Upstart Salary

💰 $169K–$214K salary range

Median: $193K  ·  Based on 82 public Upstart job postings  ·  Updated October 23, 2026

This Upstart salary benchmark is built from public job postings — no private placement data. Figures reflect base salary only (equity is separate) and are refreshed as new postings are collected.

📊 Salary breakdown

Highest-paying open roles at Upstart

• Staff/Principal Machine Learning Engineer — $221K–$300K · Engineering Department
• Director of Product, Machine Learning & Decisioning Platforms — $216K–$299K · Product Department
• Lead Legal Counsel - HELOC — $208K–$288K · Legal & Government Affairs Department
• Staff Applied Scientist — $200K–$276K · Machine Learning Department
• Director of Lifecycle Marketing — $196K–$271K · Growth Department
• Senior Manager, Data Science — $195K–$270K · Engineering Department
• Principal Software Engineer, Core Pricing — $195K–$270K · Engineering Department
• Principal Software Engineer, Pricing Platform — $195K–$270K · Engineering Department
• Senior Engineering Manager, Servicing — $195K–$270K · Engineering Department
• Sr. Manager, Software Engineering - Machine Learning Simulations — $195K–$270K · Engineering Department

Upstart salary by department

• product department: $224K median · $299K top base — Director of Product, Machine Learning & Decisioning Platforms (view JD) (8 roles)
• engineering department: $199K median · $300K top base — Staff/Principal Machine Learning Engineer (view JD) (36 roles)
• finance & capital markets department: $179K median · $233K top base — Capital Markets Manager (view JD) (6 roles)
• risk & compliance department: $173K median · $238K top base — Senior Manager, Whole Loan Trading & First-Line Model Governance (view JD) (7 roles)
• operations department: $125K median · $177K top base — Head of Borrower Success (view JD) (9 roles)

Upstart engineering & product salary by seniority

• Mid: $169K median · $197K top base — Software Engineer, Unsecured Installments (view JD) (11)
• Senior: $199K median · $260K top base — Senior Group Product Manager, Marketing Platform (view JD) (20)
• Staff: $224K median · $300K top base — Staff/Principal Machine Learning Engineer (view JD) (14)

Upstart engineering & product management salary

• Manager: $233K median · $270K top base — Senior Manager, Data Science (view JD) (5)

Upstart salary by location

• Remote: $193K median · $300K top base — Staff/Principal Machine Learning Engineer (view JD) (79 roles)

Remote work at Upstart

95% of Upstart's disclosed-pay roles are remote-friendly. Remote roles run a $193K median vs $125K onsite.

What Upstart looks for

Most-required skills across these postings: Python (26) · Java (14) · Kotlin (12) · AWS (12) · SQL (10) · Ruby (8) · JavaScript (6) · Go (6) · Product Roadmap (6) · Experimentation (5).

Benefits & perks at Upstart

Commonly listed: dental (83) · mental-health (83) · hsa-fsa (83) · 401k (83) · life-ins (83) · pto (83) · parental (83) · retirement (3).

About Upstart

Upstart is Public stage · 1,001–5,000 employees · founded 2012 · HQ San Mateo, California. This context shapes pay: later-stage, well-funded companies tend to anchor base salary higher.

Experience & background at Upstart

Roles typically ask for around 6 years of experience (up to 15+ for the most senior). Most postings don't state a degree requirement; of the 21 that do, Bachelor's and Master's and PhD and Associate's are most common.

Posted pay vs. total compensation

The figures on this page are the midpoint of each posting's advertised salary range (which, for commission roles, includes on-target earnings). Equity is a separate — and often large — component of total compensation, especially at high-growth and AI-native companies; 100% of these postings reference equity (espp). Equity is not included in the medians above.

Upstart total compensation signals

Beyond the posted-range midpoint, postings indicate: common structures: salaried. Bonus, commission, and equity vary by role and are not included in the base medians above.

Upstart hiring activity

Upstart has 82 open roles right now, and this benchmark draws on 82 public job postings with disclosed pay. 19 of these roles were first seen in the last 30 days (82 in the last 90).

💼 Similar companies hiring

Compare Upstart's pay with companies in the same space:

💸 Companies that pay more than Upstart

Moment · EarnIn · Affirm · Stuut Ai · Rowspace

🏙 Top-paying tech companies in San Mateo

Snowflake · FalconX · Neo4j · Skydio · Verkada

📚 Salary guides & rankings

Top-Paying Tech Companies for Engineers (2026) · Highest-Paying Cities for Software Engineers · Highest-Paying Engineering Roles

Browse all company salary pages →

Explore more salary data

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Common questions

What does Upstart pay?
The median pay is $193K, with a typical range of $169K–$214K, based on 82 public job postings (2025–2026). Base only — equity is separate.

What is the highest-paying job at Upstart?
One of the highest-paying open roles is Staff/Principal Machine Learning Engineer, at $221K–$300K base.

Which team pays the most at Upstart?
The product department team, at a $224K median.

Where does this data come from?
Public job postings on company career pages and public job boards — no private placement or client data.

Methodology

Posted-range midpoints (USD) aggregated from 82 public Upstart job postings (2025–2026). Range = 25th–75th percentile; median = 50th percentile. Roles, departments, skills, and experience are parsed from the postings. Base salary only — equity excluded. Last refreshed October 23, 2026.

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