About The Company

Gusto is a leading provider of comprehensive payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions dedicated to empowering small businesses. With a mission to grow the small business economy, Gusto simplifies complex administrative tasks, allowing business owners to focus on their core operations and customer relationships. The company boasts a diverse team located in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, supporting over 400,000 small businesses nationwide. Gusto prides itself on fostering an inclusive workplace culture that reflects and celebrates the diversity of its customers. Its innovative approach to employee benefits and commitment to total rewards make it a prominent player in the HR technology space.

About The Role

We are seeking a highly skilled Staff Software Engineer to join Gusto’s Payroll Platform team. This pivotal role involves designing, developing, and maintaining backend infrastructure that powers Gusto’s payroll experiences. As a fully backend-focused position, you will be responsible for creating and evolving internal APIs and services used by various product teams to ensure payroll processes are accurate, compliant, and scalable. The ideal candidate will own complex technical problems from conception to implementation, collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, and contribute to raising the technical standards of payroll capabilities across the organization. This role offers an exciting opportunity to influence the foundational systems that support millions of payroll transactions for small businesses across the country.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong emphasis on backend development
• Proven experience in building and scaling internal platforms, shared services, or foundational APIs supporting multiple product teams
• Strong system design skills, including performance optimization, scalability, and reliability in production environments
• Experience working independently on ambiguous problems, from understanding business needs to delivery and iteration
• Proficiency in one or more backend programming languages; experience with Ruby is strongly preferred
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools such as LLMs, Claude Code, or Cursor, and familiarity with their adoption in engineering workflows
• Excellent collaboration skills, with a history of acting as a technical partner across teams
• Experience in highly regulated domains, ensuring compliance and security standards are met

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain backend services and APIs supporting core payroll workflows used by multiple Gusto engineering teams
• Own a primary domain within the Payroll Platform, overseeing system health, correctness, scalability, and long-term evolution
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Product, Design, Data, Compliance, and Operations to deliver compliant and impactful solutions
• Drive architecture and design documentation, guiding technical direction while balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term platform goals
• Enhance system performance, reliability, and observability to support payroll processing for hundreds of thousands of businesses
• Partner with other engineering teams to understand their requirements, promote platform adoption, and co-design scalable solutions
• Leverage AI-assisted development tools to accelerate development cycles, improve code quality, and facilitate documentation
• Participate in code reviews, technical discussions, and continuous improvement initiatives to uphold engineering excellence

Benefits

• Competitive salary range, with targeted compensation based on experience and location
• Stock options and equity participation
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans
• Flexible work arrangements, including hybrid work models in designated office locations
• Generous paid time off and holidays
• Professional development opportunities and continuous learning support
• Inclusive and diverse workplace culture that values innovation and collaboration
• Employee wellness programs and resources to support work-life balance

Equal Opportunity

Gusto is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.