--- title: 'Engineering Manager, Consumer Core at Upside' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-consumer-core-upside-austin-6kf8r2n44fxh' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-06' --- # Engineering Manager, Consumer Core at Upside - **Company:** Upside - **Location:** Austin, TX - **Compensation:** $188k–$220k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-07-28 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/upside/6582a0fb-2781-4540-a8c9-bf9f4d9b5dd4 ## Job description Meet Upside: We created Upside to transform brick-and-mortar commerce. Our technology uses the sophistication of online retail—profit measurement, attribution, and incrementality—to provide users with more value on their everyday purchases and brick-and-mortar businesses with new, profitable customers. We’ve helped millions of users earn 2 to 3 times more cashback than any other product, and hundreds of thousands of brick-and-mortar businesses earn measurable profit. Billions of dollars in commerce run through the Upside platform every year, and that value goes directly back to our retailer partners, the consumers they serve, and important sustainability initiatives. ## ABOUT THE ROLE: As engineering leaders at Upside, we strive to gather the right information from those around us and take the right calculated risks. In doing so, we hope to help teams quickly make key decisions that will ship high quality software with the most delightful experience possible to our users. We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead our Consumer Core team, a full-stack group responsible for Upside’s core functionality within our Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) front-end and our Python + Java driven back-end. This team delivers the architectural foundations and security patterns that empower our Consumer full-stack teams to build scalable features across the entire funnel. This leader will combine technical contributions with people-first leadership to drive operational excellence, foster growth, and scale the systems that underpin our primary product platform. This role will also work closely with other engineering leaders to plan and guide organizational and technical strategy to support both our Consumer and Partnerships applications and systems. Here are some ways we have seen leaders drive impact at Upside: - Create a safe, collaborative team environment. You name problems and invite open discussion, which motivates your team to do their best work. - Operate with a first-team mindset. You lean in when important areas need help, regardless of whether it's “your” domain, and prioritize the success of the whole organization. - Raise the bar. You identify and influence improvements in quality, performance, speed of execution, and engineering standards. - Grow talent. You coach your engineers, recognize their achievements, and help them develop skills that will benefit them and Upside for years to come. - Set clarity and empower autonomy. You ensure expectations and direction are clearly articulated so that individuals and teams can operate with independence, confidence, and creativity. In addition to the leadership responsibilities above, you will: - Clearly defines and maintains the team’s domain boundaries across authentication, event architecture, user research and analytical workflows, internal mobile tooling, app security support, mobile FinOps, and cross-team repos, while leaving room for evolution as Upside’s needs change. - Champion system-level quality by identifying and addressing gaps in reliability, scalability, security, and performance across our app and API stack. - Ensure the consumer app platform is secure, cost-efficient, and production-ready, and that the development stacks and tooling enable self-service, repeatable, and trusted workflows. - Oversee team AI adoption and general exploration strategy to keep our KMP, Python, and Java platforms on the frontier of industry-leading tools and integrations. - Act as the primary point of contact for internal partners (e.g. Product, Design, Security, and Data Science), ensuring platform capabilities support evolving business needs. - Represent the Consumer Core team in cross-functional planning, technical councils, and long-term roadmap discussions. YOU MAY BE A FIT IF YOU: - Have 3+ years of engineering management experience, ideally across mobile or distributed API domains. - Thrive in environments where you’re asked to scale teams, elevate systems, and solve ambiguity in equal measure. - Able to dive into deep technical challenges and steer mobile and API infrastructure (AWS preferred), analytical and SDLC tools (e.g., Mixpanel, Runway). - Have recent hands-on experience with mobile and API development, including best practices such as serverless, event-driven, REST, microservices, MVI, and Clean architecture patterns. - Value clarity over consensus and help teams stay aligned through high-change, high-growth conditions. - Are passionate about integrating generative AI into team workflows and engineering processes to improve delivery speed, quality, and developer productivity, and foster continuous improvement across the development lifecycle. Engineering Culture: We want our engineering leaders to be able to make thoughtful, impactful technical decisions while also having the space to coach their engineers and support their growth. We ask our managers to focus on a team of around 8 direct reports, while our more senior managers may operate across two teams. The staffing for these reports is always split - we see incredible value from a mix of full-time and contract staff. Location: This hybrid role is based in our Austin, Chicago, DC, or NYC office. In-office attendance is required on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and may increase based on project-based needs and changes to Upside’s in-office policy over time. Compensation: The U.S. base salary range for this full-time position varies by work location: - Tier 1: NYC $207,000 - $237,000 - Tier 2: Austin, Chicago, Washington, DC $188,000 - $215,000 In addition to base salary, this position is also eligible for equity and benefits. The final starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process. ## #LI-HYBRID ## #LI-XF1 Benefits: - Medical, dental, and vision coverage starting on Day 1 - Equity (ISOs) - 401(k) program - Family planning programs + paid parental leave - Physical fitness and wellness memberships - Emotional and mental health support programs - Unlimited PTO + 10 paid federal holidays + our annual, week-long Winter Break - Flexible work environment - Lunch reimbursement for in-office employees - Employee Resource Groups - Learning and Development stipend - Transparent culture - Amazing mission! Diversity and Inclusion: Diversity drives innovation, and our differences make us stronger. We‘re passionate about building a workplace that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills, and perspectives, and we do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Everyone is welcome here! If there's anything we can do to support a disability or special need during your application or interview process, please email accommodations@upside.com. This email is for accessibility accommodations only, it should not be used to submit job applications. Notice To Recruiters And Placement Agencies: This is an in-house search with a dedicated recruiter. Please do not submit resumes to any person or email address at Upside. Upside is not liable for, and will not pay, placement fees for candidates submitted by any party or agency other than its approved recruitment partners. ## About Upside ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Upside is a mobile app that gives consumers cash back on everyday purchases like gas, groceries, and food while helping brick-and-mortar retailers increase profit without changing their operations. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series D stage) - **Headquarters**: Washington, DC, USA - **Founded**: 2016 (began as GetUpside in January 2016) - **Founders**: Alex Kinnier (Co-founder & CEO), Chris Yager (Co-founder & CPO) ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: Consumer rewards, brick-and-mortar commerce, mobile payments, sustainability - Target customers: B2C (consumers) and B2B (retailers including gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and hardware stores) - Mission or purpose statement: “We exist to advance the economic power of people living and working in the real world.” ## Products & Services - **[Upside App]**: A mobile application that offers personalized cash back on purchases at partner retailers. Users earn money back and retailers gain incremental profit. The platform also expanded into mobile payments in 2023. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total cash back delivered to consumers – over $1B; total incremental profit delivered to retailers – $2.5B; annual commerce run rate – $6B - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly listed on the provided sources - **Growth Signals**: Reached 35 million consumers in its marketplace (as of April 2022 timeline entry); expanded into hardware stores (2024) and mobile payments (2023); offices opened in Chicago, New York, and Austin; 1% of revenue committed to sustainability initiatives ## Competitive Advantages - Personalization engine that drives higher consumer engagement and retailer profitability - Strong sustainability focus (1% of revenue to environmental initiatives, 4 million metric tons of CO2 offset, food rescue) - Large, growing network of retailers across multiple categories (gas, grocery, food, hardware) - Radically transparent culture and values-driven operations ## Strategic Focus - Continue expanding into new retail verticals and geographies - Deepen mobile payment functionality to increase consumer stickiness - Scale the platform to deliver even more economic impact for both consumers and retailers - Maintain commitment to sustainability and community impact ## Why Work Here - Culture of radical transparency, ownership, and data-driven decision making - Values-driven environment with active Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): UP+PRIDE, UMOJA, Unidos, PersonalizASIAN, EmpowHER - Hybrid/remote work options with offices in Washington DC (HQ), Chicago, New York, and Austin - Competitive benefits: unlimited PTO, stock options, comprehensive health coverage, mental health support, family forming benefits (including Carrot Fertility), generous parental leave - Recognized as a Great Place to Work - Diverse team composition (62% male, 37% female, 1% non-binary; 70% White, 9% Asian, 6% Black, 6% Latin/Hispanic, 2% two or more races, plus other groups) ## Sources 1. [upside.com/about/careers](https://www.upside.com/about/careers) 2. [upside.com/about](https://www.upside.com/about) 3. [upside.com/](https://www.upside.com/) 4. [upside.com/blog/upside-isnt-just-great-for-people-and-businesses-its-a-great-place-to-work](https://www.upside.com/blog/upside-isnt-just-great-for-people-and-businesses-its-a-great-place-to-work) 5. [upside.com/about/team](https://www.upside.com/about/team) ## Other roles at Upside - [Analytics Engineer, Data Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/analytics-engineer-data-platform-upside-washington-d50vj2eabsmx) — Washington, DC - [Staff Application Security Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-application-security-engineer-upside-washington-kpc6zb7cpqbq) — Washington, DC - [Senior Strategic Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-strategic-account-executive-upside-remote-3yfr1c0hf65j) - [Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, GTM Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-forward-deployed-engineer-gtm-platform-upside-new-york-gabynt3dp68n) — New York, NY - [Lead Financial Data Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-financial-data-analyst-upside-washington-swddan3qm974) — Washington, DC - [Senior Product Analyst, Consumer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-analyst-consumer-upside-new-york-ypbf5h49v9c0) — New York, NY - [Strategic Account Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-account-manager-upside-remote-0va1zs0ajh3x) - [Engineering Manager, Reconciliation](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-reconciliation-upside-washington-9qefh90cd05x) — Washington, DC - [Director, Consumer Product Management](https://feeny.ai/job/director-consumer-product-management-upside-austin-rma13md4pgn9) — Austin, TX - [Principal Product Manager, Personalization](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-product-manager-personalization-upside-austin-t475s16jn9s0) — Austin, TX