Senior Staff Software Engineer - Pricing and Packaging

Gusto; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 223,000 - 278,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base pay

Benefits and equity options

Job summary

Gusto is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to lead technical initiatives for its Commerce Platform in San Francisco. You will oversee architecture, collaborate across teams, and ensure system reliability for 500,000+ small businesses.

The ideal candidate has over 10 years of software engineering experience, a strong grasp of AI integration, and excellent communication skills. This role offers competitive compensation and equity options.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• 2+ years in a tech lead or staff engineer role.
• Mastery in at least one programming language.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical design and architecture for the Commerce Platform.
• Partner with product management to define the technical roadmap.
• Mentor engineers through design and code reviews.

Skills

Software engineering experience

Programming languages mastery (e.g. Ruby, Java, Python, Go)

Distributed systems

API design

Service reliability practices

AI tools experience

Excellent communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Job description

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Senior Staff Software Engineer - Pricing and Packaging

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.

About the Role:

The Pricing & Packaging team is looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer and Tech Lead to drive the technical direction of Gusto’s internal Commerce Platform. You’ll own the architecture and delivery of systems that power how Gusto packages, prices, and delivers its products to over 500,000 small businesses nationwide. In this role, you’ll partner closely with product, data science, and cross‑functional engineering teams to build reliable, scalable platform infrastructure that enables Gusto’s growth. If you’re energized by high‑stakes platform work at the intersection of engineering excellence and real business impact, this role is for you.

About the Team:

The Pricing & Packaging team sits at the heart of Gusto’s Commerce infrastructure, serving as the single source of truth for all products, bundles, add‑ons, subscriptions, pricing, promotions, and discounts across Gusto’s first‑party customer experience. The team owns and operates Gusto’s internal Commerce Platform including the product catalog, promotion engine, subscription, pricing experimentation platform, and entitlement services that enable Growth and other teams to bring Gusto’s offerings to market effectively. We’re a collaborative team of engineers and a data scientist working on quarterly goals and monthly milestones, with a strong emphasis on platform reliability, adoption, and business impact. Our work directly shapes how Gusto’s 500,000+ small business customers access the payroll, benefits, and HR tools they rely on every day.

Here’s what you’ll do day‑to‑day:

• 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.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

• 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)
• Deep experience building and operating large‑scale backend platform systems ideally in commerce, billing, subscription management, pricing and packaging domain
• Strong command of distributed systems, API design, and service reliability practices, with experience defining and meeting SLOs in production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with AI tools (such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or similar) in day‑to‑day engineering, and a growth mindset toward evolving AI capabilities in the team’s workflow
• Proven track record of leading cross‑functional technical initiatives, influencing without authority, and aligning engineering, product, and business stakeholders around a shared technical vision
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex technical concepts accessible to both engineers and non‑technical partners.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $189,000/yr to $236,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $223,000/yr to $278,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Stock equity is additional. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise 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). 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.

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. 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.

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