Principal Engineer, LLM

About Upstart

At Upstart, we’re united by a mission that matters: to radically reduce the cost and complexity of borrowing for all Americans. Every day, we bring creativity, experimentation, and advanced AI to reshape access to credit, helping millions move forward financially with clarity and confidence.

As the leading AI lending marketplace, we partner with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit through technology that’s both radically intelligent and deeply human. Our platform runs over one million predictions per borrower using more than 1,800 signals, powering smarter, fairer decisions for millions of customers. But the numbers only hint at the impact. Every idea, every voice, and every contribution moves us closer to a world where credit never stands between people and their financial progress.

We’re proudly digital-first, giving most Upstarters the flexibility to do their best work from wherever they thrive, alongside teammates across 80+ cities in the US and Canada. Digital-first doesn’t mean distant. We’re intentional about in-person connection through team onsites, planning sessions, and moments that spark creativity and trust. And whether you choose to work primarily from home or collaborate in-person from one of our offices in Columbus, Austin, the Bay Area, or New York City (opening Summer 2026), you’ll have the support to work in the way that works best for you.

If you’re energized by tackling meaningful problems, excited to innovate with purpose, and motivated by work that truly matters, we’d love to hear from you.

The Team 

Upstart’s GenAI Core Platform team builds the foundational Platform that democratizes access to generative AI across the company. As a Principal Engineer - GenAI/LLM, you will provide technical leadership across multiple cross-functional teams, shaping the vision, architecture, and adoption strategy for our new GenAI platform for Engineers and non-Engineers alike. 

You will work closely with engineering leaders, ML researchers, and product stakeholders to ensure Upstart can scale the safe, efficient, and responsible use of LLMs across all business domains.

This role goes beyond delivery. It is about setting long-term direction, de-risking our most ambitious AI initiatives, and raising the bar for technical excellence across the organization. In short, you will have a direct influence and impact on how we enable and implement GenAI and LLMs internally at Upstart.

How You’ll Make an Impact

• Define and drive the multi-year technical roadmap for the Core GenAI Platform, influencing adoption and alignment across several engineering teams
• Collaborate with CTO/VP-level and above leadership to influence business strategy with technical insight
  Lead architecture and design of large-scale, mission-critical systems for model inference, orchestration, and compliance
  Identify and solve systemic technical risks that impact the entire company and business-critical AI initiatives
• Represent Upstart internally and externally as a thought leader in GenAI systems through executive reviews, cross-company forums, and industry venues
  Establish operational standards for GenAI integrations, ensuring security, fairness, and reliability at scale
• Build high-leverage, generalizable platform components that meaningfully accelerate the productivity of engineers across Upstart
• Mentor senior engineers, other principal engineers, and shape the growth of future technical leaders, fostering a culture of learning and excellence

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics, or a related field (or its equivalent) + 8 years of experience
• Deep expertise in LLM-specific infrastructure such as inference optimization (quantization, ONNX, streaming).
• Ability to design scalable RAG architectures and manage the lifecycle of models from experimentation to high-availability production environments including vector databases. 
• Proven experience building robust, automated evaluation pipelines using both heuristic metrics and 'LLM-as-a-judge' frameworks to ensure model accuracy and safety.
• Hands-on experience with LLM toolchains such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, or OpenAI APIs
• Experience designing and operationalizing ML/LLM platforms at scale, including optimization for cost, latency, and reliability and  the platform infrastructure needed to support them.
• Deep Expertise in best practices and risks for GenAI including hallucination mitigation, fairness, explainability, and data privacy

Preferred Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience and 5+ leading cross functional technical initiatives
• Proven ability to execute or guide model fine-tuning and alignment (RLHF/DPO) to optimize LLM performance for specialized consumer use cases and proprietary datasets.
• Full-stack engineering experience (Python, FastAPI, Kotlin, Spring, React/TypeScript, or similar)
• Deep expertise in backend systems and infrastructure technologies such as Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, and cloud-native architectures

Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote USA/Canada with quarterly travel.

Time zone requirements The team operates on the East/West coast time zones. 

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.

#LI-REMOTE

#LI-Director

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$238,400—$330,200 USD

What you'll love

At Upstart, our benefits are designed to support your health, financial well-being, family, and personal growth. Here’s what you can expect:

• Competitive compensation, including base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly 
• Retirement benefits to help you plan for the future, including a 401(k) or Group Retirement Savings Plan with a company match of $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 annually (USD in the US, CAD in Canada)
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees (US only)
• Comprehensive health coverage designed to support you and your family, including medical, dental, vision, and wellness resources for US and supplemental health coverage for Canada.
• Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans (US only)
• Income protection benefits, including life insurance and disability coverage for added financial security
• Paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, in line with local requirements
• Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments (duration varies by country)
• Family-centered benefits to support fertility, parenthood, and caregiving needs
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering mental health support and life-centered resources
• Financial wellness resources, including access to financial planning tools and a financial concierge service (US Only)
• Annual wellness allowance to support your physical and emotional well-being and personal development, based on what matters most to you
• Annual productivity allowance to invest in relevant tools and resources you need to do your best work, no matter where you work from
• Connection and community through team events, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs)
• Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our offices in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!)

For roles based in Canada, please note that we are not currently able to hire in Quebec.

Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Just as we are dedicated to improving access to affordable credit for all, we are committed to inclusive and fair hiring practices.

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