Software Engineer, Site Reliability

Upstart; San Carlos (CA); Remote; USD 142,000 - 197,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

401(k) with company match

Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)

Job summary

Upstart is hiring a Software Engineer on the Site Reliability Engineering team. You will build and operate systems to improve reliability, resiliency, and observability of Upstart’s production environment. You’ll work across observability platforms, tooling, incident response, and automation, applying AI throughout the lifecycle.

The role emphasizes collaboration across teams and advancing AI-enabled reliability capabilities, with remote-first options and US onsite opportunities.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in software/SRE or related engineering discipline.
• Strong software development in Python, Go, JS, or TS.
• Experience designing, building, testing, and operating production software or tooling.
• Cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, observability, monitoring, or production operations.
• On-call or incident response experience for production systems.
• Proven ability to deliver well-scoped engineering projects and collaborate cross-team.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools across the software lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Build and improve tooling, services, and automation for reliability.
• Develop shared observability capabilities (metrics, logs, traces, service health).
• Improve incident response and operational readiness through tooling and standards.
• Build resiliency capabilities to reduce operational risk and recover from failures.
• Identify recurring operational toil and replace manual processes with automation.
• Leverage AI as part of the software development and operations lifecycle.

Skills

Python

Go

JavaScript

TypeScript

Observability

Incident response

Tools

Kubernetes

AWS

Infrastructure as code

Datadog

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, 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 Site Reliability Engineering team enables engineers to operate reliable, resilient, and observable production systems at scale. We build the platforms, tooling, automation, and operational practices that help teams understand system health, respond effectively when things go wrong, and continuously improve the reliability of the services they own.

Our goal is to make reliability an integrated part of how software operates at Upstart. We provide shared observability and reliability capabilities, improve incident response and operational readiness, automate recurring operational work, and use system and customer data to identify where reliability investments will have the greatest impact.

SRE partners closely with product engineering, Cloud Platform, Delivery, Developer Platform, Security, and other infrastructure teams. SRE provides shared reliability capabilities and operational practices, while engineering teams remain accountable for the reliability and operation of the services they build.

The Role

As a Software Engineer on the Site Reliability Engineering team, you will build and operate systems that improve the reliability, resiliency, and observability of Upstart’s production environment.

You will work across observability platforms, reliability tooling, incident response systems, operational automation, and resiliency capabilities. You will independently deliver well scoped engineering projects, contribute to technical design, and use production data and operational experience to improve systems used across engineering.

We are looking for engineers who are thoughtful and intentional about how AI changes software development and operations. You should be comfortable using AI throughout the engineering lifecycle, including understanding unfamiliar systems, investigating production behavior, planning implementation, accelerating development, validating changes, and automating repetitive work. We expect engineers to continually develop more effective ways of working with increasingly capable AI tools and to apply sound engineering judgment to where they provide the most leverage.

How you’ll make an impact

• Build and improve the tooling, services, and automation that help engineers understand and improve the reliability of production systems
• Develop shared observability capabilities that make metrics, logs, traces, service health, and customer impact easier to understand and act on
• Improve incident response and operational readiness through better tooling, automation, standards, and actionable production signals
• Build resiliency capabilities that help teams identify failure modes, reduce operational risk, and recover effectively from infrastructure or application failures
• Identify recurring operational toil and reliability problems and replace manual processes with durable software and automation
• Use AI as an integrated part of software development and operational problem solving, while identifying opportunities for AI enabled capabilities that improve incident investigation, observability, reliability, and engineering efficiency

Minimum Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience in software engineering, site reliability engineering, or a related engineering discipline
• Strong software development skills in one or more general purpose programming languages such as Python, Go, JavaScript, or TypeScript
• Experience designing, building, testing, and operating production software, internal tooling, or infrastructure
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, observability, monitoring, or production operations
• Experience participating in on call or incident response for production systems
• Demonstrated ability to independently deliver well scoped engineering projects, navigate technical ambiguity, and collaborate effectively across engineering teams
• Demonstrated experience using AI assisted development tools across multiple stages of the software engineering lifecycle, with an interest in continually evolving how you use these tools as their capabilities advance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Kubernetes, AWS, infrastructure as code, and cloud native production environments
• Experience building internal reliability, observability, incident management, or operational automation tools
• Experience with observability platforms such as Datadog, Sumo Logic, CloudWatch, or similar technologies
• Experience with reliability practices such as service level objectives, capacity planning, resiliency testing, disaster recovery, or operational readiness
• Experience operating distributed applications with complex dependencies and high availability requirements
• Experience building AI enabled operational workflows, tools, or automation that extend beyond individual code generation

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.

#LI-REMOTE

#LI-Associate

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

$142,000—$196,600 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

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