Senior Staff Software Engineer, Gusto
Marketing Technology
$185-275k
US salary is dependent on location, $200,000 - $250,000 CAD for Toronto, Canada + Equity
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
Open for applications
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$185-275k
US salary is dependent on location, $200,000 - $250,000 CAD for Toronto, Canada + Equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
To grow the small business economy.
Role
Who you are
- 8+ years of experience building high-scale web systems, with strong fundamentals across both frontend and backend layers
- Strong full-stack engineering capability. You are comfortable designing APIs, modeling data, and reasoning about backend services, while being especially strong on the frontend
- Deep frontend expertise in React, TypeScript, and Next.js, including rendering strategies (SSR, SSG, ISR), performance optimization, and component architecture
- Systems-level thinking. You can design distributed systems, reason about failure modes, articulate trade-offs, and communicate architectural decisions clearly in writing and in review
- Experience applying AI tools to accelerate frontend development, improve code quality, and build intelligent user experiences. Familiar with AI-driven personalization patterns and willing to experiment with AI techniques
- Experience with web performance and caching. CDNs, edge computing, cache invalidation strategies, and how these interact with dynamic personalization
- A high technical bar, you write testable, observable, production-grade code and hold that standard for those around you
- Strong written communication. you can produce technical designs, ADRs, and proposals that serve both engineers and non-technical stakeholders
- A balance of pragmatic execution for immediate business needs and long-term architectural thinking to build a scalable, intelligent platform
Desirable
- Experience in growth engineering, product engineering, or platform engineering where you have had to balance technical quality with business outcomes
- Hands-on experience with ML/AI integration. Personalization engines, recommendation systems, or predictive models embedded in production systems
- Familiarity with content delivery infrastructure. Headless CMS, dynamic rendering pipelines, or experimentation frameworks
- Experience with event-driven architectures or data pipelines used to feed AI/ML models or power real-time personalization
- Experience with customer data platforms or behavioral analytics infrastructure
What the job involves
- As a Staff Software Engineer on the Marketing Technology team, you will drive key architectural improvements to Gusto's MarTech stack as we transition to an AI-native company. This is a full-stack, frontend-leaning role where you will design and build foundational web platform capabilities that enable teams at Gusto to engage with our customers at scale
- Your work will focus on building high-performance, highly reliable web systems from the rendering and delivery layer down to the APIs and data pipelines that feed them. You will architect how our content delivery platform integrates with customer data and personalization infrastructure, designing systems that are observable, testable, and built to last
- You'll operate at the intersection of marketing systems, AI capabilities, and platform evolution. If you are passionate about building highly reliable, frontend-focused systems that can reason, predict, and personalize to unlock Gusto's next phase of sustainable growth, we would love to have you join our team
- The Marketing Technology team is building the next generation of infrastructure that powers Gusto's customer acquisition and engagement funnels
- Our mission is to move beyond deterministic user journeys and build intelligent, adaptive growth systems. We are building a world-class technology platform designed to understand customer intent, tailor experiences in real-time, and continuously improve through data and feedback loops. This means building for reliability, observability, and scale
- We prioritize engineering quality and technical rigor because these systems are core to Gusto's growth. We partner with Marketing, Growth R&D, and Data/AI teams to turn product and business requirements into durable technical solutions
- Architect and build high-performance, scalable web systems. Designing for performance, reliability, and long-term maintainability, not just immediate delivery
- Own full-stack technical decisions across the frontend rendering layer, API contracts, data modeling, and backend integrations that power our customer-facing experiences
- Design and implement distributed caching strategies across our delivery stack (CDN, edge, application layers), with a clear understanding of consistency trade-offs
- Write high-quality, well-tested code in React, TypeScript, and Next.js, setting a bar for the team on code quality, test coverage, and engineering practices
- Lead architecture reviews and system design discussions, producing clear technical proposals that account for scale, failure modes, and operational complexity
- Mentor and up-level fellow engineers, establishing best practices for full-stack development, system design, and AI-native design patterns
- Translate product and business requirements into technical architecture bridging what the business needs and what is technically sound and sustainable
- Contribute to the team's technical roadmap, ensuring your work aligns with Gusto's transition to an AI-native company and broader team goals
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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