores: over 3,000 variables, trained on 117 million monthly payments.
  • Software, not staff, handles most loans: as of June 2026, 91% needed no human involvement by Upstart.
  • Unsecured lending pays the bills: loans without collateral made 94% of fee revenue from April to June 2026.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • 401(k) Company Match
  • Employee Stock Purchase Plan
  • Life Insurance
  • Paid Vacation
  • Parental Leave
  • Flexible Work Hours
  • Wellness Program

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

1%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

0%
Kalkine Media
Oct 20th, 2026
Upstart secures $200M MUFG credit line to capitalise planned Upstart Bank

Upstart Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of Upstart Holdings, has secured a senior secured revolving credit facility of up to $200 million from MUFG Bank. The agreement was signed on October 16, 2026, and disclosed in a Form 8-K filing on October 20. The money will fund general corporate needs and the initial capitalisation of Upstart Bank, N.A. The bank's launch depends on regulatory approval. Borrowings accrue interest at Term SOFR plus 3.00%. The facility matures at the earliest of 364 days after closing, 45 days after the bank's initial capitalisation, or full repayment. Loans must be repaid with proceeds from affiliate loan sales to Upstart Bank, which are expected shortly after it opens.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 15th, 2026
Cohu and Upstart: two AI growth stocks to buy if the market falls from record highs

The S&P 500 hit a record high last week, but rising inflation, interest rate hikes, and AI stock volatility could trigger a correction. The index trades at a Shiller CAPE ratio of 41.8, its second-highest ever behind the dot-com peak in 2000. Two AI-linked stocks could be buys if the market falls. Cohu, which supplies chip testing equipment to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Intel, and Samsung, is expected to grow revenue 35% to $612 million in 2026. Its stock is up 180% this year, with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 34.5. Upstart Holdings uses AI to assess borrowers. In the second quarter, it approved loans worth $4.2 billion, up 50%, and revenue rose 42% to $364.7 million. Its price-to-sales ratio is 2, against a three-year average of 5.4.

American Banker
Sep 30th, 2026
Upstart Network raises $400 million from consumer loans

Upstart's grade E loans account for 47.1% of the collateral pool, compared with 43.3% in the UPST 2026-3, while the concentration of 60-month loans is also lower.

Yahoo Finance
Sep 30th, 2026
Upstart makes buy list while Adobe and Bandwidth fall short on growth metrics

Software companies have delivered strong returns, with the industry gaining 45.5% over six months, outperforming the S&P 500 by 24.4 percentage points. However, investors should be selective as AI threatens to commoditise many software products. Adobe faces challenges with average billings growth of just 11.9% over the past year and estimated sales growth of 9.4% for the next 12 months, suggesting slowing demand. Its operating margin failed to improve year-over-year. Bandwidth showed weak annual revenue growth of 11.9% over two years and a low gross margin of 37.2% compared to competitors. Its operating margin remained flat. Upstart, an AI-powered lending platform, appears more promising. The company uses over 2,500 data variables and machine learning to help banks assess borrower risk for various loan types.

Yahoo Finance
Sep 16th, 2026
Upstart poised for growth while Inter Parfums and Payoneer face headwinds

Upstart, an AI-powered lending platform using machine learning to assess borrower risk, stands out as a promising Russell 2000 investment opportunity. The company has seen loan originations surge by 54.3% over the past year, with revenue expected to grow 30.9% next year as it expands into new markets including credit cards. Free cash flow is projected to turn positive next year. Meanwhile, Inter Parfums and Payoneer face challenges. Inter Parfums, which manufactures fragrances under licenses including Kate Spade and Van Cleef & Arpels, shows weakening efficiency with operating margins declining 1.7 percentage points. Its estimated 2% sales growth signals slowing demand. Payoneer, a cross-border payment platform for SMEs, has struggled with profitability despite revenue growth, with earnings per share falling 5.2% annually over two years. Its 7.9% return on equity reflects difficulties finding profitable growth opportunities.