Senior Customer Contact Specialist, Chat Support

OhioX; Columbus (OH); Hybrid; USD 55,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Upstart, the leading AI lending marketplace, seeks a Senior Customer Contact Specialist to support applicants through live chat, phone, and email within a regulated lending environment. You’ll own complex issues end-to-end and collaborate with Operations, Product, Risk, Compliance, Engineering, and lending partners.

This role offers hybrid work with in-person collaboration in Columbus, OH, and the chance to shape AI-powered customer support.

Qualifications

• Experience independently resolving complex customer issues in financial services, fintech, technology, or another regulated and rapidly changing environment.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize incomplete information and explain complex or sensitive topics clearly, concisely, and accurately.
• Experience investigating complex problems across connected tools or workflows, including identifying root causes, recognizing patterns, and distinguishing an individual issue from a broader problem.
• Experience managing multiple priorities, open issues, and internal dependencies while maintaining strong documentation, accuracy, and follow through.
• Experience learning and applying new products, policies, processes, or technologies in a rapidly changing environment.

Responsibilities

• Represent Upstart’s Customer Experience team across live chat, phone, email, and vendor support.
• Develop expertise across a complex lending journey with multiple products, lending partners, application workflows, verification requirements, and internal systems.
• Own complex issues from start to finish, coordinating across Operations, Product, Risk, Compliance, Engineering, or lending partners.
• Help build and improve support powered by AI, researching, drafting, solving problems, and refining prompts/workflows.
• Turn observations into improvements by investigating root causes, recommending solutions, and implementing changes to reduce friction.
• Communicate with precision and empathy, explaining what is happening and what actions are being taken.

Skills

Complex problem solving

Clear communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Financial services familiarity

AI tools experience

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 Customer Experience team supports applicants throughout the pre-origination journey, helping them navigate questions and resolve issues as they move through the application process.

As a Senior Customer Contact Specialist, you'll primarily engage with applicants through live chat and phone, while continuing to support emails when needed. As we shift more applicant volume toward real-time channels, you'll help deliver fast, clear, and consistent support without losing the ownership and attention to detail required in a regulated lending environment.

You’ll investigate complex application questions, handle escalations, make sound judgment calls, and serve as a subject matter expert for frontline vendor teams. Depending on business needs, you may be assigned to a channel‑focused workflow while remaining ready to flex across chat, phone, email, and internal vendor support.

How you’ll make an impact

• Represent Upstart’s Customer Experience team. You’ll support applicants primarily through live chat and phone, while also handling email, and vendor support as business needs evolve.
• Develop expertise across a complex lending journey. Upstart supports multiple products, lending partners, application workflows, verification requirements, and internal systems. You’ll understand how these pieces connect, investigate where an applicant is getting stuck, and determine the correct path forward.
• Own complex issues from start to finish. You’ll take responsibility for the contacts and escalations you handle, including issues that require coordination across Operations, Product, Risk, Compliance, Engineering, or our lending partners. You’ll route issues correctly, communicate clear expectations, and ensure commitments and required next steps are completed.
• Help build and improve support powered by AI. You’ll use AI tools to research, analyze, draft, and solve problems more effectively. You’ll also help refine prompts, workflows, automations, and other AI solutions, evaluate the quality of their outputs, identify failure patterns, and provide actionable feedback that improves how these tools perform.
• Turn observations into improvements. When you identify a recurring applicant pain point, unclear procedure, outdated knowledge article, or inefficient workflow, you’ll do more than flag it. You’ll investigate the root cause, recommend a solution, and help implement improvements that reduce friction and make the entire team more effective.
• Communicate with precision and empathy. Financial decisions can be complex and personal. You’ll clearly explain what is happening, what actions are being taken, and what the applicant should expect next using accurate, concise language without unnecessary jargon or filler.

Minimum Qualifications

• Experience independently resolving complex customer issues in financial services, fintech, technology, or another regulated and rapidly changing environment.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize incomplete information and explain complex or sensitive topics clearly, concisely, and accurately.
• Experience investigating complex problems across connected tools or workflows, including identifying root causes, recognizing patterns, and distinguishing an individual issue from a broader problem.
• Experience managing multiple priorities, open issues, and internal dependencies while maintaining strong documentation, accuracy, and follow through.
• Experience learning and applying new products, policies, processes, or technologies in a rapidly changing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting customers through multiple channels, including live chat and phone, while adapting your communication style to the needs of each channel.
• Experience working in a performance focused environment with expectations related to quality, customer satisfaction, productivity, and speed of service.
• Demonstrated experience using AI tools to improve the quality, speed, or consistency of work, including testing AI-generated outputs, identifying failure patterns, evaluating results, and translating findings into actionable feedback or product improvements.
• A track record of independently improving a process, knowledge resource, customer journey, or operational workflow from identifying the problem through implementing the solution.
• Experience partnering across Operations, Product, Risk, Compliance, or Engineering to investigate issues and drive them to resolution.

Position location

This role is available in the following location: Columbus, OH (Easton office).

Time zone requirements

The team operates on the East coast time zone.

In-Office requirements.

You will be required to work from the Easton office 2 days per week (Wednesday & Thursday)

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.

Shift time requirements:

• 9:00am - 5:30pm ET
• 11