The Machine Learning Platform team builds the foundational technology that scales machine learning innovation across Upstart. As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer, you will work at the intersection of applied ML and platform engineering—collaborating closely with Research Scientists, Data Scientists, and ML Platform Engineers to design tools and systems that accelerate model development to ultimately improve predictive accuracy. Success in this role requires a strong grasp of ML fundamentals and statistics and deep knowledge of the entire modeling lifecycle - from data preparation to training and deployment to production.
In this role, you will lead engineering initiatives that turn high-impact modeling needs into scalable, reusable infrastructure. This includes building a unified embeddings platform for training, serving, and managing representations at scale; streamlining feature engineering pipelines to reduce manual steps and deliver new signals quickly; developing automated continuous-learning systems that handle data refresh, retraining, evaluation, and drift monitoring with minimal manual effort; and scaling our training pipelines to support larger datasets, more complex architectures, and faster experimentation.
Across all of these efforts, you will work backward from applied ML projects that meaningfully improve accuracy—using those real-world scenarios to reinvent or improve existing platform capabilities that enable ML teams across Upstart to innovate with greater speed, reliability, and impact.
How You’ll Make an Impact
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Scale ML innovation by building tools, infrastructure, and workflows that dramatically improve the speed and reliability of model development.
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Work backward from modeling needs to design systems that directly unlock gains in accuracy, efficiency, and scientific productivity.
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Explore new algorithms and methodologies for our machine learning models and develop tooling to support them
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Improve the entire ML lifecycle—from data readiness and feature development through training, evaluation, serving, and monitoring.
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Automate and standardize operational workflows, enabling scientists to focus on high-leverage modeling and analysis rather than manual pipelines.
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Define the roadmap for our next generation ML Platform, balancing near-term impact with long-term architectural scalability.
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Collaborate cross-functionally with Data Engineering, ML Platform, Pricing, and other teams to build reliable, end-to-end ML systems.
Your work will multiply the effectiveness of every ML team at Upstart—accelerating innovation and advancing our mission to make credit more accurate, accessible, and fair.
This is a high influence role suited for those who enjoy combining science innovation, with cross functional collaboration and advisory.