The Team

Upstart’s Machine Learning team has a large and direct impact on our company's success. The team consists of full-stack generalists as well as specialists in research, data science, statistical modeling and machine learning.

The fundamental goal of the Machine Learning team is to automate decisions and improve their accuracy via developing bleeding-edge models and leveraging novel data. With this goal comes near-limitless challenges to tackle, and that is one of the reasons why Upstart is such a unique opportunity. 

The Role

As Director of Machine Learning, you will provide strategic direction to ML Managers and their direct reports, guiding our teams of Research Scientists, ML Engineers and Data Scientists to achieve their full potential.

Reporting to the Vice President of Machine Learning, the Director will be responsible for:

• Overseeing multiple ML Managers and helping them to build and scale their teams
• Leading efforts to streamline ML processes and upgrade ML architecture
• Providing quantitative thought leadership and building good technical solutions to messy problems
• Helping ML Managers define their areas’ north stars and develop the corresponding road maps
• Working closely with Product, Data Engineering and Software Engineering to shape their road map and deliverables
• Identifying opportunities to apply ML to new products and/or areas of the business in order to deliver business value

Whether developing new products or identifying novel approaches to core models, we are continuously seeking the next big ideas to advance our business and mission of making credit more fair and affordable.

• Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Columbus, Austin or Remote USA ^(#LI-REMOTE)
• Time Zone Requirements - This team operates on either the East or West Coast time zones.
• Travel Requirements - This team has regular on-site collaboration sessions. ML Managers can anticipate working in either HQ 3 days/week 6 times/year. Since this is a leadership position, a few additional travel dates may be possible for onsite collaborations with other teams. If you need to travel to make these meetups, Upstart will cover all travel related expenses.

What we’re looking for:

• Ability to set and maintain high standards for one’s team and unreasonably high standards for one’s self
• Strong academic credentials with a master's degree in statistics, machine learning, mathematics, computer science, or other quantitative area of study; PhD preferred
• Experience delivering high impact ML projects in a large team from tech, quantitative trading, or other fast-paced environments
• 8+ years of research science and ML experience with 5+ years as a hands-on practitioner  
• 4+ years’ people leadership and team building experience with passion for bringing out the best in a team and helping people grow in their careers 
• Proficiency in ML languages and packages (Python, R) along with statistical modeling expertise such as boosted trees, ensemble, survival, causal inference and neural networks and other advanced techniques
• Knowledge of ML pipelines and engineering architectures (AWS, Kafka, Spark, Kubernetes, EC2, Redshift)
• Effective communication, negotiation and execution abilities across teams and stakeholders
• Enthusiasm for and alignment with Upstart’s mission and values
• Ability to leverage personal influence and connections to attract top talent