Security Engineer

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 Security Engineering team protects Upstart’s people, systems, products, and data by building and operating security capabilities that reduce risk across the company. The team works across enterprise security, security operations, and detection security engineering to strengthen Upstart’s security posture through scalable controls, effective monitoring and response, secure tooling, automation, and cross-functional security programs. As a Senior Security Manager for Enterprise Security Engineering at Upstart, you will lead a team responsible for building and maturing security programs across enterprise security, security operations, and detection engineering. You will help define how Upstart identifies, prioritizes, prevents, detects, and responds to security risks across corporate systems, cloud environments, business applications, endpoints, identity platforms, and critical security workflows. This leader will shape a security engineering culture that prioritizes proactive and preventative controls over purely reactive response. By investing in durable controls, automation, detection coverage, and early risk reduction, the team can reduce costly incidents, minimize operational disruption, and focus its time on the highest-impact security risks. You will partner closely with Engineering, IT, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and business leaders to mature Upstart’s security capabilities and ensure security priorities are aligned with company goals. How you’ll make an impact: Lead the strategy, roadmap, and execution for security engineering programs across enterprise security, security operations, and detection security engineering. Manage, coach, and develop a team of security professionals, ensuring the team has clear priorities, measurable goals, effective operating rhythms, and opportunities for career growth. Build and mature proactive and preventative security controls across corporate systems, cloud environments, identity platforms, endpoints, SaaS applications, and security operations workflows. Improve Upstart’s ability to detect, investigate, and respond to threats by strengthening detection coverage, alert quality, logging strategy, response playbooks, automation, and operational processes. Drive cross-functional security initiatives across Engineering, IT, Compliance, Legal, Risk, and business teams, aligning security priorities with company objectives, risk tolerance, and operational needs. Establish and report on meaningful security engineering and operations metrics, including program health, control effectiveness, detection and response performance, remediation progress, and risk reduction outcomes. Evaluate and improve security tooling, processes, and controls to reduce systemic risk, increase operational efficiency, and ensure the team is focused on the highest-value security work. Raise the maturity of Upstart’s security programs by identifying recurring issues, addressing root causes, and developing What we’re looking for: Minimum requirements: 8+ years of experience in information security, security engineering, enterprise security, security operations, detection and response, incident response, vulnerability management, cloud security, or related security domains. 3+ years of experience managing security professionals or leading security engineering programs across multiple teams or stakeholder groups. Experience owning roadmaps, priorities, metrics, and execution for security programs with cross-functional dependencies. Experience building or operating security capabilities in cloud-based and enterprise environments, including working knowledge of common security tooling, logging, monitoring, detection, identity, endpoint, and response practices. Experience leading security incidents or operational security programs, including investigation coordination, stakeholder communications, remediation tracking, and post-incident improvement. Experience partnering with Engineering, IT, Compliance, Legal, Risk, or business teams to deliver measurable security outcomes. Preferred qualifications: Experience leading security programs across multiple domains such as enterprise security, security operations, detection engineering, cloud security, identity and access management, endpoint security, vulnerability management, or incident response. Demonstrated experience building or improving security programs that emphasize proactive and preventative controls, automation, and early risk reduction over reactive incident response. Knowledge of AWS, Kubernetes, CI/CD security, endpoint security, identity and access management, vulnerability management, SIEM/SOAR, logging pipelines, and modern detection engineering practices. Ability to communicate security risk, tradeoffs, and recommendations clearly to technical, non-technical, and senior leadership audiences. Experience improving detection and response maturity through logging strategy, detection coverage, alert tuning, automation, playbooks, tabletop exercises, postmortems, and measurable process improvements. Experience improving enterprise security programs across SaaS applications, identity providers, endpoint controls, corporate infrastructure, and employee security workflows. Experience operating in a regulated environment, financial technology company, or organization with high security, privacy, or compliance requirements. Security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, GIAC, AWS Security Specialty, or similar credentials. Position location This role is available in the following locations: Remote - US 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. #LI-REMOTE #LI-MidSenior At Upstart, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. The anticipated base salary for this position is expected to be within the below range. Your actual base pay will depend on your geographic location–with our “digital first” philosophy, Upstart uses compensation regions that vary depending on location. Individual pay is also determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process. In addition, Upstart provides employees with target bonuses, equity compensation, and generous benefits packages (including medical, dental, vision, and 401k). United States | Remote - Anticipated Base Salary Range $190,600 - $263,900 USD What you'll love At Upstart, our benefits are designed to support your health, financial well-being, family, and personal growth. Here’s what you can expect: Competitive compensation, including base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly Retirement benefits to help you plan for the future, including a 401(k) or Group Retirement Savings Plan with a company match of $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 annually (USD in the US, CAD in Canada) Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees (US only) Comprehensive health coverage designed to support you and your family, including medical, dental, vision, and wellness resources for US and supplemental health coverage for Canada. Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans (US only) Income protection benefits, including life insurance and disability coverage for added financial security Paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, in line with local requirements Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments (duration varies by country) Family-centered benefits to support fertility, parenthood, and caregiving needs Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering mental health support and life-centered resources Financial wellness resources, including access to financial planning tools and a financial concierge service (US Only) Annual wellness allowance to support your physical and emotional well-being and personal development, based on what matters most to you Annual productivity allowance to invest in relevant tools and resources you need to do your best work, no matter where you work from Connection and community through team events, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs) Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our offices in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!) For roles based in Canada, please note that we are not currently able to hire in Quebec. Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Just as we are dedicated to improving access to affordable credit for all, we are committed to inclusive and fair hiring practices. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please email View email address on click.appcast.io