About Gusto
At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 500,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve.
All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.
AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.
About the Role:
As a Staff Engineer, you’ll play a significant role in building new products and scaling existing ones to further evolve Gusto’s product offerings. Your work will focus on improving our customers’ financial tools, helping them spend less time managing their finances and more time focusing on their businesses. You will collaborate with a team of highly skilled professionals, contributing engineering expertise throughout the product development lifecycle—from ideation and design to architecture, development, release, and post-release monitoring and scaling.
About the Team:
At Gusto, the Business Money team is on a mission to support small and medium-sized businesses by providing financial tools that help them manage cash flow and run their businesses with confidence. The suite of products we own includes (but is not limited to) Bill Pay, Invoicing, Expenses, Payroll Bridge (Payroll Line of Credit to fund payroll), and a Cash Flow Dashboard that offers a comprehensive view of business finances.
Our team is relatively small but operates at a fast, startup-like pace. In less than two years, the team has effectively created a new business vertical called Gusto Money, delivering multiple large scale 0-1 products that help small businesses have more control over their business finances and greater confidence in making financial decisions. As we continue to expand our offerings across business finance, accounting, and cash flow management, this is a great opportunity to apply your skills and help shape the future of Gusto Money.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
- Build products & services and scale the platform that powers business money and accounting experiences at Gusto
- Take ownership of projects, ensuring they meet high standards of quality and performance
- Adopt the latest best practices for using AI technologies across all aspects of product development
- Collaborate on complex and ambiguous problems with partnerships from Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other cross-functional teams
- Engage in a highly supportive environment working with others to drive productivity and innovation
- Help drive the product development process from concept to launch
Here’s what we're looking for:
- 8+ years of professional software development experience
- Experience architecting, building, and testing large-scale and resilient distributed systems and/or software platforms
- Maximizes the use of AI tooling while guiding the team in adopting modern AI practices
- Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and working with quick iteration cycles
- Ability to communicate technical complexity and help facilitate informed tradeoffs
- Willingness to collaborate across different functions
- An aptitude and interest in bringing clarity and simplicity to complex and ambiguous problems
- Experience as a technical lead, leading the work of multiple engineers on multi-quarter projects
Nice, but not required:
- Experience in the Fintech industry building scalable backend systems to power financial services and products
- Experience with accounting, bookkeeping, tax, or financial reporting systems and a strong understanding of accounting workflows
- Familiarity with small business accounting or tax domains, including concepts such as ledgers, reconciliations, financial statements, payroll accounting, or tax compliance
- Ruby/Ruby on Rails, GraphQL, React, Typescript, AWS
Please note that a two day travel to a Gusto office for onboarding is required for this position. If you have any questions regarding this requirement, please share with your recruiter.
Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $163,000–$204,000 in Denver & most remote locations, and $197,000–$247,000 for San Francisco & New York. Stock equity is additional. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.
Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto's subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale.
Note: The San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.
When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required. This includes non-office days for hybrid employees.
Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.
Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision 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 other applicable legally protected characteristic. Gusto considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Gusto is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.
Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.
Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of professional software development experience
- Experience architecting, building, and testing large-scale and resilient distributed systems and/or software platforms
- Maximizes the use of AI tooling and guides team adoption of modern AI practices
- Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and working with quick iteration cycles
- Ability to communicate technical complexity and facilitate informed tradeoffs
- Willingness to collaborate across different functions
- Aptitude and interest in bringing clarity and simplicity to complex problems
- Experience as a technical lead, leading multiple engineers on multi-quarter projects
- Experience in the Fintech industry building scalable backend systems
- Experience with accounting, bookkeeping, tax, or financial reporting systems and understanding of accounting workflows
- Familiarity with small business accounting or tax domains (ledgers, reconciliations, financial statements, payroll accounting, tax compliance)
- Ruby / Ruby on Rails
- GraphQL
- React
- TypeScript
- AWS
What the Team is Saying
Gusto Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Affordable Benefits — Healthcare premiums are heavily subsidized, with full employee coverage and significant dependent contributions, lowering out-of-pocket costs.
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Parental & Family Support — Generous paid parental leave and substantial fertility benefits, plus adoption support and return-to-work programs, demonstrate a strong family-support posture.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid vacation, sick time, holidays, paid leaves, and a formal sabbatical provide broad time-off options that encourage rest and balance.
Gusto Insights
What We Do
Gusto is a modern, online small business platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses. Our customers come from all walks of life, and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.
Why Work With Us
We help small businesses—the backbone of the economy—thrive. Everything we do ladders up to empowering entrepreneurs and supporting their teams. Gusto empowers builders at every level to take initiative and make things better. You'll be solving meaningful challenges that shape the future of work.
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Gusto Teams
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We’ve built an inclusive, connected culture—no matter where you live. Whether near an office or remote, you’ll find opportunities to connect, grow, and belong. Employees work from the office on 2 designated days per week.
