Gusto
Principal Software Engineer - Pay Group Engineering
Denver, CO; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY
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.
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 and Tax systems. 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. Pay Group (payroll and tax) teams are responsible for the product, ops, and service components Gusto uses to onboard customers, process payrolls, calculate taxes and 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
Tax Accuracy : The Tax Accuracy group is responsible for gathering and maintaining the necessary information for us to pay and file taxes accurately and on time for our customers, and consists of multiple teams that cover various parts of the process.
Ledger : This team is building a payroll ledger to track accrual accounting for payroll‑related money movement. This team is starting to support the payroll domain, risk, payments, and accounting.
Engine : This team works closely with the payroll compliance team to ensure enablement of compliant pay, such as minimum wage adjustments, regular rate of pay, etc. We enable end‑to‑end success of payroll processing and working with various domain teams such as tax calculations, tax setup, payments, and more.
Platform : This team is developing a new platform to be the common interface for interacting with payroll and tax data. The payroll and tax domain is highly complex; our team exists to make it easier for other application teams to interact with the payroll and tax system. We enable application and experience teams to deliver customer value faster by providing a scalable, flexible, performant, and highly understandable platform to integrate with.
Day‑to‑Day Responsibilities
Function as a Technical Lead
across multiple teams in Payroll Services, helping us keep engineers unblocked and deliver high‑quality work supporting our long‑term goals
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 and ambiguous problems with partnerships from Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other cross‑functional teams
Mentor and grow fellow engineers working to create holistic and scalable solutions
Drive the product development process from concept to launch, delivering delightful products that make payroll, taxes, and compliance simple and easy
Improve the productivity and happiness of our teams with the services, tools, and APIs you build
Engage in a highly supportive environment working with others to drive productivity and innovation
Continuously stay up‑to‑date with advancements in
AI and Machine Learning , applying this knowledge to our projects
Qualifications
At least 15+ years of experience
Ability to build maintainable, structured, well‑documented code
Strong knowledge of data structures, data modeling, and system design
Experience working across 3+ teams, influencing both product and team direction
Experience working on platform products which are depended upon throughout the company
Experience engineering, designing, building and supporting large scale systems in production
An aptitude in bringing clarity and simplicity to complex problems, communicating technical complexity and facilitating informed tradeoffs to major stakeholders
Experience operationalizing and scaling large interconnected production systems
Experience in complex highly regulated domains, e.g., HR, payroll, taxes, or compliance
Experience using AI tools to build, test, and iterate on products quickly
Understanding of how to evaluate AI‑driven outputs using clear success criteria
A commitment to staying current on emerging backend technologies and AI frameworks and patterns, regularly experimenting with new approaches
Willingness to contribute to shared tools or templates that enhance the speed and safety of AI experimentation
Compensation Cash compensation is targeted at $215,000/yr to $252,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $251,000/yr to $295,000/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.
Office Expectations Employees who are based in Denver, San Francisco, or New York City 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.
Diversity & Inclusion 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 you.
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.
#J-18808-Ljbffr
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.
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 and Tax systems. 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. Pay Group (payroll and tax) teams are responsible for the product, ops, and service components Gusto uses to onboard customers, process payrolls, calculate taxes and 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
Tax Accuracy : The Tax Accuracy group is responsible for gathering and maintaining the necessary information for us to pay and file taxes accurately and on time for our customers, and consists of multiple teams that cover various parts of the process.
Ledger : This team is building a payroll ledger to track accrual accounting for payroll‑related money movement. This team is starting to support the payroll domain, risk, payments, and accounting.
Engine : This team works closely with the payroll compliance team to ensure enablement of compliant pay, such as minimum wage adjustments, regular rate of pay, etc. We enable end‑to‑end success of payroll processing and working with various domain teams such as tax calculations, tax setup, payments, and more.
Platform : This team is developing a new platform to be the common interface for interacting with payroll and tax data. The payroll and tax domain is highly complex; our team exists to make it easier for other application teams to interact with the payroll and tax system. We enable application and experience teams to deliver customer value faster by providing a scalable, flexible, performant, and highly understandable platform to integrate with.
Day‑to‑Day Responsibilities
Function as a Technical Lead
across multiple teams in Payroll Services, helping us keep engineers unblocked and deliver high‑quality work supporting our long‑term goals
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 and ambiguous problems with partnerships from Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other cross‑functional teams
Mentor and grow fellow engineers working to create holistic and scalable solutions
Drive the product development process from concept to launch, delivering delightful products that make payroll, taxes, and compliance simple and easy
Improve the productivity and happiness of our teams with the services, tools, and APIs you build
Engage in a highly supportive environment working with others to drive productivity and innovation
Continuously stay up‑to‑date with advancements in
AI and Machine Learning , applying this knowledge to our projects
Qualifications
At least 15+ years of experience
Ability to build maintainable, structured, well‑documented code
Strong knowledge of data structures, data modeling, and system design
Experience working across 3+ teams, influencing both product and team direction
Experience working on platform products which are depended upon throughout the company
Experience engineering, designing, building and supporting large scale systems in production
An aptitude in bringing clarity and simplicity to complex problems, communicating technical complexity and facilitating informed tradeoffs to major stakeholders
Experience operationalizing and scaling large interconnected production systems
Experience in complex highly regulated domains, e.g., HR, payroll, taxes, or compliance
Experience using AI tools to build, test, and iterate on products quickly
Understanding of how to evaluate AI‑driven outputs using clear success criteria
A commitment to staying current on emerging backend technologies and AI frameworks and patterns, regularly experimenting with new approaches
Willingness to contribute to shared tools or templates that enhance the speed and safety of AI experimentation
Compensation Cash compensation is targeted at $215,000/yr to $252,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $251,000/yr to $295,000/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.
Office Expectations Employees who are based in Denver, San Francisco, or New York City 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.
Diversity & Inclusion 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 you.
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.
#J-18808-Ljbffr