Principal Product Designer, Upstart
HELOC
$198.7-275k
+ Bonus & equity
More information about location
AI lending marketplace
Be an early applicant
AI lending marketplace
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$198.7-275k
+ Bonus & equity
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To enable effortless credit based on true risk.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years of experience designing consumer-facing digital products, ideally in fintech or high-stakes decision environments
- Strong portfolio showcasing intuitive UX, high design quality, and measurable business impact
- Experience leading design for complex, multi-step flows (e.g., eligibility, pricing, personalization)
- Mastery of interaction design, visual design, and systems thinking
- Strong collaborator with product, engineering, legal, and data partners
- Skilled in design rationale, facilitation, and navigating ambiguity
- Fluency with modern design and research tools (Figma, UserTesting, etc.)
- Proven ability to guide and mentor design talent across teams
Desirable
- Experience designing financial products involving qualification, lending, or regulatory compliance
- Familiarity with experimentation, funnel optimization, and growth-oriented design
- Background in behavioral science, service design, or decision architecture
- Experience working within and contributing to design systems
- Commitment to accessibility and inclusive design standards
What the job involves
- As a Principal Product Designer on Home Lending, you’ll shape the end-to-end experience for Upstart’s HELOC product, rethinking the application journey from the ground up
- You’ll own the design strategy across acquisition, onboarding, qualification, pricing, and offer presentation—creating an experience that is intuitive, elegant, and grounded in trust
- You’ll partner closely with Product, Engineering, Machine Learning, and Legal/Compliance to ensure that the experience meets both user needs and regulatory standards
- And you'll mentor other designers as we grow the team and the product
- Lead design strategy and execution for the full HELOC application funnel
- Craft elegant, empowering experiences that simplify complex financial decisions
- Collaborate across PM, Engineering, ML, and Compliance to shape roadmap and execution
- Design across web, mobile, and email to ensure consistency and platform optimization
- Conduct research and usability testing to uncover insights and validate decisions
- Define scalable design patterns and systems to support future product expansion
- Balance clarity, empathy, and compliance in a high-trust product environment
- Mentor other designers and shape the evolution of Upstart’s design culture and practices
Our take
Business startups across the world usually seek out funding, but this is often difficult for companies led by millenials. Millennial entrepreneurs with an excellent track record in business are increasingly requiring access to these loans, but their lack of credit history results in proposals frequently being declined.
Upstart provides loans that are aimed towards the target audience of millennials with entrepreneurial intentions, offering low interest rates that average at 12%. The company claims these rates are 10% lower than traditional lenders, and the service aims towards ensuring that the client is subject to no further fees (such as prepayment penalties).
Upstart claims that its unique selling point lies in the fact that its loans are funded the day after approval. Whilst the service focuses on personal loans for business, the company has also expanded to offer loans for car refinancing. Over 2022 and 23, Upstart's stocks fell dramatically and an investigation was undertaken by a law firm representing the company's long-term investors over alleged security law violations by its board of directors. However, the end of 2023 saw a 20% stock value rise for Upstart after its partnership with Mutual Security Credit Union led to a rise in customers, indicating that it is on the up after a difficult two years.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-16% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Apr 2019
$50m
SERIES D
Mar 2017
$32.5m
SERIES D
Total funding: $135.7m
Company benefits
- Comprehensive health plans
- 401k Plan
- Life insurance
- Disability insuranc
- Generous vacation policy
- Flexible time off
- Parental leave
- Technology equipment budget
- Personal development budget
- Various clubs and extracurricular activities
- Catered lunches
- Fully-stocked micro-kitchen
Company HQ
South San Mateo, San Mateo, CA
Leadership
David Girouard
(CEO)They started their career at Accenture and Booz Allen & Hamilton before working in Product Management at Apple and Virage. They left their role of 8 years as President of Enterprise at Google to found Upstart in March 2012.
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