[Hiring] Senior Software Engineer, LLMs @Upstart

Role Description

As a Senior Software Engineer focused on building LLM applications, you'll work closely with researchers, product managers, platform engineers, and designers to ship intelligent features that elevate the user experience and expand the capabilities of our systems.

• Design and build user-facing ML features that harness LLMs and generative AI to unlock new product capabilities.
• Partner with product, design, and ML research to prototype and deliver high-impact, ML-powered experiences.
• Own the technical architecture and implementation strategy for applied ML systems - balancing latency, observability, and iteration speed.
• Build scalable services and APIs that bring model outputs to users in trustworthy and intuitive ways.
• Collaborate across platform, infra, and legal/compliance teams to ensure ML deployments meet standards for safety, fairness, and performance.
• Establish and evangelize best practices for prompt design, model evaluation, and experimentation across the org.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years working directly on ML-driven products or intelligent systems.
• Proven ability to lead complex initiatives across engineering, product, and research stakeholders.
• Strong backend development skills (e.g., Python with FastAPI or Flask), plus experience with cloud-native tooling (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform).
• Experience integrating LLMs or ML models into production systems, including APIs and user-facing applications.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative, product-minded approach.
• Ability to think rigorously about system design, latency tradeoffs, and user impact when working with ML features.

Requirements

• Experience shipping GenAI or LLM-powered features using frameworks like LangChain, LlamaIndex, or OpenAI APIs.
• Familiarity with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector search (e.g., FAISS, Pinecone), and real-time inference patterns.
• Proficiency in full-stack development, including front-end work with React or similar frameworks.
• Strong intuition for prompt engineering, model testing, and evaluation methodologies.
• Experience navigating complex requirements around explainability, user trust, or compliance in ML applications.
• Track record of influencing architecture or product direction at a team or org level.

Benefits

• 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!).