Staff Software Engineer, AI Developer Tools
Gusto · United States
- Hybrid
- Full-time
- $200,000 / year
- United States
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Job highlights
- Architect AI platform for engineering acceleration.
- Eliminate developer friction with AI tools.
- Lead AI best practices and infrastructure.
- Collaborate with product and security teams.
- Ensure enterprise-grade reliability for AI systems.
About the role
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 on the Developer Productivity - AI Developer Tools team, you will be the architectural anchor shaping the AI platform that accelerates engineering across Gusto. You will redefine how our entire engineering organization builds, tests, and ships software by architecting a highly secure, context-aware, "AI-native" development lifecycle.
Your mission is to eliminate developer friction through AI tools, multi-agent systems, and intelligent automation. Whether you are building bespoke internal coding assistants, automating sprawling codebase refactors, or deploying AI to self-heal CI/CD pipelines, your work will directly multiply the velocity of hundreds of builders. Help us drive developer productivity by building the next generation of AI tools.
About The Team
The AI Developer Tools team is a specialized team within Developer Productivity. We believe AI is the next great leap in software craftsmanship. Our goal is to provide every builder at Gusto with a suite of "superpowers" tools that deeply understand our codebase and absorb operational toil so engineers can focus on creative problem-solving. We treat our fellow engineers as our primary customers, prioritizing developer experiences that are not just powerful, but absolutely delightful to use.
Here’s What You’ll Do Day-to-day
- Architect AI Core Infrastructure: Design, scale, and maintain the internal platform and APIs that integrate LLMs into the developer workflow, with a heavy focus on autonomous agents, custom retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and smart context-delivery systems.
- Drive Technical Leadership & Vision: Establish engineering best practices for building with AI at Gusto, including robust evaluation frameworks (evals), guardrails for code safety, and strategies for optimizing model latency and token spend.
- Collaborate & Evangelize: Partner closely with product engineering teams to uncover systemic friction points, and collaborate with core Infrastructure and Security teams to ensure all AI tooling is scalable, compliant, and secure.
- Optimize Feedback Loops: Identify and eliminate critical bottlenecks in the local-to-production lifecycle at scale across Gusto.
- Maintain Enterprise Reliability: Treat AI infrastructure with production-grade rigor. Monitor system health, diagnose complex integration or networking issues, and mitigate model drift or downtime.
Here’s What We're Looking For
- 8+ Years of Systems Expertise: You are a seasoned engineer who is highly comfortable navigating massive, complex codebases and delivering production-grade, distributed software.
- Production AI Experience: You have a proven track record of moving AI beyond prototypes. You possess a deep understanding of prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RAG architectures, and orchestrating multi-agent workflows.
- Developer-First Mindset: You are passionate about Developer Experience and Productivity. You intuitively understand what makes an internal tool frictionless, fast, and empowering for other engineers.
- Strategic Execution: You don't just build wrappers; you think deeply about data privacy, security, cost management, and systemic reliability when deploying AI solutions.
- Exceptional Communication: You can seamlessly translate bleeding-edge AI capabilities into clear, actionable infrastructure strategies, mentoring junior engineers and aligning cross-functional stakeholders along the way.
- Working as a Team: You work across team boundaries and bring other teams and groups along with you towards our strategic vision.
Key skills/competency
- Staff Software Engineer
- AI Developer Tools
- System Architecture
- LLM Integration
- Autonomous Agents
- RAG
- Prompt Engineering
- Developer Productivity
- System Reliability
- Production AI
Skills & topics
- Staff Software Engineer
- AI Developer Tools
- Software Engineering
- AI
- Machine Learning
- Developer Productivity
- System Architecture
- LLM
- RAG
- Prompt Engineering
- Gusto
- Hiring
- Tech Jobs
- Engineering Leadership
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight systems expertise and production AI experience, emphasizing RAG and multi-agent workflows.
- Showcase developer-first mindset: Detail projects improving developer experience and productivity.
- Prepare for technical interviews: Be ready to discuss AI architecture, LLM integration, and system reliability.
- Emphasize collaboration: Highlight experience working across teams and communicating complex AI strategies.
- Research Gusto's values: Align your application with their mission to grow the small business economy.
Technical preparation
Behavioral questions
Frequently asked questions
- What is the role of a Staff Software Engineer, AI Developer Tools at Gusto?
- As a Staff Software Engineer on the AI Developer Tools team at Gusto, you will architect and shape the AI platform that accelerates engineering across the company. Your work will focus on eliminating developer friction through AI tools, multi-agent systems, and intelligent automation, aiming to enhance the entire software development lifecycle.
- What are the key responsibilities for this Staff Software Engineer role at Gusto?
- Key responsibilities include architecting AI core infrastructure integrating LLMs (focusing on autonomous agents and RAG), driving technical leadership and vision for AI development, collaborating with product and security teams, optimizing feedback loops, and maintaining enterprise reliability for AI systems.
- What kind of AI experience is Gusto looking for in this role?
- Gusto is seeking candidates with proven production AI experience beyond prototypes. This includes a deep understanding of prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RAG architectures, and orchestrating multi-agent workflows. They value experience in moving AI from concept to production.
- How does Gusto approach AI for its engineering teams?
- Gusto views AI as fundamental to how work gets done. The AI Developer Tools team aims to provide engineers with 'superpowers' by deeply understanding the codebase and automating operational tasks, prioritizing delightful developer experiences.
- What is the compensation for a Staff Software Engineer at Gusto?
- The cash compensation for this role is targeted between $180,000/yr to $200,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $220,000/yr to $245,000/yr for San Francisco, New York & Seattle. Stock equity is additional, and final offers depend on candidate experience and expertise.
- What is Gusto's work arrangement policy for this position?
- Employees based in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City are expected to work from the office 2-3 days per week. Remote employees must maintain a reliable internet connection. This role is hybrid for those in office locations.
- What kind of systems expertise is required for the Staff Software Engineer role?
- The role requires 8+ years of systems expertise. Candidates should be highly comfortable navigating massive, complex codebases and delivering production-grade, distributed software systems.
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