Principal Product Manager, Growth

OhioX; Columbus, Austin, San Francisco, New York (GA, TX, CA, NY); Hybrid; USD 188,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with company match

Equity grants

Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)

Comprehensive health coverage

Wellness and productivity allowances

Paid time off and parental leave

Job summary

Upstart is a digital-first lender delivering credit products across the US and Canada. You will own the strategy and evolution of the end-to-end credit conversion experience, guiding users from intent to approval while reducing friction and improving trust.

This Principal Product Manager role emphasizes cross-functional leadership, rapid experimentation, and scalable growth. The position supports remote work with a base salary range and comprehensive benefits as described by Upstart.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of product management experience for high-scale consumer apps.
• Proven track record improving a complex conversion funnel.
• Exceptional quantitative judgment and data interpretation.
• Strong experimentation, A/B testing, and funnel analysis experience.
• Strong consumer product intuition for high-trust decisions.
• Ability to switch between big questions and screen-level details quickly.
• Leadership across engineers, designers, analytics without formal authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the end-to-end conversion experience from application start to offer acceptance.
• Address hard conversion problems with a customer-first approach.
• Optimize the credit portfolio to grow the core personal loan business.
• Set and track success metrics to prioritize high-ROI opportunities.
• Turn data into decisions with aggressive segmentation and insights.
• Build deep customer understanding with research and product marketing.

Skills

Product management

B2C ownership

Analytics

Experimentation

Cross-functional leadership

Data-driven decisions

Communication

Strategic thinking

Job description

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 3,000 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 Growth team is dedicated to creating a seamless product experience that allows customers to effortlessly discover and access Upstart’s credit products, both for the first time and on an ongoing basis. By building exceptional, customer‑centric experiences, this team plays a crucial role in making Upstart the premier destination for consumer credit, driving growth and unifying Upstart’s product portfolio into a cohesive, multi‑product marketplace.

As a Principal Product Manager, you will own the strategy and evolution of Upstart’s end‑to‑end credit conversion experience, helping users move from intent, to the right credit offering, to approval and funding. You’ll identify and solve the highest‑leverage points of friction across the funnel, creating an experience that feels intelligently matched, transparent, and human while driving meaningful growth for the business.

This is a role with room to take big swings. Upstart has built a strong optimization muscle, and the next chapter is less about tuning individual screens and more about fundamentally rethinking how we engage users on their way to getting funded and achieving their financial goals.

How you’ll make an impact

• Own and evolve the strategy for Upstart’s end‑to‑end conversion experience, from application start through offer acceptance and beyond.
• Take on the hardest conversion problems with a customer‑first mindset, such as helping users whose offer differs from what they requested understand their options and move forward with confidence.
• Optimize across Upstart’s credit portfolio, growing the core personal loan business while helping users find the product that best fits their needs.
• Set the success metrics for your area and use them to prioritize the highest‑ROI opportunities, experimenting where an experiment is the right way to decide.
• Turn data into decisions, segmenting aggressively since aggregate conversion rates often mask very different user problems.
• Build deep customer understanding alongside research, consumer insights, and product marketing so the borrower experience feels intuitive and human.
• Influence without direct authority across engineering, design, analytics, ML, marketing, compliance, and executive leadership, creating clarity where ownership crosses teams.
• Use GenAI as a real extension of your toolkit: synthesizing qualitative inputs, running exploratory analysis, and prototyping concepts to sharpen product conversations.

What we’re looking for

• Minimum Qualifications
  • 8+ years of product management experience, including significant B2C ownership of high‑scale mobile and desktop consumer experiences with proven business impact
  • Demonstrated success materially improving a complex conversion funnel through a combination of product strategy, experimentation, analytics, and customer insight, with a track record of leading a team to specific KPIs (e.g., conversion improvements, revenue)
  • Exceptional quantitative judgment, with the ability to assess funnel data, segment behavior, size opportunities, interpret experiments, and recognize unintended downstream effects
  • Strong experimentation instincts, 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 fluidly, and quickly, between strategic questions (“What fundamentally prevents users from getting what they came for?”) and detailed product questions (“What exactly should happen on this screen for this 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
• Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience in fintech, lending, financial services, marketplaces, insurance, or another regulated, high‑consideration industry
  • Experience with personalization, recommendation systems, matching, pricing, or ML‑powered consumer experiences
  • Familiarity with identity, bank linking, income verification, Plaid, or similar financial‑data infrastructure
  • Proven track record of building and scaling multi‑product ecosystems or marketplaces in a B2C environment

Position location

This role is available in the following locations: Remote

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.

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

$187,900 — $260,000 USD

Canada | Remote - Anticipated Base Salary Range

$182,800 — $230,000 CAD

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 [e-mail]

https://www.upstart.com/candidate_privacy_policy