Senior Staff Software Engineer

About Gusto

Gusto is dedicated to empowering small businesses by simplifying complex HR, payroll, benefits, and compliance processes. With a mission to grow the small business economy, Gusto provides comprehensive solutions that enable business owners to focus on their core craft and serve their customers effectively. Headquartered in Denver with additional offices in San Francisco and New York, Gusto supports over 400,000 small businesses nationwide. The company prides itself on fostering an inclusive and dynamic workplace culture that reflects the diversity of its customer base. Through innovative technology and a commitment to Total Rewards, Gusto strives to create a workplace that celebrates its employees and encourages professional growth.

About the Senior Staff Software Engineer Role

The Senior Staff Software Engineer on the Embedded Payroll team is a pivotal technical leader responsible for shaping the development and evolution of Gusto’s payroll platform interfaces and developer experience. This role involves a blend of hands-on coding, strategic API design, and cross-team collaboration to enhance the platform’s scalability, reliability, and usability. The ideal candidate will leverage deep technical expertise and strong leadership skills to identify opportunities for platform improvements, mentor engineering teams, and ensure the delivery of high-quality, maintainable solutions. Success in this role requires a focus on creating seamless integrations for external developers and internal teams, ultimately enabling the development of innovative payroll products tailored to diverse customer needs.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional software development experience.
• Proven track record of leading organization-wide engineering initiatives.
• Extensive backend engineering expertise, including operating large-scale, production systems.
• Experience designing APIs, developer tools, or platforms with a focus on usability and developer experience.
• Strong mentorship skills with the ability to elevate engineering standards across teams.
• Excellent business acumen with the ability to align technical solutions with business priorities.
• Curiosity and effectiveness in leveraging automation, experimentation, and intelligence for reliable API operations.
• Exceptional communication skills, capable of translating complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Identify and prioritize high-impact opportunities to enhance developer experience across APIs, tooling, and documentation.
• Collaborate closely with product, solution architecture, and engineering teams to define a clear vision for reducing integration friction.
• Engage with external developers to gather feedback, validate solutions, and influence platform development.
• Design, evolve, and maintain APIs, abstractions, and interfaces with an emphasis on clarity, consistency, and scalability.
• Develop and uphold developer-facing tools, libraries, and internal frameworks to improve development velocity and reliability.
• Lead by example through hands-on development, delivering clean, tested, and well-structured code.
• Establish and promote best practices for system reliability, observability, and backwards compatibility.
• Mentor engineering teams, raise the technical bar, and provide guidance on complex problems and technical tradeoffs.
• Ensure platform solutions meet security, compliance, and performance standards.

Benefits

• Competitive salary range, with targeted compensation between $200,000 and $270,000 annually based on location and experience.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans.
• Flexible work arrangements, including remote work options and hybrid office schedules.
• Generous paid time off and holiday policies.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with company matching.
• Professional development opportunities and ongoing learning support.
• Inclusive and diverse workplace culture that values innovation and collaboration.
• Access to wellness programs and employee assistance resources.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in employment decisions 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.

Key skills/competency

• API Design
• Developer Experience
• Scalability
• Reliability
• Backend Engineering
• Large-scale Systems
• Technical Leadership
• Mentorship
• Automation
• Compliance