Upstart Salary

💰 $167K–$199K salary range

Median: $188K  ·  Based on 74 public Upstart job postings  ·  Updated June 10, 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+ Machine Learning Engineer — $221K–$300K · Engineering
• Assistant General Counsel, Capital Markets Legal — $239K · Legal Group
• Principal Applied Scientist — $238K · Machine Learning
• Senior Manager, Machine Learning — $238K · Machine Learning
• Principal Engineer, LLM — $238K · Machine Learning
• Principal Software Engineer, Cash Line — $195K–$270K · Engineering

Upstart salary by department

• Machine Learning: $238K median (3 roles)
• Compliance: $201K median (7 roles)
• Engineering: $195K median (21 roles)
• Legal: $194K median (4 roles)
• InfoSec: $191K median (7 roles)
• Product: $188K median (4 roles)
• Data Analytics: $182K median (4 roles)
• Product Design: $162K median (3 roles)

Upstart salary by seniority

• Mid: $139K median (9)
• Senior: $176K median (32)
• Staff: $195K median (21)
• Director: $196K median (6)

Upstart salary by location

• Remote: $188K median (69 roles)

Remote work at Upstart

99% of Upstart's disclosed-pay roles are remote-friendly.

What Upstart looks for

Most-required skills across these postings: Python (15) · AWS (8) · Java (7) · Ruby (5) · CI/CD (5) · Kotlin (4) · Terraform (4) · Go (3) · Redshift (3) · Databricks (3).

Benefits & perks at Upstart

Commonly listed: dental (63) · mental-health (63) · hsa-fsa (63) · 401k (63) · life-ins (63) · pto (63) · parental (63) · vision (1).

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 7 years of experience (up to 12+ for the most senior). Most postings don't state a degree requirement; of the 19 that do, Bachelor's and PhD and Master's are most common.

Base salary vs. total compensation

The figures on this page are base salary only. Equity is a separate — and often large — component of total compensation, especially at high-growth and AI-native companies; 85% of these postings reference equity (espp, options). Equity is not included in the medians above.

Upstart total compensation signals

Beyond base salary, postings indicate: 2% include commission; common structures: salaried. Bonus, commission, and equity vary by role and are not included in the base medians above.

Upstart hiring activity

Upstart has 72 open roles right now, and this benchmark draws on 74 public job postings with disclosed pay. 25 of these roles were first seen in the last 30 days (68 in the last 90).

💼 Similar companies hiring

Compare Upstart's pay with other Public companies:

• PepsiCo — median $128K
• Paychex — median $131K
• Rivian — median $163K
• CoreWeave — median $210K
• Rollins — median $100K
• Aon — median $177K

Browse all company salary pages →

Common questions

What does Upstart pay?
The median base salary is $188K, with a typical range of $167K–$199K, based on 74 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+ Machine Learning Engineer, at $221K–$300K base.

Which team pays the most at Upstart?
The Machine Learning team, at a $238K 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

USD base salary aggregated from 74 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 June 10, 2026.

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