Upwork Inc.’s (Nasdaq: UPWK) family of companies connects businesses with global, AI-enabled talent across every contingent work type including freelance, fractional, and payrolled. This portfolio includes the Upwork Marketplace, which connects businesses with on-demand access to highly skilled talent across the globe, and Lifted, which provides a purpose-built solution for enterprise organizations to source, contract, manage, and pay talent across the full spectrum of contingent work. From Fortune 100 enterprises to entrepreneurs, businesses rely on Upwork Inc. to find and hire expert talent, leverage AI-powered work solutions, and drive business transformation. With access to professionals spanning more than 10,000 skills across AI & machine learning, software development, sales & marketing, customer support, finance & accounting, and more, the Upwork family of companies enables businesses of all sizes to scale, innovate, and transform their workforces for the age of AI and beyond.
Since its founding, Upwork Inc. has facilitated more than $30 billion in total transactions and services as it fulfills its purpose to create opportunity in every era of work. Learn more about the Upwork Marketplace at Upwork.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X; and learn more about Lifted at Go-Lifted and follow on LinkedIn.
We are seeking a Senior Product Manager to lead product strategy and execution across Upwork’s hiring and workforce solutions, including Employer of Record (EOR) and global “manage & pay” capabilities.
This is a full product ownership role. You'll be making strategic decisions about what to build, what to integrate, and what to white-label — then shipping polished, intuitive experiences on top of whatever stack gets you there fastest. You care about outcomes: helping SMB customers hire, manage, and pay global talent without needing multiple vendors and/or in-house teams to do it for them.
Responsibilities
- Own the product strategy and roadmap for workforce solutions, including EOR, payroll, and manage & pay
- Make and execute on build vs. buy vs. partner decisions — integrating third-party providers and white-labeled infrastructure where it accelerates speed to market
- Define and ship end-to-end product experiences across the full workforce lifecycle: hiring, onboarding, compliance, payments, and workforce management
- Translate complex operational and compliance requirements into clean, intuitive experiences for SMB customers
- Partner closely with legal, operations, finance, partnerships, and engineering to deliver compliant, scalable solutions
- Use data and customer insights to drive roadmap prioritization and continuous improvement
- Operate with an owner's mindset: set direction, move fast, and hold yourself accountable to business outcomes
What it takes to catch our eye
- Full product ownership experience – you've owned a roadmap, set strategy, and shipped product end-to-end.
- Proven ability to integrate third-party APIs, white-label platforms, or vendor-powered surfaces and make them feel like a native, first-party product.
- Ability to take operationally complex or compliance-heavy requirements and turn them into simple, high-quality user experiences. Experience in payroll, EOR, HR tech, or adjacent compliance-heavy domains is a strong plus
- Comfortable in ambiguous, 0-to-1 environments - you don't wait to be told what to do
- Experience working cross-functionally with legal, finance, operations, and engineering
Come change how the world works.
Upwork is establishing an operational hub in Toronto, Canada. The new office is expected to be fully operational by Q4 2026. This role will require 3 days in office once we have an office open.
This position will initially be employed through a partner to ensure a seamless hiring process while we establish the hub. Once the hub is established, there may be opportunities to transition to employment with Upwork, depending on business needs and other requirements. While employed by the partner, you'll work as part of Upwork's team, with access to our resources, culture, and growth opportunities.
Our partner will offer competitive benefits. When Upwork's hub is established, we will be excited to offer employment and benefits directly as business needs require.
Upwork is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.
We use BrightHire, an AI-enabled tool, to record interviews and summarize interview transcripts. The tool allows the interviewer to focus on the discussion and does not score or evaluate candidates or make recommendations. The interview transcripts are reviewed, and decisions are only made by humans. Candidates who prefer not to have their interview recorded through BrightHire can opt out when the interview is scheduled.
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The annual base salary range for this position is displayed below. The range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum salary for this position, and individual base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Additionally, this position is eligible for the annual bonus plan or sales incentive plan and eligibility to participate in our long term equity incentive program.
To learn more about how Upwork processes and protects your personal information as part of the application process, please review our Global Job Applicant Privacy Notice
