Principal Product Designer, User Engagement

About Upstart

Upstart is the 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 80% of borrowers are approved instantly, with zero documentation to upload.

Upstart is a digital-first company, which means that most Upstarters live and work anywhere in the United States. However, 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!

The Team:

Upstart’s Growth team is dedicated to creating a seamless, customer-first product experience that allows people to effortlessly discover, access, and engage with Upstart’s credit offerings ,both for the first time and on an ongoing basis. By building exceptional, insight-driven experiences, this team plays a pivotal role in making Upstart the premier destination for consumer credit, driving growth and unifying our products into a cohesive, multi-product ecosystem.

As aPrincipal Product Designer, User Engagement, you’ll shape how customers experience Upstart beyond their initial transaction. You’ll design the systems, tools, and touchpoints that deepen trust, promote financial wellness, and keep users coming back. This role sits at the intersection of vision and execution, blending craft, strategy, and cross-functional leadership to create compelling, habit-forming experiences that drive retention, loyalty, and lifetime value.

You’ll collaborate closely with partners in Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Marketing to reimagine what engagement means across Upstart’s platform. You’ll champion elegant, intuitive design solutions informed by behavioral insights and business goals, balancing experimentation with a long-term vision for a cohesive, differentiated customer experience.

Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote

Time zone requirements The team operates on the East/West coast time zones.

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.

How you’ll make an impact

• Design and deliver the vision for engagement across Upstart’s ecosystem, building experiences, from financial tools to personalized insights, that keep users returning and pave the path to upsell and cross-sell.
• Champion the user journey, crafting intuitive and rewarding experiences that build trust and increase lifetime value. You’ll partner with consumer research, product marketing, and data to ground your work in real-world behaviors and motivations.
• Drive experimentation at scale, using rapid iteration and clear metrics to test what works. You’ll bring clarity to ambiguity by identifying levers for activation, retention, and repeat engagement, and aligning stakeholders around the most promising paths forward.
• Lead with influence, collaborating across product lines and teams to stitch together a cohesive experience across our suite of offerings, ensuring engagement efforts ladder up to shared company goals.
• Balance vision and execution, making strategic trade-offs across short-term optimization and long-term differentiation. You'll help shape a roadmap that prioritizes measurable impact while investing in foundational capabilities for sustained growth.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years designing and shipping high-quality digital products, with a track record of driving measurable impact on user engagement and retention.
• 2+ years designing for growth, engagement, or post-acquisition experiences in consumer products.
• A portfolio that demonstrates exceptional product thinking, behavioral insight, and end-to-end execution across multiple platforms.
• Deep experience with experimentation, A/B testing, and data-informed design iteration.
• Strong collaboration skills with a proven ability to influence senior product and engineering partners.
• Proficiency in Figma and research tools (e.g., UserTesting, Maze, Dovetail) and fluency in UX and visual systems design.
• Ability to translate complex user needs and business goals into clear, elegant, and scalable design solutions.
• Experience mentoring and guiding design talent to elevate craft, strategy, and cross-functional impact.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing for consumer fintech or other regulated industries.
• Background in lifecycle design, growth experimentation, or marketplace ecosystems.
• Demonstrated success designing for engagement, retention, or cross-sell experiences in multi-product environments.
• Experience working within and contributing to design systems at scale.
• Deep commitment to accessibility, inclusive design, and ethical user engagement principles.

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

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