Security Software Engineer, Gusto
Security & AI Platform
$186-220k
+ Stock equity
2-3 days a week in office
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
Open for applications
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$186-220k
+ Stock equity
2-3 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To grow the small business economy.
Role
Who you are
- 7+ years of experience as a backend engineer, building and operating large-scale server-side services and APIs
- Proven track record building highly available distributed systems and services
- Genuine curiosity and desire to work within the security domain, you don't need to have done it before, but you're excited to dive in
- Proficiency in one or more of: Ruby, Python, Kotlin, JavaScript/TypeScript
- Experience with AI tools for coding (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot)
- Strong collaboration skills and comfort breaking down complex, cross‑cutting problems into clear, practical solutions
- No prior security domain experience required—we're looking for strong backend engineers who are excited to grow into this space
What the job involves
- We’re hiring two Senior Software Engineers for our Product & AI Security Engineering team
- You’ll own and evolve the security foundations behind Gusto’s products and AI/LLM experiences, from authentication and authorization at scale to securing core services and data
- You’ll partner across the company to solve high-impact security problems and ship secure, reliable, AI-powered features quickly and safely
- The Product & AI Security Engineering team sits at the intersection of product, platform, and AI at Gusto
- We prioritize high‑leverage projects that reduce risk, harden our foundations, and unlock faster delivery for other teams. We build security tools and services, embed with partner teams when needed, and set best practices for authentication, authorization, and safe data handling, especially as we adopt AI and LLMs
- Strengthen core services and data protections, including access control, storage, and APIs
- Detect and mitigate account takeover and other abuse, improving safety for our customers
- Build security platforms and tooling that help product and AI teams move quickly and safely
- Own and improve high-availability services that other teams depend on
- Tackle ambiguous AI/LLM security problems from threat modeling to practical mitigations
- Provide leadership in promoting security and software engineering excellence
- Collaborate on authentication and authorization systems as you grow your security expertise
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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