Upstart
Senior Collections Vendor Manager
Job Summary
The Senior Collections Vendor Manager at Upstart is responsible for overseeing external agency partners providing collections services, ensuring they meet performance and quality standards. The role involves managing vendor relationships, tracking KPIs, and collaborating with internal teams to drive business outcomes and enhance borrower experience. Candidates should have strong quantitative, analytical, and negotiation skills, along with experience managing vendors and understanding financial industry regulations. The position offers remote work, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities to contribute to a mission-focused, high-growth fintech environment.
Required Skills
Benefits
Job Description
About Upstart
Upstart is the leading AI lending marketplace partnering with banks and credit unions to expand access to affordable credit. By leveraging Upstart's AI marketplace, Upstart-powered banks and credit unions can have higher approval rates and lower loss rates across races, ages, and genders, while simultaneously delivering the exceptional digital-first lending experience their customers demand. More than 80% of borrowers are approved instantly, with zero documentation to upload.
Upstart is a digital-first company, which means that most Upstarters live and work anywhere in the United States. However, we also have offices in San Mateo, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin, Texas.
Most Upstarters join us because they connect with our mission of enabling access to effortless credit based on true risk. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Upstart, we’d love to hear from you!
The Team
Upstart is seeking a Senior Collections Vendor Manager who will be responsible for driving the performance of our agency partners that provide collections services. This role is crucial in ensuring that our external partners meet and exceed performance expectations, enabling exceptional business outcomes and delivering a personalized, seamless borrower experience. The ideal candidate will hold agency partners accountable for service delivery excellence, ensuring that the quality of borrower interactions aligns with Upstart’s standards of care, efficiency, and borrower satisfaction.
Position Location - This role is available in the following locations: Remote
Time Zone Requirements - This 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.
How you’ll make an impact:
- Drive Agency Partner Performance: Manage and monitor the day-to-day performance of external vendors responsible for collections services, ensuring they meet or exceed key performance metrics.
- Enable Business Outcomes: Collaborate with internal stakeholders to align vendor performance with Upstart’s strategic objectives, ensuring that vendor contributions drive measurable business outcomes.
- Enhance Borrower Experience: Ensure that agency partners deliver a personalized and effortless borrower experience, addressing borrower needs quickly and effectively while maintaining Upstart's commitment to quality.
- Monitor and Enforce KPIs: Track vendor performance using established KPIs, such as response times, collections success rates, customer satisfaction scores, and compliance with service level agreements (SLAs).
- Vendor Relationship Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with external agencies to foster open communication, partnership, and alignment with Upstart’s goals.
- Performance Improvement Initiatives: Collaborate with vendors to identify areas for improvement, provide actionable feedback, and work together to implement solutions that enhance efficiency and borrower outcomes.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with internal teams such as Operations, Legal, Risk Management, and Lending Partnerships to align vendor performance with Upstart’s broader objectives and operational needs.
- Data-Driven Analysis: Utilize data and reporting tools to track vendor performance, identify trends, and make informed decisions that drive continual improvements in service delivery.
What we’re looking for:
- Minimum qualifications:
- MBA from a top-tier business school with a consulting internship or full-time experience at a major firm.
- Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems, develop hypotheses, and present recommendations.
- Strong quantitative and modeling skills; comfort with SQL, Python, or similar tools.
- Excellent communicator: able to synthesize complex analyses into clear, actionable roadmaps.
- Strong track record of managing external vendors and holding them accountable to performance metrics.
- Demonstrated ability to drive business outcomes and improve customer experiences through vendor relationships.
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to influence partners and internal stakeholders.
- Proven analytical skills, with the ability to monitor performance metrics and make data-driven decisions.
- Knowledge of compliance and regulatory requirements in the financial services industry.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with a strong sense of urgency.
- Preferred qualifications:
- Immense curiosity about root causes—thinks critically from first principles and never stops asking questions.
- A natural thought-partner: open-minded, collaborative, and able to co-create new ideas with cross-functional teams.
What you'll love:
- Competitive Compensation (base + bonus & equity)
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart
- 401(k) with 100% company match up to $4,500 and immediate vesting and after-tax savings
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
- Life and disability insurance
- Generous holiday, vacation, sick and safety leave
- Supportive parental, family care, and military leave programs
- Annual wellness, technology & ergonomic reimbursement programs
- Social activities including team events and onsites, all-company updates, employee resource groups (ERGs), and other interest groups such as book clubs, fitness, investing, and volunteering
- Catered lunches + snacks & drinks when working in offices
#LI-REMOTE
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).
Upstart is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to ensuring that underrepresented classes receive better access to affordable credit, and are just as committed to embracing diversity and inclusion in our hiring practices. We celebrate all cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences, and know that we can only become better together.
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]
Upstart
A lending platform using AI to provide personal loans and credit solutions with a focus on fair and fast approvals.
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