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:

Upstart's Product Experience team brings together product design, research, and content strategy to shape the future of lending. We focus on high-craft execution, deep customer insight, and measurable business impact, partnering across product areas to build experiences that are clear, trustworthy, and human. Content Design and User Research are cross-cutting craft specialties that serve every pillar — essential to journey quality and informed decision-making across the team.

As the Principal UX Researcher reporting to the VP of Product Design, you will establish Upstart's dedicated UX research practice. Today, product designers conduct their own research as needed and the Consumer Insights team provides market and customer intelligence — but there's no shared UX research methodology or consistent way to connect customer behavior insights to product design decisions. You'll bridge that gap: defining how UX research gets done, equipping designers and PMs to conduct foundational research well, and leading the strategic studies that influence decisions across Upstart's lending products.

How you’ll make an impact

• Establish and scale a UX research practice, including methodologies, standards, and tools used across product teams
• Lead high-impact, cross-functional research initiatives that inform product strategy and roadmap decisions
• Enable designers and product managers to conduct effective day-to-day research through toolkits, templates,and best practices
• Build and maintain research infrastructure — participant recruiting pipelines, research repositories, and insight-sharing systems that make findings accessible and actionable across teams
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Consumer Insights leaders to ensure research has an informed and influential voice in product decisions — bridging horizontal insights across a multi-product lending portfolio
• Define and promote best practices for conducting research in a regulated environment with sensitive borrower data
• Balance speed and rigor by prioritizing research that drives timely, actionable insights

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Sociology, Statistics, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• 8+ years of experience conducting UX research using qualitative and quantitative methods
• Experience building or scaling a UX research practice, including establishing processes, tools, or frameworks
• Demonstrated experience leading research that influenced product strategy or roadmap decisions
• Experience working in complex, multi-product environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of financial services, fintech, or consumer lending products
• Experience working in regulated environments with sensitive user data
• Ability to design and implement scalable research systems that enable non-researchers to conduct foundational research
• Experience with AI-assisted research tools or workflows
• Ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and integrate research into product decision-making

Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote

Time zone requirements The team operates on the East/West coast time zones.

Travel requirements As a digital first company, the majority of your work can be accomplished remotely. The majority of our employees can live and work anywhere in the U.S but are encouraged to to still spend high quality time in-person collaborating via regular onsites. The in-person sessions’ cadence varies depending on the team and role; most teams meet once or twice per quarter for 2-4 consecutive days at a time.

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