Staff Software Engineer

Job Overview

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will help shape the technical direction of Gusto Money while building new products and scaling existing financial tools. You will contribute throughout the product development lifecycle, including concept development, system design, architecture, implementation, release, monitoring, and long-term scaling.

This role requires deep software engineering experience, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to lead complex projects across multiple teams. You will work closely with Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, and Operations to solve ambiguous problems and deliver dependable customer experiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Build products, services, and platform capabilities that support business finance and accounting experiences.
• Design and scale systems that power products such as bill payment, invoicing, expense management, payroll funding, and cash-flow reporting.
• Take ownership of major engineering projects and ensure they meet high standards for reliability, performance, and maintainability.
• Guide technical decisions across architecture, implementation, testing, release, monitoring, and scaling.
• Use modern AI tools throughout the product development process to improve engineering productivity and quality.
• Help establish effective AI-assisted engineering practices across the team.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other cross-functional partners.
• Bring structure and clarity to complex or loosely defined technical and business problems.
• Communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to engineering and non-engineering stakeholders.
• Lead the work of multiple engineers across long-term, multi-quarter projects.
• Support rapid iteration while maintaining appropriate technical and operational standards.
• Help move new product ideas from early concept through successful launch.
• Contribute to a supportive engineering environment focused on collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

• At least 96 months of professional software development experience.
• Experience architecting, building, and testing large-scale distributed systems or software platforms.
• Ability to design resilient systems that support high-volume or business-critical products.
• Experience serving as a technical lead for multiple engineers on multi-quarter initiatives.
• Strong ability to communicate technical complexity and facilitate informed tradeoff decisions.
• Comfort working with ambiguity and rapid product-development cycles.
• Ability to collaborate across engineering, product, design, compliance, data, and operational functions.
• Demonstrated ability to simplify complex technical and business problems.
• Regular use of AI-assisted engineering tools and willingness to guide broader team adoption.
• Strong ownership of engineering quality, project delivery, and system performance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building scalable backend systems within the financial technology industry.
• Background developing software for financial services or money-management products.
• Experience with accounting, bookkeeping, tax, or financial reporting systems.
• Understanding of accounting workflows such as ledgers, reconciliations, financial statements, payroll accounting, or tax compliance.
• Familiarity with Ruby or Ruby on Rails.
• Experience with GraphQL.
• Experience with React and TypeScript.
• Experience building or operating systems on Amazon Web Services.

Technical Focus Areas

• Backend software engineering.
• Distributed systems.
• Financial technology platforms.
• Payment and accounting products.
• System architecture.
• Scalable web services.
• AI-assisted software development.
• Production monitoring and scaling.
• Ruby on Rails.
• GraphQL and AWS.

About the Business Money Team

Gusto’s Business Money team develops financial tools designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage cash flow and operate with greater confidence. Its product portfolio includes Bill Pay, Invoicing, Expenses, Payroll Bridge, and a Cash Flow Dashboard.

The team operates at a fast pace and has created a new business vertical within Gusto by launching several large-scale products. This role will help expand the company’s offerings across business finance, accounting, and cash-flow management.

Work Arrangement

• Full-time position.
• Remote work is available in eligible United States locations.
• Remote work is also available in Ontario, Canada, including Toronto.
• Hybrid positions are available in San Francisco and New York City.
• Employees assigned to Gusto office locations are generally expected to work onsite approximately two to three days per week.
• A secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required for remote work.
• This position requires two days of travel to a Gusto office for onboarding.

Compensation

The annual cash compensation range for this role varies by work location:

• Denver and most remote locations: $163,000 to $204,000 per year.
• San Francisco and New York: $197,000 to $247,000 per year.

Final compensation will be based on factors including professional experience, technical expertise, role level, and location. Stock equity is offered in addition to base compensation.

Employee Benefits

Full-time employees receive competitive base compensation, employee benefits, and restricted stock units. Specific benefits may vary by location and employment terms.