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
We're looking for a staff software engineer to join Tax Accounts — the team whose job is to make the complexity of dealing with hundreds of tax agencies disappear. We're the steward of every Gusto customer's employer and employee tax account data: the registrations, authorizations, rates, and setup that let us withhold, pay, and file correctly on their behalf. Get it right and businesses stay compliant without thinking about it; get it wrong and it costs them real money and trust.
As a Staff Software Engineer on Tax Accounts, you'll operate across the full product lifecycle: clean frontend code, reliable backend APIs and data models against a genuinely complex compliance domain, and the automation that keeps hundreds of thousands of accounts in sync with the agencies behind them. If you want technical craft with far-reaching impact in our modern economy helping power the livelihoods of millions of small business employees — join us.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
- Design, build, and test the systems behind employer and employee tax accounts: agency registrations, power-of-attorney / third-party authorizations, tax notices, agency filings, and state/federal/employee tax setup across jurisdictions
- Build automation that requests and maintains access with tax agencies on the customer's behalf — the bots, data exchanges, and agency-event pipelines that keep accounts, rates, and deposit schedules accurate and prevent failed filings
- Model complex, jurisdiction-specific compliance rules into maintainable systems, and own reliability, performance, and correctness in a domain where accuracy is non-negotiable
- Partner closely with Product, Design, Tax Operations, and PEO teams to turn customer and compliance pain into solutions — then prototype, iterate, and launch
- Mentor other engineers and help the team solve some of the hardest problems in a very complex domain, at large scale
- Build products that our customers genuinely love
Here’s what we’re looking for:
- Significant software-development experience, typically 8+ years, with demonstrated staff-level technical leadership
- Experience owning multi-quarter projects that solve complex engineering problems and make measurable customer impact at scale
- Experience building scalable solutions that eliminate customer pain, and a strong sense of ownership over reliability, performance, and correctness
- Comfort designing data models and APIs for a complex, rules-heavy domain (compliance, tax, payments, or similar) where edge cases and correctness matter
- Experience leveraging AI tools or systems to accelerate development, improve testing, and deliver new capabilities — plus curiosity and experimentation with emerging AI frameworks, and a habit of sharing best practices to scale AI use safely across the team
- Ability to mentor engineers to maximize their performance and impact
- Ability to communicate effectively across engineering teams and with business stakeholders
Nice to have:
- 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.
At Gusto, we don't use titles the traditional way, as a signal of rank or hierarchy. Instead, our titles describe two things at once — your craft (what you do, e.g. Engineering, Design) and your scope of ownership (what you're accountable for) — which is why you'll see something like "Head of X" instead of a rank word like "Director" that tells you neither. Because of this, the title on this posting may look different from what you'd expect based on the scope and seniority of the role, and from how similar roles are typically titled elsewhere. If you have questions about how this role compares to your current title or level, your recruiter can help translate.
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.
Reliable, consistent presence: We expect regular and predictable attendance, whether you're working in-office, hybrid, or fully remote, so that you stay closely connected to your team, customers, and stakeholders in real time and ensure colleagues and customers receive the timely support and responsiveness they deserve.
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 software development experience
- Experience owning multi-quarter projects that solve complex engineering problems at scale
- Experience building scalable solutions focused on reliability, performance, and correctness
- Comfort designing data models and APIs for complex, rules-heavy domains (compliance, tax, payments, or similar)
- Experience leveraging AI tools or systems to accelerate development and testing
- Ability to mentor engineers to maximize performance and impact
- Ability to communicate effectively across engineering teams and with business stakeholders
- Experience in, or interest working in, Ruby on Rails
- Appreciation for a collaborative, test-driven development environment
- Ability to build well-structured, maintainable, and well-documented code
What the Team is Saying
Gusto Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as robust and inclusive, with multiple plan choices, relatively low employee premiums for some plans, and offerings like mental-health support and gender‑affirming care. Coverage extends to dependents and is consistently portrayed as a strong part of the package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time away includes paid vacation, sick leave, holidays, bereavement, various paid leaves, and sabbaticals, with some roles using flexible or unlimited PTO. Usage of multiple weeks off annually is described for certain teams, reinforcing the breadth in practice.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-forming benefits such as fertility support and adoption assistance, alongside robust parental leave, are highlighted. Inclusive care elements and supportive resources around family needs are emphasized as part of the core offering.
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.
