Senior Software Engineer, Identity Platform

At Upstart, the Identity and Experimentation Platform Team plays a pivotal role in shaping the security and accessibility of our cutting-edge lending products, including Personal Loans, Auto Loans, and Home Loans. We are responsible for creating, securing, and managing borrower and partner identities, ensuring a seamless and secure experience at every touchpoint.

As part of our team, you’ll work on the Authentication, Authorization and Experimentation Platform, driving both backend security and frontend user experiences. Our mission is to enable frictionless, secure authentication while safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized access.If you’re passionate about building scalable security solutions and delivering intuitive user experiences, come be a part of a team that makes financial access more accessible, safer, smarter, and seamless for everyone!

As a Senior Software Engineer on Upstart’s Identity Platform Team, you’ll play a critical role in building and securing our authentication, authorization and experimentation systems. You will be responsible for ensuring that borrowers and partners experience a seamless, secure, and scalable identity framework across our lending products, including Personal Loans, Auto Loans, and Home Loans.You’ll work closely with vertical Engineering, Product, and Security teams to develop and experiment solutions that enhance security, improve authentication flows, and drive innovation in Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Experimentation spaces.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys solving complex technical challenges, values clean and scalable architecture, and is eager to make a significant impact on a high-visibility platform.

• Design, develop, and optimize secure and scalable authentication and authorization systems.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities, including OAuth, OpenID Connect, MFA, and SSO.

• Partner with Security teams to enhance security policies and standards, ensuring protection against threats and unauthorized access.

• Improve Experimentation platform and Lifecycle across the Upstart Network Inc Products.

• Drive best engineering practices for clean, maintainable, and efficient code.

• Participate in architectural discussions, helping to shape the long-term vision of Identity Platform.

• Mentor and collaborate with other engineers to elevate the team’s technical skills and knowledge.

• Work on high impact initiatives that solve for making credit accessible to everyone.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics, or a related field (or its equivalent) + 4 years of experience

• Strong proficiency in backend technologies (e.g., Kotlin, Java, Ruby, C#).

• Hands-on experience with authentication and authorization protocols (OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML).

• Experience building scalable APIs using containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.

• Understanding of security principles, including encryption, token-based authentication, and identity federation.

• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, with an emphasis on performance optimization.

• Ability to balance the needs of the business with engineering best practices and security considerations.

• Passion for clean code, architecture, and continuous improvement of engineering processes.

• Experience with AI Coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code etc.

• Excellent communication skills – able to translate complex technical concepts for a variety of stakeholders

• Experience working with IAM platforms and security services.

• Proven ability to influence technical direction without direct authority.

• Strong product and analytical mindset, capable of making trade-offs between risk, ROI, and performance.

• Experience working at companies experiencing rapid growth and scaling challenges.

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for the quality and timely delivery of work