Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Pay Group Engineering

Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Pay Group EngineeringAbout GustoGusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.About the RoleWe’re hiring seasoned engineers to join our teams that work on core platform capabilities, improving our existing systems for extensibility and scalability, and building the future of Gusto's Payroll system. As a Gusto Software Engineer at this level, you’ll be guiding projects end-to-end by influencing initial feature specs, understanding how to take existing systems closer to desired end states, executing on projects, and maintaining code that powers core experiences. If you’re interested in building elegant software with far-reaching effects in our modern economy, join us!About the TeamPayroll is the beating heart of Gusto’s business. The Pay Group teams are responsible for the product, ops, and service components Gusto uses to onboard customers, process payrolls, calculate taxes & deductions, pay and file with tax agencies, and maintain compliance on behalf of the customers. The domain is highly complex and offers the opportunity to engage in system design that simplifies this for customers, both internal and external.Contractors + EOR: The Contractors + EOR team is building the best platform for businesses to hire, pay, and manage their entire workforce—whether they’re contractors, employees, or international teammates. We make contractor payments fast, reliable, and compliant, while simplifying workflows for employers with powerful tools like automated payments, reimbursements, and bulk onboarding. Beyond payments, we’re creating seamless experiences for international employees through payroll, onboarding, and compliance solutions that scale across borders. Together, our mission is to position Gusto as the go-to platform for small and mid-sized businesses to confidently support every member of their team, no matter where they work.Payroll: Payroll is the core of Gusto’s business, ensuring employees are paid accurately, on time, and in compliance with complex regulations. Our teams design and maintain the infrastructure and customer experiences that make payroll simple and reliable. From setup through submission, we build intuitive systems that help business owners run payroll with confidence.Tax: The Tax team ensures Gusto customers remain compliant and confident by managing every aspect of payroll taxes—including setup, calculation, payments, filings, and year-end communications. We design seamless, end-to-end experiences that simplify complex processes and build the infrastructure that keeps taxes accurate and on time. By combining reliable systems with thoughtful design, our team makes one of the most complicated parts of running a business simple for employers.Time: The Time team builds trusted, intuitive tools that make it easy for businesses to schedule, track, and manage their teams. From scheduling shifts and managing availability to tracking hours and time off, we deliver smart, compliant solutions that reduce complexity for employers while empowering employees. By embedding automation and mobile-first workflows, we transform how time is managed—so teams can focus on what matters most.ResponsibilitiesDesign, build, and test the foundation that supports compliant payroll for millions of peopleHelp scale one of the largest Ruby/Rails and TypeScript/React applications in the worldCollaborate on complex and ambiguous problems with partnerships from Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other cross-functional teamsBuild the software platform that powers multiple 1st and 3rd party products and serves millions of businessesMentor and grow fellow engineers working to create holistic and scalable solutionsDrive the product development process from concept to launch, delivering delightful products that make payroll, taxes, and compliance simple and easyImprove the productivity and happiness of our teams with the services, tools, and APIs you buildEngage in a highly supportive environment working with others to drive productivity and innovationOwn and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for your domain in alignment with team and group-level OKRsIdentify and prioritize long-term investments to improve foundational systems and architectureLead improvements to incident response processes, tooling, and culture to enhance system reliability and team effectivenessQualificationsSuccessful applicants have at least 12+ years of experienceExperience in designing and developing robust, distributed systems using multiple general-purpose programming languagesExperience influencing and guiding the work of multiple teams on scaling, refactoring, and optimizing legacy productsExperience architecting, building, and testing large-scale production level codeAn aptitude and interest in bringing clarity and simplicity to complex and ambiguous problemsAbility to communicate technical complexity and help facilitate informed tradeoffsAble to build maintainable, structured, well-documented codeExperience building fault-tolerant, mission-critical softwareExperience building products in highly regulated domains is desired, but not requiredExperience in one of these domains is preferred: Payroll, Taxes, or ComplianceBonus: Experience with Ruby on Rails, Typescript, and ReactPlease note that travel to Gusto’s Denver office for onboarding is required for this position. If you have any questions regarding this requirement, please share with your recruiter.Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $191,000/yr to $240,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $225,000/yr to $275,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Stock equity is additional. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto's subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale.Note: The San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required.Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision 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 other applicable legally protected characteristic. Gusto considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Gusto is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with terested in building your career at Gusto, Inc.? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.Apply for this jobFirst Name *Last Name *Email *Phone *Location (City) *Resume/CV *Enter manuallyAccepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtfPreferred Name *Zip Code / Postal Code (Non-U.S. based candidates, please enter "00000") *LinkedIn ProfileAre you legally authorized to work in the country where you are applying? *Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship for employment? *If you’ll require this employer to commence, i.e., “sponsor,” an immigration or work permit case in order to employ you, either now or in the future, then you should answer yes. An example of an immigration or work permit case that may require sponsorship now or in the future would be an H-1B or other employment-based work permit sponsorship.Do you have 12+ years of professional software development experience? *Do you live in one of the following metro areas?Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles/Orange County, Miami, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Toronto *What percentage of your software experience is focused on backend development? Select...Check all areas in which you have work experienceFintech industryPayroll applicationsTax payments applicationsAI/Machine learningVoluntary Self-IdentificationOur customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it helps us to build better products, better serve our customers, and makes our company addition to the information required to consider your application, below is a set of demographic questions that help us identify areas for improvement in our process and further support the development and execution of our diversity efforts and programs as well as to create a more inclusive environment for all employees.Your responses to these questions will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file. Your responses, or your wish not to answer, will not be associated with your specific application, will not be shared with hiring managers, and will not in any way be used in making any employment decisions.Please use this as a reference while completing the disability self-identification:BlindnessDeafnessCancerDiabetesEpilepsyAutismCerebral palsyHIV/AIDSBipolar disorderMultiple sclerosis (MS)Missing limbs or partially missing limbsPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)How would you describe your gender identity (please select one)? *I identify as transgender (please select one): *I identify my sexual orientation as (please select one): *I identify my race/ethnicity as (mark all that apply): *Veteran Status (please select one): *I have a disability (please select one): *I identify as a first-generation professional (please select one): *Note: This refined description preserves core job information while removing non-essential form content and ensuring proper HTML structure. #J-18808-Ljbffr

Created: 2025-09-17