Principal Software Engineer - Payroll New New York, NY;Detroit, MI;Atlanta, GA;Boston, MA;Phila[...]

Gusto; New York (NY); On-site; USD 261,000 - 299,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks a Principal Engineer to lead the Contractors team, shaping the future of their flagship Payroll product. This role involves designing and building scalable backend systems, mentoring engineers, and collaborating across teams to deliver impactful features. You will play a crucial role in optimizing existing systems and ensuring seamless integration with frontend services. If you are passionate about solving complex problems and making a difference in the lives of millions, this opportunity is perfect for you. Join a collaborative and inclusive workplace that values diversity and innovation, and help drive the success of a product that empowers small businesses nationwide.

Benefits

Health Insurance

401(k) Plans

Flexible Work Environment

Collaborative Workplace

Mentorship Opportunities

Professional Development

Inclusive Culture

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software development experience required.
• Experience in scaling engineering organizations and mentoring teams.

Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain scalable backend systems for payroll products.
• Lead technical projects across multiple teams and drive product development.

Skills

Software Development

Backend Systems

Ruby on Rails

TypeScript

React

RESTful APIs

GraphQL

Mentoring

Cross-functional Collaboration

Performance Optimization

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

About Gusto

Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.

Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually.

About the Role:

As the Principal Engineer for the Contractors team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of Gusto’s flagship Payroll product—one of the core pillars of our platform. You will design, build, and scale the capabilities that power essential experiences for our customers. Working collaboratively with product managers, designers, and other engineers, you will deliver impactful features that meet customer needs and elevate user experiences.

As a Gusto Engineer at this level, you’ll guide projects end-to-end—shaping initial feature specifications, driving architectural decisions to bring systems closer to their desired end states, executing on complex initiatives, and maintaining code that powers mission-critical functionality. Beyond technical contributions, you’ll help define and contribute to the broader strategy of how Gusto continues to build and scale its Payroll product.

If you’re excited about solving complex, high-impact problems and want to contribute to a product that touches the lives of millions, we’d love to have you on board!

About the Team:

Payroll serves as Gusto's core product, used by each of our 300,000+ customers and contributing significantly to our annual recurring revenue of over $500,000,000. Although we hold the leading market position for SMBs in the US, the market remains highly fragmented, with an estimated 90% still in need of a superior solution.

The Contractors team empowers businesses to onboard and pay contractors in 120+ countries with ease and speed. This includes critical functionalities such as payroll setup, preparation, and submission, historical reporting, time tracking, and shift scheduling. As a key member of this team, you’ll have the opportunity to make a profound impact on both the product and the customers who depend on it daily.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Architect, build, and maintain scalable, secure, and resilient backend systems to support Gusto’s Payroll products.
• Function as a Technical Lead across multiple teams in Pay Group, helping us keep engineers unblocked and deliver high-quality work supporting our long-term goals.
• 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.
• Engage in a highly supportive environment, working with others to drive productivity and innovation.
• Continuously stay up-to-date with backend technologies and methodologies, advancements in AI and Machine Learning, and apply this knowledge to our projects.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 15+ years of professional software development experience.
• Experience in scaling Engineering organizations with a focus on individual and team development.
• Experience building and maintaining resilient backend systems to support customer-facing products.
• Experience in highly cross-functional environments for highly complex products.
• Experience as tech lead, overseeing projects across multiple teams.
• Experience in optimizing existing systems for performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Experience developing and maintaining RESTful APIs, GraphQL endpoints, and backend services, ensuring seamless integration with frontend systems and third-party services.
• Ability to communicate technical complexity and help facilitate informed tradeoffs.

If you don't think you meet all of the criteria below but still are interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box, and we're looking for someone excited to join the team.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $222,000 to $246,000 in Denver & most major metro locations, and $261,000 to $299,000 for San Francisco, New York, & Seattle. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

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

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.

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.