Principal Technical Program Manager
Upstart
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 can live and work anywhere in the U.S. 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!
About You
You love helping multi-disciplined teams design and deliver great products. You have a passion for technology, and love to solve complex technical problems. You are creative, and you help unlock creativity in others. Your communication skills are legendary; you can describe the most complicated and nuanced topics simply and clearly. Your ability to illuminate and clarify with others enables them to zero in on what really matters, and it enables you to influence and align towards your Org’s broader goals. You’ve built really cool things at scale, but you’ve also delivered quick, scrappy solutions that have impact. You know a lot, but there’s still a lot you don’t know and you’re hungry to learn. Lastly, you thrive in an environment where people collaborate and support each other, and where they move fast to delight our customers. Does this sound like you? Then read on….
The Team
As a Principal Technical Program Manager, you’ll lead data engineering projects and influence teams that design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and improve how the company captures, accesses, and leverages data. You will partner with product and data engineering leads to establish roadmaps, create and track to success metrics, and lead planning efforts. You’ll work across several development teams on some of the most complex and most critical projects at the company to help move the engineering and business vertical strategies forward. To do this, you’ll gather requirements, define milestones, identify risks, manage schedules, and communicate clearly with project stakeholders.
One of the reasons Upstart has experienced such rapid growth is because of the clear-eyed, analytical approach we take to solving problems. The right candidate for this role should be highly ambitious, able to organize both ideas and people, and excel at problem-solving of all kinds. You should have a bias toward action and be able to break down complex problems into steps that drive rapid product development.
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 2/3 days per Month/Quarter at 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:
- Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to drive program planning and execution, actively managing program risks/issues and communicating status objectively to all stakeholders
- Define and lead product execution strategy for multiple areas of products and platform
- Personally lead transformation initiatives and be accountable for the effective delivery of the programs
- Understand strategic partners' objectives, and advise on the necessary programs to succeed. Develop a roadmap or framework for those programs.
- Drive strategic alignment across business units to succeed against company-wide goals
- Align cross functional teams on priorities and success goals, bringing together separate teams to achieve strategic objectives
- Drive teams through the Software engineering experience using Agile and demonstrated analytical and technical skills
- You are comfortable juggling competing priorities, handling ambiguity, and diving deep to understand diverse product portfolios and customer requirements
- You are willing to "get your hands dirty" to act as a change agent and create new applications, tools, processes, and reports
- Help us build our product and engineering teams and make Upstart a genuinely awesome place to work
- Exercise technical judgment in working with large, cross-functional teams
- Help us drive interdisciplinary high impact company level initiatives to reduce our product risks
- Engage various engineering stakeholders in SWE, Platform Infra, Quality, Infosec to build solutions which improves Upstart’s software quality and developer productivity
- Drive engineering excellence programs that help ensure Upstart’s software systems are highly reliable
What we’re looking for:
- Minimum requirements:
- 10+ years of experience as a software development project/program manager working on cross-functional efforts
- 5+ years managing programs
- In depth knowledge of agile development practices and tools
- Experience in leading projects that span multiple engineering teams with end to end ownership and knowledge of Technical Program Management tools
- Ability to exercise technical judgment in solving software engineering challenges involving bug triage, source control, continuous integration, etc.
- Ability to be an influential member of a highly integrated team composed of both technical and non-technical members
- Experience managing projects across cross functional teams, building sustainable processes and coordinating release schedules
- Ability to discern short term vs long term roadmaps and the conflict/impact of each
- Proven track record of delivering results in large, cross-functional software initiatives
- Experience building and operating Internet-scale products, services, and platforms
- Demonstrated ability to successfully negotiate with senior leaders across a large enterprise
- Preferred qualifications:
- Experience at a growth-stage company or tech company
- Ability to break down a product or feature into the technical teams and systems involved and their dependencies
- Ability to be an influential member of a highly integrated team composed of both technical and non-technical members
- Experience in software development in one or more general purpose programming languages
- Jazzed when presented with a challenging problem to solve
- Desire to succeed as part of a team
- Knowledge of Jira and confluence tools
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.