Principal Product Manager - Personal Loans Growth

Upgrade helps customers move in the right direction with affordable and responsible financial products. Since 2017, we’ve helped over 7.5 million customers access over $42 billion in consumer credit. With a relentless focus on improving our customers' financial well-being, we build products that put more money in their pocket and support their journey toward a better financial future. We’re backed by some of the most prominent technology investors and were most recently valued at $7.3B. We’re consistently recognized for our collaborative and inclusive culture. Most recently, we were named one of the World’s Top Fintech Companies by CNBC, Best Places to Work by Built In, Best Places to Work by the San Francisco Business Times, America’s Greatest Workplaces by Newsweek, Best Startup Employer by Forbes, and Healthiest Employers by Phoenix Business Journal. We’re looking for new team members who get excited about designing and delivering new and better products. Come join us and help build a better financial future for millions of people. About the Role Upgrade is seeking a Principal Product Manager to help drive the next phase of growth for our Personal Loans business. In this role, you’ll identify and develop high-impact growth opportunities across the customer journey — from acquisition and conversion to new loan programs, partnerships, market expansion, and deeper relationships with existing customers. You’ll operate as an individual contributor, working closely with Product, Marketing, Partnerships, Risk, Credit, Engineering, Design, Analytics, and Operations. You’ll combine customer insights, data, and business economics to identify opportunities, build the case for investment, and lead cross-functional teams from strategy through execution. This is an ideal role for a highly analytical and commercially minded product leader who enjoys solving ambiguous problems and turning new ideas into measurable business results. This is a hybrid role based in either our San Francisco, CA, or Wilmington, DE, office, with onsite work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. What You’ll Do: • Own and evolve the growth product strategy for Personal Loans, identifying opportunities to grow funded volume, expand our addressable market, improve economics, and increase customer lifetime value. • Develop a deep understanding of the Personal Loans funnel, customer behavior, acquisition channels, credit and fraud constraints, and key drivers of business performance. • Identify, size, and prioritize new growth opportunities, including new loan programs, customer segments, credit capabilities, distribution partnerships, and conversion improvements. • Partner closely with Marketing to connect product strategy with acquisition, customer segmentation, lifecycle marketing, and channel performance. • Partner with Partnerships to identify new distribution opportunities, develop partner-specific experiences, and improve performance across existing relationships. • Work with Risk, Credit, Finance, and Analytics to evaluate opportunities based on customer impact, credit performance, economics, and incremental profitability. • Lead high-impact initiatives that span multiple product and functional teams, creating alignment and driving execution from concept through launch. • Use experimentation, customer research, competitive insights, and data to identify growth constraints and uncover new opportunities. • Define clear hypotheses and success metrics, evaluate performance after launch, and determine where to iterate, scale, or change direction. • Serve as a senior thought partner to Personal Loans leadership on product strategy, prioritization, and investment decisions. What We Look For: • 8+ years of product management experience, including experience operating at a Senior or Principal level and a track record of driving meaningful business outcomes. • Proven ability to identify growth opportunities and translate ambiguous problems into clear product strategies, prioritized roadmaps, and successful products. • Strong analytical and commercial instincts, with experience using data to understand customer behavior, conversion funnels, unit economics, and business tradeoffs. • Experience in consumer lending, credit cards, fintech, or another data-intensive consumer financial product strongly preferred. • Experience partnering closely with Marketing, Growth, Business Development, or Partnerships teams. • Familiarity with credit decisioning, payments, funding infrastructure, or loan origination is a plus. • Strong quantitative skills and comfort with experimentation, financial analysis, funnel analytics, and SQL. • Ability to understand and navigate tradeoffs across growth, customer experience, risk, fraud, compliance, and economics. • Proven ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives and influence senior stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Marketing, Risk, Finance, and other functions without direct authority. • Experience working with external partners or vendors to develop and test new capabilities is a plus. • Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex problems, develop compelling business cases, and create alignment around strategic decisions. • High degree of ownership, intellectual curiosity, and comfort operating in a fast-moving environment. • Bachelor’s degree required; MBA, quantitative, or technical degree a plus. What We Offer You: • Competitive salary and stock option plan • Paid coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance • Flexible PTO • Opportunities for professional growth and development • Paid parental leave • Health & wellness initiatives The compensation range for this position is USD $180,000–$230,000 annually, plus equity and benefits. An individual’s base salary within this range will be determined based on a variety of factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, education, and experience. Environmental & Working Conditions • Work is performed indoors in a fast-paced environment that requires the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet established workflows, schedules, and service expectations. • Employees regularly input, retrieve, and exchange information accurately using digital systems and applications to support operational and customer service objectives. • The role requires the ability to receive and exchange information with customers, peers, supervisors, and cross-functional partners through available communication channels, which may include meetings, email, phone, and digital collaboration tools, and may involve real-time, verbal, or in-person exchanges depending on business need. • Job duties may involve managing a high volume of inbound and/or outbound customer interactions and work activities using telecommunications and computer systems. The role requires the ability to read, analyze, and interpret information displayed on computer screens and remain in a working posture for extended periods, consistent with the demands of the position. • Work may be performed in a contact center, office, or remote environment, depending on business needs and the nature of the role. Onsite work environments may include shared workspaces, standard office lighting, and moderate background noise typical of customer service or operational settings. • Employees working remotely are responsible for maintaining a secure and productive workspace with reliable internet connectivity that supports company systems and safeguards the confidentiality of company and customer information. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and applicable state and local laws. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Upgrade does not accept unsolicited resumes from staffing agencies, search firms, or any third parties. Any resume submitted to any employee of Upgrade without a prior written agreement in place will be considered the property of Upgrade, and Upgrade will not be obligated to pay any referral or placement fee. Agencies must obtain advance written approval from Upgrade's Talent Acquisition department to submit resumes and only in conjunction with a valid, fully executed agreement. English is required for all positions, as it involves interacting with staff at Upgrade's offices worldwide.