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.
We’re looking for seasoned full-stack software engineers to join Gusto’s Growth team building the systems and workflows that help turn customer and go-to-market signals into timely, relevant engagement experiences across the funnel.
As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll operate across the full product lifecycle: shaping capabilities from early definition and design through launch and long-term iteration. That means writing clean frontend code, designing and building reliable backend APIs and services, influencing product and platform direction, and taking ownership of what happens after a feature ships.
If you’re drawn to work that combines technical craft with real-world impact — helping teams deliver more relevant, personalized, and effective customer experiences at scale - join us.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
- Design, build, and test full-stack platform capabilities that power signal-driven workflows and customer engagement experiences across the funnel
- Build systems that ingest, prioritize, and route product, marketing, and sales signals into actionable next-best steps for downstream teams and tools
- Develop backend services and internal interfaces that support orchestration, decisioning, experimentation, and delivery across evolving engagement channels
- Help scale one of the largest Ruby/Rails and Javascript/React applications in the world, with a strong focus on performance, maintainability, and reliability
- Collaborate with Product Management, Data, Design, Platform Engineering, and go-to-market partners to understand pain points, prototype solutions, and launch iteratively
- Mentor other engineers to help solve complex technical problems across distributed systems, product workflows, and platform architecture
- Build products and platforms that internal teams love to use and that create measurable customer and business impact
Here’s what we’re looking for:
- Successful applicants typically have 8+ years of software development experience
- Experience building scalable full-stack systems that solve meaningful customer or business problems
- Experience owning multi-quarter projects that solve complex engineering problems and drive measurable impact at scale
- Experience with large-scale refactors, performance and reliability issues, and a strong sense of ownership over all aspects of a product or platform area
- Experience designing backend APIs, data flows, and event-driven services that integrate reliably with other systems
- Strong product and platform instincts, with the ability to balance technical quality, speed, and long-term maintainability
- Ability to mentor engineers and raise the quality bar across the team
- Experience leveraging AI tools or systems to accelerate development, improve testing, and unlock new product capabilities
- Curiosity and experimentation with emerging AI frameworks, and sound judgment about how to evaluate and scale AI use safely and effectively
Others:
- Experience in, or interest working in, Ruby on Rails
- Appreciation for a collaborative, test-driven environment
- Ability to build well-structured, maintainable, well-documented code
- Ability to effectively communicate across engineering teams and with business stakeholders
Please note that travel to Gusto's 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 software development experience
- Experience building scalable full-stack systems that solve customer or business problems
- Experience owning multi-quarter projects and delivering measurable impact at scale
- Experience with large-scale refactors, performance and reliability improvements
- Experience designing backend APIs, data flows, and event-driven services
- Experience working with JavaScript and React applications
- Experience leveraging AI tools or systems to accelerate development and unlock product capabilities
- Ability to mentor engineers and raise engineering quality
- Ability to build well-structured, maintainable, and well-documented code
- Ability to effectively communicate across engineering teams and with business stakeholders
- Willingness to travel to Gusto office for onboarding and adhere to hybrid office expectations
- Appreciation for a collaborative, test-driven development environment
- Experience in, or interest working in, Ruby on Rails
What the Team is Saying
Gusto Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage is highlighted, alongside mental-health resources, family planning and fertility support, gender-affirming care, and abortion travel assistance. Availability of HSAs/FSAs and integrated care elements further reinforce the health pillar.
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Parental & Family Support — Robust parental leave, adoption assistance, childcare benefits, and a structured return-to-work program are emphasized. Additional supports like sleep coaching and house cleaning for new parents broaden this safety net.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid vacation, sick time, bereavement leave, holidays, and sabbaticals are part of the package. A flexible PTO approach is also described, encouraging time away as needed.
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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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.
