Senior Staff Software Engineer, Gusto
Pricing and Packaging
$223-278k
+ stock equity
2-3 days a week in office
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
Posted today
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
1001+ employees
Posted today
$223-278k
+ stock equity
2-3 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To grow the small business economy.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years in a tech lead or staff engineer role setting technical direction for a team
- Has achieved mastery in at least one programming language (e.g. Ruby, Java, Python, Go)
- Deep experience building and operating large-scale backend platform systems ideally in commerce, billing, subscription management, pricing and packaging domain
- Strong command of distributed systems, API design, and service reliability practices, with experience defining and meeting SLOs in production environments
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively with AI tools (such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or similar) in day-to-day engineering, and a growth mindset toward evolving AI capabilities in the team’s workflow
- Proven track record of leading cross-functional technical initiatives, influencing without authority, and aligning engineering, product, and business stakeholders around a shared technical vision
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex technical concepts accessible to both engineers and non-technical partners
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
What the job involves
- The Pricing & Packaging team is looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer and Tech Lead to drive the technical direction of Gusto’s internal Commerce Platform
- You’ll own the architecture and delivery of systems that power how Gusto packages, prices, and delivers its products to over 500,000 small businesses nationwide
- In this role, you’ll partner closely with product, data science, and cross-functional engineering teams to build reliable, scalable platform infrastructure that enables Gusto’s growth
- If you’re energized by high-stakes platform work at the intersection of engineering excellence and real business impact, this role is for you
- The Pricing & Packaging team sits at the heart of Gusto’s Commerce infrastructure, serving as the single source of truth for all products, bundles, add-ons, subscriptions, pricing, promotions, and discounts across Gusto’s first-party customer experience
- The team owns and operates Gusto’s internal Commerce Platform including the product catalog, promotion engine, subscription, pricing experimentation platform, and entitlement services that enable Growth and other teams to bring Gusto’s offerings to market effectively
- We’re a collaborative team of engineers and a data scientist working on quarterly goals and monthly milestones, with a strong emphasis on platform reliability, adoption, and business impact
- Our work directly shapes how Gusto’s 500,000+ small business customers access the payroll, benefits, and HR tools they rely on every day
- Lead technical design and architecture for the Commerce Platform including the product catalog, promotion engine, and subscription and entitlement systems, ensuring services are reliable, performant, and meet defined SLOs
- Partner with product management and cross-functional engineering teams (Growth, Onboarding, Expansion) to define the platform’s technical roadmap and drive adoption across Gusto
- Drive end-to-end delivery of complex, ambiguous projects: from requirements gathering and technical scoping through implementation, rollout, and post-launch iteration
- Mentor and grow engineers on the team through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on technical coaching, fostering a culture of craftsmanship and continuous improvement
- Leverage AI tools such as code assistants, automated testing, and data-driven diagnostics — to accelerate engineering velocity and establish team-wide best practices for AI-augmented development
- Own and improve platform observability, reliability, and performance: define and track SLOs, lead incident response, and drive blameless post-mortems to lasting resolution
- Collaborate with Gusto’s marketing and business teams to evolve the self-serve system for managing products, bundles, promotions, and discounts, enabling faster time-to market for new offerings
Our take
For many small businesses, vital administrative tasks such as payroll, taxes, and benefits are manual tasks that take time and energy which many SMB owners don’t have. The three co-founders of Gusto – all coming from small business backgrounds – collaborated on a Fintech company that would handle employee payments, benefits administration, and compliance support specifically for small businesses.
The company may have started slowly, as the founders focused on nailing each individual aspect of Gusto’s operations, but has now skyrocketed to unicorn status with more than 400,000 customers and a multi-billion dollar valuation. And in 2021, Gusto began acquiring other companies to strengthen its offering and its position in a competitive market, including two other fintech startups, Ardius and Symmetry.
Through its continued acquisitions and fundraising efforts, the company has carved out a strong position for itself in the space. Although Gusto has found itself impacted by the macroeconomic situation, through the significant effect it has had on its clientele, the company still appears positive for the future after raising funds in 2023 that has seen it reach key profitability benchmarks. It continues to expand its platform, most recently partnering with Parafin to launch a payroll line of credit for small businesses. With a growing suite of services and a clear focus on supporting small businesses through changing economic conditions, Gusto looks set to sustain its momentum and further strengthen its position in the HR and payroll technology market.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
45% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 9 rounds)
May 2022
$55m
SERIES E
Aug 2021
$175m
SERIES E
Total funding: $706.3m
Company benefits
- Health and Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents. Family care and support, including family planning and fertility benefits. Gender-affirming care and support. A variety of mental health resources.
- Time Away: It's important to take time away for yourself or to take care of your family. Gusto offers paid vacation, sick time, bereavement, and holidays, paid leaves, sabbatical, and more!
- Free meals and refreshments: If you work at one of our offices, enjoy food, drinks, and snacks— on us. Conversation and community is an added bonus!
- Perks:
Company HQ
Central Waterfront, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Joshua Reeves
(Co-Founder & CEO)Studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford and went onto co-found Gusto in 2011.
Tomer London
(Co-Founder & CPO)Has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. Was a Researcher at Intel, and then interned at Bump Technologies. Co-founded Vizmo, a mobile self-service technologies company, in 2008. Co-founded Gusto in 2011.
Edward Kim
(Co-Founder & Head of Engineering)Studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford. Was Senior Project Engineer at Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Lab and then co-founded Picwing, a printed photos company, in 2008. Co-founded Gusto in 2011.
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