Senior Staff Engineer, Expansion Experiences

Gusto; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 225,000 - 275,000; Full time

Job summary

Gusto seeks a Senior Staff Software Engineer to own outcomes across the expansion funnel, from initial need through ongoing value realization. You will shape the technical approach, partnering with Product, Design, and Data Science to decide what to build and when to test it.

You will mentor engineers, drive pragmatic technical direction, and raise the bar on quality and scalability while navigating ambiguity and leading peers through influence.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software development experience, shipping full-stack, customer-facing products at scale.
• Owns outcomes end-to-end, collaborates with product, design and data science.
• Experience in growth, lifecycle, or conversion-focused contexts (onboarding, upsell, personalization).
• Able to move quickly, ship, measure, and iterate with high quality.
• Mentors engineers and leads multi-quarter initiatives with technical ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own outcomes across the full expansion funnel from need to value realization.
• Shape architecture behind recommendations and conversion journeys.
• Make scoping decisions and ship simple versions to test ideas quickly.
• Design experiments and use data to decide what to scale or cut.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and Data Science on roadmap and direction.
• Raise engineering bar with code reviews and mentoring, delegating when appropriate.

Skills

Product-minded

Independent

Ambiguity navigation

Mentoring engineers

Technical ownership

Cross-functional collaboration

Ship, measure, iterate

Customer problem focus

Data-driven decisions

Strong code quality

Technical leadership

Tools

Ruby on Rails

React

GraphQL

TypeScript

Job description

About Gusto

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 500,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve.

All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

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.

Most small businesses on Gusto are only using a fraction of what could actually help them run their business: the right plan tier, the right benefit, the right feature at the right moment. We're investing in building more of that expertise directly into the product itself, through recommendations, nurture journeys, and self-serve conversion paths that work alongside the support our Sales team already provides.

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on Expansion Experiences, you'll own outcomes across that whole funnel, from the moment a customer's need surfaces through to the ongoing value of what they adopt. That means real autonomy: shaping the technical approach, partnering with Product, Design, and Data Science to decide what's worth building, calling the shots on what to test now versus later, and flagging the technical investments the team will need before they become urgent.

If you want your work to move retained and expansion revenue for a company serving 500,000+ small businesses, this is the team.

Here's what you'll do day-to-day:

• Own outcomes across the full expansion funnel, not just a single surface or feature within it.
• Shape the technical approach and architecture behind recommendations and conversion journeys so it holds up as a foundation other initiatives can build on.
• Make sharp scoping calls under a time box: ship the simplest version that proves or disproves an idea, then iterate based on what you learn.
• Design experiments and use ambiguous or noisy data to decide what's worth scaling versus cutting.
• Partner independently with Product, Design, and Data Science to help shape the roadmap, not just execute it.
• Raise the engineering bar through pragmatic technical direction, strong code review, and mentoring engineers around you, scoping out work and delegating it to other engineers on the team once it's ready to hand off.

Here's what we're looking for:

• Successful applicants typically have 10+ years of software development experience, including building and shipping full-stack, customer-facing products at scale.
• A product-minded engineer who starts from the customer problem and the metric that matters, not just the ticket, and can operate independently across product, design, and data partners.
• Experience in a growth, lifecycle, or conversion-focused context (onboarding, upsell flows, personalization, or recommendations) is ideal — or a demonstrated ability to think this way even without the exact domain background.
• Demonstrated ability to move quickly and execute with high quality — someone who ships, measures, and iterates rather than waiting for perfect certainty.
• Experience owning multi-quarter initiatives end to end, from early concept through measurable business impact.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and leading peers through influence, without relying on formal authority.
• Experience with large-scale refactors, performance and reliability work, and a strong sense of technical ownership over your product area.
• A track record of mentoring engineers and helping teams scale their impact, including knowing when to delegate scoped work to other engineers rather than carrying it yourself.
• A track record of spotting technical or product opportunities before being asked, and building the case to prioritize them.
• Experience leveraging AI tools or systems to accelerate development, improve testing, and deliver new product capabilities.
• Ability to build well-structured, maintainable, well-documented code.
• Ability to effectively communicate across engineering teams and with business stakeholders.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in, or interest working in, Ruby on Rails, React, GraphQL, and TypeScript.

Please note that travel to Gusto's office for onboarding is required for this position. If you have any questions regarding this requirement, please share with your recruiter.

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). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto's subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale. When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required. This includes non-office days for hybrid employees.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at 191,000–240,000 in Denver & most remote locations, and 225,000–275,000 for San Francisco & 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.

At Gusto, we don't use titles the traditional way, as a signal of rank or hierarchy. Instead, our titles describe two things at once — your craft (what you do, e.g. Engineering, Design) and your scope of ownership (what you're accountable for) — which is why you'll see something like "Head of X" instead of a rank word like "Director" that tells you neither. Because of this, the title on this posting may look different from what you'd expect based on the scope and seniority of the role, and from how similar roles are typically titled elsewhere. If you have questions about how this role compares to your current title or level, your recruiter can help translate.

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). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto's subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale.

Note: 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. This includes non-office days for hybrid employees.

Reliable, consistent presence:

We expect regular and predictable attendance, whether you're working in-office, hybrid, or fully remote, so that you stay closely connected to your team, customers, and stakeholders in real time and ensure colleagues and customers receive the timely support and responsiveness they deserve.

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. 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.

Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very serious. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.

Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.