Senior Staff Software Engineer, Benefits

Gusto is on a mission to grow the small business economy, handling payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR for over 500,000 small businesses nationwide. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, Gusto is building a workplace that reflects the people it serves. All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs). AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto; all team members are expected to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role.

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on the Benefits Advisory team, you will be directly accountable for key architectural improvements to Gusto's benefits platform. This is a full-stack role where you will design and build platform capabilities that enable customers to explore, apply for, and maintain their benefits. Your work will focus on transforming benefits opportunity, shopping, and renewal flows, creating clear system boundaries for efficient reuse and scalability, and enabling novel AI-driven interfaces for a delightful benefits shopping experience. You'll operate at the intersection of marketing, sales, operations, and engineering.

The Benefits Advisory team is building the next generation of infrastructure that powers benefits applications, making it easier to give customers access to the best benefits for their needs. The team builds a world-class technology platform designed to understand customer context in real-time and continuously improve through data and feedback, prioritizing quality, observability, and uptime. They partner closely with Marketing, Sales, and Operations to build and connect AI-powered tools.

• Architect and evolve customer-facing web platforms with a focus on scale and performance.
• Build innovative AI interfaces to best assist customers.
• Design, build, and maintain shared services to enable rapid iteration on product offerings.
• Implement and optimize key workflows for a best-in-class customer experience.
• Write high-quality, well-tested code across the stack, leveraging AI-powered tools.
• Support, mentor, and up-level fellow engineers, establishing best practices for AI-native design patterns.
• Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, Sales, Operations, and leadership to translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Influence the technical roadmap for the Benefits Advisory platform, aligning with Gusto's AI-native strategy.

• 8+ years of experience building scalable full-stack web applications with expertise in both frontend (React, TypeScript) and backend (API development, data modeling, database schema design).
• Extensive experience building AI interfaces, iterating on prompts, and maintaining high-quality evals.
• Extensive experience applying AI tools to accelerate full-stack development, improve code quality, and build intelligent user experiences.
• Familiarity with AI-driven personalization patterns and willingness to experiment with AI techniques.
• Deep experience in CI/CD and observability best practices.
• Ability to act as a thought partner for both technical (Engineering, AI/Data) and business (Sales, Operations) teams.
• A balance of pragmatic execution and long-term architectural thinking.
• Experience enabling productivity across large engineering organizations.

• Direct familiarity with React, Ruby on Rails.
• Experience with robust recommendation systems.
• AI architecture and scalability for reliable platform services.

Cash compensation is targeted at $191,000/yr to $225,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $225,000/yr to $265,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Stock equity is additional. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise.

Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees 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. 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.