Senior Manager, Database Engineering

About Upstart At Upstart, we’re united by a mission that matters: to radically reduce the cost and complexity of borrowing for all Americans. Every day, we bring creativity, experimentation, and advanced AI to reshape access to credit, helping millions move forward financially with clarity and confidence. As the leading AI lending marketplace, we partner with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit through technology that’s both radically intelligent and deeply human. Our platform runs over one million predictions per borrower using more than 1,800 signals, powering smarter, fairer decisions for millions of customers. But the numbers only hint at the impact. Every idea, every voice, and every contribution moves us closer to a world where credit never stands between people and their financial progress. We’re proudly digital-first, giving most Upstarters the flexibility to do their best work from wherever they thrive, alongside teammates across 80+ cities in the US and Canada. Digital-first doesn’t mean distant. We’re intentional about in-person connection through team onsites, planning sessions, and moments that spark creativity and trust. And whether you choose to work primarily from home or collaborate in-person from one of our offices in Columbus, Austin, the Bay Area, or New York City (opening Summer 2026), you’ll have the support to work in the way that works best for you. If you’re energized by tackling meaningful problems, excited to innovate with purpose, and motivated by work that truly matters, we’d love to hear from you. The Team The Database Engineering team owns the reliability, performance, and scalability of the database systems that power Upstart’s lending platform. Our environment is built primarily on Postgres and AWS RDS, supporting mission-critical financial transactions at scale. The team develops tooling, automation, and best practices that ensure our databases remain secure, resilient, and efficient as the business grows. As a Senior Database Engineering Manager , you’ll lead this team of specialists, helping define the long-term vision for database engineering at Upstart while ensuring operational excellence today. You’ll partner with product engineering, infrastructure, and data teams to set standards, solve complex scaling challenges, and enable developers across the company to work more effectively with data. Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Remote Time Zone Requirements - This team operates on the East/West Coast time zones. Travel Requirements - This team has regular on-site collaboration sessions. These occur 2-4 days per Quarter at the one of our offices. If you need to travel to make these meetups, Upstart will cover all travel related expenses. How you’ll make an impact: Define the roadmap for database engineering, ensuring our database infrastructure scales with Upstart’s growth. Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Database Engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and collaboration. Partner with application and data engineering teams to establish standards for database design, schema governance, and query optimization. Drive initiatives to improve availability, security, and performance across all production and non-production database environments. Champion automation and tooling that reduce operational overhead, increase observability, and improve developer self-service. Act as a thought partner to engineering leadership on database strategy, scaling, and cost efficiency. What we’re looking for: Minimum Requirements Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics, or a related field (or its equivalent) + 8 years of experience, including at least 3 years of direct people management experience. Deep expertise in Postgres, including extensions, performance tuning, and replication. Experience designing and supporting high-volume OLTP systems. Strong background with AWS (RDS, EC2, I ... (truncated, view full listing at source)