Head of AI Dev Tools & Autonomous Coding Platform

Gusto; Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 305,000; Full time

Job summary

Gusto is seeking an experienced Engineering Leader for AI Dev Tools who will own the agentic coding platform end-to-end, from product bets to underlying CI and sandboxing.

You’ll negotiate vendor contracts, set security posture, mentor senior engineers, and partner with CTO on the future of AI-native software at Gusto. Hybrid work across Denver, SF, NY with a chance to lead in a fast-moving space.

Qualifications

• 8+ years leading engineers through ambiguous, fast-moving problems.
• Direct hands-on experience with agentic coding tools.
• Experience owning significant vendor or infrastructure contracts.
• Ability to make autonomy and risk tradeoffs without a dedicated security team.

Responsibilities

• Own the agentic coding roadmap. Set direction for interactive and autonomous agent modes, entry points, and the orchestration model for multi-step/multi-repo agent work.
• Agentic code review. Own its accuracy/coverage roadmap, and tradeoffs between review quality, merge speed, and cost.
• Set the security and risk posture for autonomous coding agents at Gusto. Define sandboxing/permission-scoping and hardening.
• Set and enforce AI infrastructure spend guardrails for your team, translating usage data into cost decisions.
• Lead and grow a team of senior engineers, recruit, mentor, and calibrate levels.
• Be a direct strategic partner to engineering leadership on AI-native software direction at Gusto.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Autonomy in decision‑making

Strategic collaboration with execs

Clear communication

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

Codex

Job description

Gusto is seeking an experienced Engineering Leader for AI Dev Tools who will own the agentic coding platform end-to-end, from product bets to underlying CI and sandboxing.

You’ll negotiate vendor contracts, set security posture, mentor senior engineers, and partner with CTO on the future of AI-native software at Gusto. Hybrid work across Denver, SF, NY with a chance to lead in a fast-moving space.