Gusto
Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Pay Group Engineering
Gusto, Los Angeles, California, United States, 90079
Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Pay Group Engineering
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Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Pay Group Engineering
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Gusto About Gusto: At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.
About The Role We’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.
About The Team Payroll 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.
Sub–Teams
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.
Payroll: Payroll is the core of Gusto’s business, ensuring employees are paid accurately, on time, and in compliance with complex regulations. We design and maintain the infrastructure and customer experiences that make payroll simple and reliable.
Tax: The Tax team ensures Gusto customers remain compliant by managing setup, calculation, payments, filings, and year-end communications.
Time: The Time team builds tools to schedule, track, and manage teams, delivering automated, mobile-first workflows that reduce complexity for employers and empower employees.
Here’s What You’ll Do Day-to-day
Design, build, and test the foundation that supports compliant payroll for millions of people
Help scale one of the largest Ruby/Rails and TypeScript/React applications in the world
Collaborate on complex problems with Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other teams
Build the software platform powering multiple 1st and 3rd party products serving millions of businesses
Mentor and grow fellow engineers to create holistic and scalable solutions
Drive the product development process from concept to launch
Improve team productivity and happiness through the services, tools, and APIs you build
Engage in a supportive environment to drive productivity and innovation
Own and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for your domain in alignment with OKRs
Identify and prioritize long-term investments to improve foundational systems and architecture
Lead improvements to incident response processes, tooling, and culture to enhance reliability
Here’s What We're Looking For
12+ years of experience
Experience designing and developing robust, distributed systems using multiple languages
Experience guiding multiple teams on scaling, refactoring, and optimizing legacy products
Experience architecting, building, and testing large-scale production code
Aptitude for bringing clarity to complex problems and facilitating informed tradeoffs
Strong communication of technical concepts and tradeoffs
Collaborative, test-driven mindset
Ability to build maintainable, well-documented code
Experience building fault-tolerant, mission-critical software
Experience in regulated domains is desired but not required
Experience in Payroll, Taxes, or Compliance is preferred
Bonus: Experience with Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, and React
Please note that travel to Gusto’s Denver office for onboarding is required for this position. If you have questions regarding this requirement, please share with your recruiter.
Our cash compensation is targeted at $191,000/yr to $240,000/yr in Denver and most remote locations, and $225,000/yr to $275,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Stock equity is additional. Final offer amounts depend on candidate experience and may vary.
Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees based in those locations are expected to work from the office on designated days (approximately 2-3 days per week or more depending on the role). Note: The San Francisco office includes the San Jose metro area. When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable internet connection is required.
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, pregnancy, marital status, ancestry, disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristic. We are committed to accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures.
Personal information collected as part of your application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.
Seniority level Mid-Senior level
Employment type Full-time
Job function Engineering and Information Technology
Industries Software Development
Gusto is an equal opportunity employer. Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Gusto. Get notified about new Senior Staff Software Engineer jobs in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.
#J-18808-Ljbffr
Join to apply for the
Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Pay Group Engineering
role at
Gusto About Gusto: At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.
About The Role We’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.
About The Team Payroll 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.
Sub–Teams
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.
Payroll: Payroll is the core of Gusto’s business, ensuring employees are paid accurately, on time, and in compliance with complex regulations. We design and maintain the infrastructure and customer experiences that make payroll simple and reliable.
Tax: The Tax team ensures Gusto customers remain compliant by managing setup, calculation, payments, filings, and year-end communications.
Time: The Time team builds tools to schedule, track, and manage teams, delivering automated, mobile-first workflows that reduce complexity for employers and empower employees.
Here’s What You’ll Do Day-to-day
Design, build, and test the foundation that supports compliant payroll for millions of people
Help scale one of the largest Ruby/Rails and TypeScript/React applications in the world
Collaborate on complex problems with Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other teams
Build the software platform powering multiple 1st and 3rd party products serving millions of businesses
Mentor and grow fellow engineers to create holistic and scalable solutions
Drive the product development process from concept to launch
Improve team productivity and happiness through the services, tools, and APIs you build
Engage in a supportive environment to drive productivity and innovation
Own and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for your domain in alignment with OKRs
Identify and prioritize long-term investments to improve foundational systems and architecture
Lead improvements to incident response processes, tooling, and culture to enhance reliability
Here’s What We're Looking For
12+ years of experience
Experience designing and developing robust, distributed systems using multiple languages
Experience guiding multiple teams on scaling, refactoring, and optimizing legacy products
Experience architecting, building, and testing large-scale production code
Aptitude for bringing clarity to complex problems and facilitating informed tradeoffs
Strong communication of technical concepts and tradeoffs
Collaborative, test-driven mindset
Ability to build maintainable, well-documented code
Experience building fault-tolerant, mission-critical software
Experience in regulated domains is desired but not required
Experience in Payroll, Taxes, or Compliance is preferred
Bonus: Experience with Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, and React
Please note that travel to Gusto’s Denver office for onboarding is required for this position. If you have questions regarding this requirement, please share with your recruiter.
Our cash compensation is targeted at $191,000/yr to $240,000/yr in Denver and most remote locations, and $225,000/yr to $275,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Stock equity is additional. Final offer amounts depend on candidate experience and may vary.
Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees based in those locations are expected to work from the office on designated days (approximately 2-3 days per week or more depending on the role). Note: The San Francisco office includes the San Jose metro area. When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable internet connection is required.
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, pregnancy, marital status, ancestry, disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristic. We are committed to accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures.
Personal information collected as part of your application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.
Seniority level Mid-Senior level
Employment type Full-time
Job function Engineering and Information Technology
Industries Software Development
Gusto is an equal opportunity employer. Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Gusto. Get notified about new Senior Staff Software Engineer jobs in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.
#J-18808-Ljbffr