Software Engineer, Onboarding Experience

As a Software Engineer on the Onboarding Experience team at Upstart, your primary responsibilities will include building and enhancing features for our loan application process, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure a seamless user experience, and driving both existing and new projects. You'll also make architectural contributions to improve our software’s reliability and maintainability, contributing to a culture that values quality and customer-centricity.

To be a successful Software Engineer at Upstart, candidates should have a minimum of 4 years of professional software development experience, proficiency in programming languages such as Ruby on Rails and JavaScript frameworks, and a strong understanding of building scalable web or mobile products. Additionally, the ideal candidate should have a growth mindset, be comfortable with ambiguity, and demonstrate a bias for action.

A Software Engineer at Upstart should be proficient in one or more programming languages used in our tech stack, including Ruby on Rails, JavaScript (React and NextJS), Kotlin, and Python. Experience with cloud-native development, particularly with AWS, is also a preferred qualification for this role.

Upstart promotes a collaborative environment for remote Software Engineers through regular cross-team meetings, onsite collaboration events, and by fostering open communication across all teams. We encourage Upstarters to spend quality in-person time together, ensuring strong relationships and a cohesive work culture while embracing the flexibility of remote work.

At Upstart, you can expect a positive and inclusive company culture that values diversity, collaboration, and professional growth. We celebrate differences and encourage team members to participate in various employee resource groups and social activities, fostering a supportive environment where everyone can thrive in their roles.

In answering this question, candidates should highlight a specific project, explain the problem they faced, the approach they took to solve it, and the outcomes. Emphasizing your analytical thinking, collaboration with peers, and how you connected your solution to user needs will help demonstrate your skills effectively.

It's important to show your organizational skills here. You might mention setting clear deadlines, using project management tools, and balancing immediate needs with long-term goals. Illustrate your method of tackling high-impact tasks first and how you communicate with stakeholders to ensure alignment.

Share your best practices regarding code reviews, writing clear documentation, and implementing automated testing procedures. Discuss your commitment to clean coding principles, and how those strategies contribute to overall software quality, reliability, and user satisfaction.

Emphasize your openness to feedback by discussing how you view it as an opportunity for growth. Describe a specific instance where you received feedback and how you applied it to improve your work. This shows your willingness to learn and your professionalism.

Share an example where you successfully adapted to a new technology, emphasizing your proactive learning approach. Mention resources you used, challenges you faced, and how mastering that technology benefited your team or project, illustrating your growth mindset.

Bring up specific instances where you designed or worked with APIs, discussing your approach to ensuring they were efficient and user-friendly. Highlight any challenges you encountered and how you addressed them, demonstrating your problem-solving abilities along the way.

Discuss how you value collaboration and give examples of successful projects completed in cross-functional teams. Talk about your role, how you communicated with team members from different disciplines, and the positive outcomes achieved from such teamwork.

Outline the specific testing strategies you use, such as unit tests, integration tests, or user acceptance testing. Highlight the importance of these tests in maintaining quality and preventing bugs in production, giving specific examples of tests that caught issues before deployment.

Describe your approach to keeping end-users in mind throughout the development process, whether through user research, feedback loops, or usability testing. Illustrate this with examples from your work that demonstrate how user experience was prioritized and improved.

Mention your commitment to lifelong learning through engaging with industry communities, attending conferences, participating in online courses, or following relevant blogs and podcasts. Share how staying informed helps you adapt and grow your skills in line with evolving technologies.