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
The Database Engineering team owns the reliability, performance, and scalability of the database systems that power Upstart’s lending platform. Our environment is built primarily on Postgres and AWS RDS, supporting mission-critical financial transactions at scale. The team develops tooling, automation, and best practices that ensure our databases remain secure, resilient, and efficient as the business grows.
As a Senior Database Engineering Manager, you’ll lead this team of specialists, helping define the long-term vision for database engineering at Upstart while ensuring operational excellence today. You’ll partner with product engineering, infrastructure, and data teams to set standards, solve complex scaling challenges, and enable developers across the company to work more effectively with data.
Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Remote
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 the one of our offices. If you need to travel to make these meetups, Upstart will cover all travel related expenses.
How you’ll make an impact:
- Define the roadmap for database engineering, ensuring our database infrastructure scales with Upstart’s growth.
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Database Engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and collaboration.
- Partner with application and data engineering teams to establish standards for database design, schema governance, and query optimization.
- Drive initiatives to improve availability, security, and performance across all production and non-production database environments.
- Champion automation and tooling that reduce operational overhead, increase observability, and improve developer self-service.
- Act as a thought partner to engineering leadership on database strategy, scaling, and cost efficiency.
What we’re looking for:
Minimum Requirements
- 3+ years of people and team management experience, and 8+ years of experience in database engineering or DBA roles.
- Deep expertise in Postgres, including extensions, performance tuning, and replication.
- Experience designing and supporting high-volume OLTP systems.
- Strong background with AWS (RDS, EC2, IAM, VPC, S3) and infrastructure automation.
- Proficiency with Python or another scripting language for database automation and tooling.
- Strong communication skills and proven ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and operations teams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with Clickhouse, DataDog DBM, or other distributed database technologies.
- Familiarity with database scalability solutions in cloud environments.
- Experience in financial services, fintech, or other highly regulated industries.
- Background managing mission-critical systems with high uptime requirements.
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).
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
- Generous 401(k) plan with Upstart matching $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 per year
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees
- Affordable medical, dental, and vision coverage, with multiple plan options - Upstart covers 90% to 100% of the cost depending on the plans you choose
- Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans
- Income protection benefits, including company-paid Basic Life, AD&D, and Short- and Long-Term Disability coverage, with options to purchase supplemental coverage
- Paid time off, sick and safe time, and company holidays
- Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments
- Family-centered benefits through Carrot and Cleo, supporting fertility, parenthood, and caregiving
- 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
- 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 and onsites, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs)
- Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our four offices, located in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!).
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
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