Senior Staff Software Engineer

About the role

You will lead the technical strategy and execution for Gusto's internal Commerce Platform as a Senior Staff Software Engineer and Tech Lead. In this position, you own the architecture and delivery of systems that power how Gusto packages, prices, and delivers its products to over 500,000 small businesses nationwide. You will partner closely with product, data science, and cross-functional engineering teams to build reliable, scalable platform infrastructure that enables Gusto's growth. If you are energized by high-stakes platform work at the intersection of engineering excellence and real business impact, this role is for you. You will be responsible for defining the long-term vision of the platform while ensuring that daily execution aligns with the broader goals of the business.

Key facts

What you'll do

Lead technical design and architecture for the Commerce Platform including the product catalog, promotion engine, and subscription and entitlement systems, ensuring services are reliable, performant, and meet defined SLOs.

Partner with product management and cross-functional engineering teams (Growth, Onboarding, Expansion) to define the platform's technical roadmap and drive adoption across Gusto.

Drive end-to-end delivery of complex, ambiguous projects: from requirements gathering and technical scoping through implementation, rollout, and post-launch iteration.

Mentor and grow engineers on the team through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on technical coaching, fostering a culture of craftsmanship and continuous improvement.

Leverage AI tools such as code assistants, automated testing, and data-driven diagnostics - to accelerate engineering velocity and establish team-wide best practices for AI-augmented development.

Own and improve platform observability, reliability, and performance: define and track SLOs, lead incident response, and drive blameless post-mortems to lasting resolution.

Collaborate with Gusto's marketing and business teams to evolve the self-serve system for managing products, bundles, promotions, and discounts, enabling faster time-to-market for new offerings.

Translate complex business requirements into robust technical solutions that balance scalability, maintainability, and speed of delivery.

Champion engineering best practices, including testing, documentation, and modular design, to ensure the platform can support rapid business growth.

Act as a key technical partner for the Pricing & Packaging team, ensuring that product capabilities are delivered on schedule and meet the highest standards of quality.

Drive continuous improvement by analyzing platform metrics, identifying bottlenecks, and proposing actionable optimizations.

Represent Gusto in technical discussions with stakeholders to ensure alignment between technical capabilities and business objectives.

Contribute to the broader engineering culture by sharing knowledge, leading brown bag sessions, and promoting collaborative problem-solving.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years in a tech lead or staff engineer role setting technical direction for a team.

Has achieved mastery in at least one programming language (e.g. Ruby, Java, Python, Go)

Has deep experience designing and operating scalable, reliable systems that serve large customer populations.

Has a strong track record of making sound technical decisions in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.

Has experience working with distributed systems, APIs, and event-driven architectures.

Has experience with data pipelines, analytics, and instrumentation to inform product and platform decisions.

Demonstrates strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Exhibits strong ownership, judgment, and leadership, with the ability to influence without authority.

Nice to have

Experience with AI tools and workflows in a professional engineering setting.

Experience with commerce, billing, or subscription platforms.

Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical design reviews at scale.

Practical notes

This is a full-time role based in San Francisco, CA.

Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy at the Gusto careers site.

AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.