Remote Risk Analyst at Upstart - US Finance Role — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
This role at Upstart is fully remote across the US, which is a strong baseline for location flexibility — but there are important caveats for digital nomads to consider before assuming it's location-independent in the traditional sense.
Timezone & travel constraints: Upstart requires quarterly in-person onsites (typically 2–4 consecutive days, 1–2x per quarter). This means you'll need to be able to travel to US hub cities (Columbus, Austin, Bay Area, or NYC) a few times per year. The day-to-day work is async-compatible — data analysis, reporting, documentation — but collaboration with Capital Markets and bank partners likely involves some synchronous US business hours expectations.
Visa & residency considerations: The role is explicitly limited to US and Canada (excluding Quebec). This rules out most international nomad visa strategies. If you're a US citizen traveling abroad, working on a tourist visa in countries like Portugal, Thailand, or Mexico is technically possible for short stays, but Upstart's hiring appears to require a US or Canadian address. No digital nomad visa pathway is implied.
Salary vs. cost of living: The $115,800–$160,100 range goes very far in lower-cost US cities. Upstart uses geographic compensation regions, so your actual offer may vary. If you're based in a nomad-friendly US city like Austin or Columbus (both Upstart office locations), your purchasing power is substantially higher than in NYC or the Bay Area.
- Annual productivity allowance can offset home office or coworking costs
- Annual wellness allowance adds further lifestyle flexibility
Headquarters: United States | Remote
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 3,000 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. 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 Secured Lending organization is building the first-line risk and control infrastructure that will support the next stage of growth across home equity line of credit, auto direct, and auto indirect dealer products. The team helps ensure secured lending products operate with clear governance, durable controls, high-quality execution, and readiness for bank partner and regulatory review.
Loan Salability & First-Line Model Governance monitors portfolio-wide trends across loan salability, asset quality, and model performance. The team tracks results against investor and bank partner thresholds, interprets model execution patterns across secured lending channels, and escalates systemic findings before they become repurchase events, partner concerns, or examination issues.
As an Analyst, Loan Salability & First-Line Model Governance at Upstart, you will support the day-to-day execution of this function by conducting loan-level reviews, organizing portfolio and model performance data, maintaining tracking tools, documenting findings, and preparing reporting and governance deliverables. You will report to the Senior Manager, Loan Salability & First-Line Model and work closely with Credit Risk, Capital Markets, Model Risk Management, Operations, and other secured lending partners.
How you'll make an impact
- Execute loan-level quality reviews across secured lending originations, assessing documentation completeness, underwriting accuracy, eligibility adherence, collateral quality, and other salability criteria.
- Pull, organize, and analyze portfolio performance data, including early payment defaults, delinquency trends, prepayment rates, loss severity, exception patterns, and other asset quality indicators.
- Maintain recurring asset quality and salability risk reporting packages for bank partners, Capital Markets, and internal leaders, including data pulls, analysis, formatting, and quality checks.
- Execute first-line model performance tracking — maintaining production model tracking tools, logging override and exception trends, tracking version changes, and independently flagging patterns that may indicate performance degradation or out-of-bounds behavior for escalation.
- Maintain issue logs, defect trackers, remediation updates, and documentation libraries so records stay current, organized, and ready for bank partner or regulatory review.
- Drive governance and exam readiness deliverables — independently assembling evidence packages, populating reporting templates, and coordinating materials for bank partner reviews, committee deliverables, and regulatory examinations.
Minimum Qualifications
- 3+ years of experience in financial services, credit operations, quality control, risk management, compliance, model monitoring, loan review, credit analysis, or a related analytical function.
- Experience applying established review criteria to loan-level data, credit files, origination documentation, collateral documentation, or lending operations outputs.
- Experience analyzing portfolio performance, asset quality indicators, credit policy exceptions, loan defects, remediation items, or operational risk trends.
- Experience using Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, business intelligence tools, reporting tools, or similar systems to organize, analyze, and quality-check structured data.
- Experience documenting findings, exceptions, issue status, remediation progress, or review results for risk, compliance, credit, operations, audit, bank partner, or regulatory stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with loan file review, quality control, pre-sale quality control, investor delivery, or loan salability review in mortgage, home equity, auto, or other secured lending products.
- Knowledge of secured lending and secondary-market quality expectations, including investor eligibility standards, collateral documentation, lien perfection, representations and warranties, defect remediation, trailing performance thresholds, or repurchase risk.
- Experience tracking and interpreting asset quality or portfolio performance indicators such as early payment default, delinquency, prepayment, loss severity, non-performing loan trends, or credit policy exception rates.
- Knowledge of model monitoring concepts, model performance reporting, validation outputs, override and exception tracking, or model governance documentation in a lending or fintech environment.
- Skilled in producing clear review summaries, governance materials, issue logs, reporting packages, and documentation that can support bank partner or regulatory review.
Position location: This role is available in the following locations: Remote
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 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.
Compensation
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: $115,800 — $160,100 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 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 including medical, dental, vision, and wellness resources for US; 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
- Paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, in line with local requirements
- Paid family and parental leave (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
- 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 [email protected]
https://www.upstart.com/candidate_privacy_policy
To apply: https://weworkremotely.com/remote-jobs/upstart-analyst-loan-salability-first-line-model-governance