Sr Software Engineer, Database Infrastructure

Gusto; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 183,000 - 245,000; Full time

Job summary

Gusto is seeking an experienced infrastructure engineer to evolve data storage at scale. You will build a platform for provisioning datastores, evaluate scalable storage systems, and strengthen databases our product depends on.

You’ll own Kafka operations and help stand up DynamoDB-like datastores, coordinating migrations with minimal disruption. You’ll work with a datastores infrastructure team responsible for Kafka, MySQL, Postgres, Redis, and more, driving automation and reliability.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of software engineering experience building and operating large-scale infrastructure systems with streaming and/or non-relational datastores
• Strong understanding of distributed systems concepts and production migrations/topology changes
• Experience running production cloud infrastructure including Redis, Kafka and datastores
• Clear communication and ability to collaborate on technical direction across teams
• Curiosity and ability to operate in an AI-native environment with AI tooling
• Bonus: experience with self-hosted distributed databases on Kubernetes (TiDB, CockroachDB, Vitess, Citus)
• Bonus: experience with Ruby on Rails or similar MVC frameworks at scale

Responsibilities

• Build tooling and platform to provision new datastores and pilot scalable storage systems
• Own Kafka capacity planning, tuning, and reliability at scale; stand up non-relational datastores like DynamoDB
• Coordinate migrations/topology changes across datastore platform with minimal production disruption
• Drive efficiency and reliability through query optimization, caching, workload management, and automation
• Participate in on-call duties and reduce operational burden over time
• Partner with product engineering teams to enable rapid, reliable product development and share knowledge

Skills

Kafka

DynamoDB

Redis

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Kubernetes

Cloud infrastructure

Distributed systems

Communication

AI tooling

Tools

TiDB

CockroachDB

Vitess

Citus

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.

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced infrastructure engineer to help evolve how Gusto stores and accesses data as the company scales. You'll help build a platform that lets engineering teams provision and access new datastores, evaluate and stand up highly available, horizontally scalable storage systems, and continue strengthening the resilience of the databases our product already depends on. This is a high-impact role shaping both the tools and the technology choices behind Gusto's storage layer.

About the Team

The Datastores Infrastructure Engineering team designs, builds, and operates the data platforms that power Gusto's product: Kafka, MySQL, Postgres, and Redis. As Gusto grows, we're rethinking how the rest of engineering provisions and accesses storage — building self‑service tooling for new datastores, exploring and adopting highly available, horizontally scalable systems, and continuing to reduce blast radius and improve the resilience of the databases we already operate.

Here's what you'll do day‑to‑day

• Build the tooling and platform that let engineering teams provision and access new datastores, and evaluate and pilot highly available, horizontally scalable storage systems to meet Gusto's growing needs
• Take ownership of Kafka, from capacity planning and partitioning through performance tuning and reliability at scale, and help stand up and operate new non‑relational datastores like DynamoDB
• Coordinate migrations and topology changes across the datastore platform (MySQL, Postgres, Redis, Kafka) with minimal disruption to production
• Drive efficiency and reliability improvements across the platform through query and consumer optimization, caching strategies, and workload management, backed by strong automation and standards for data consistency, integrity, and security
• Participate in on‑call and drive long‑term, sustainable reductions in operational burden
• Partner with product engineering teams to enable rapid, reliable product development, and share knowledge to grow the team's collective operating expertise

Here's what we're looking for

• 6+ years of software engineering experience building and operating large‑scale infrastructure systems, with deep hands‑on expertise in streaming infrastructure (Kafka) and/or non‑relational datastores (DynamoDB or similar) in production at scale
• Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals—partitioning, replication, consistency models, and failure modes—and proven experience coordinating migrations or topology changes in production with minimal disruption
• Experience running production infrastructure in the cloud, including caching systems like Redis/ValKey and streaming platforms like Kafka, with a track record of driving infrastructure optimization at scale
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to simplify technical complexity and collaborate on technical direction across teams
• Curiosity and ability to operate in an AI‑native environment, using AI tooling to drive improvements in query optimization, performance evaluation, and infrastructure automation
• Bonus: Experience with self‑hosted distributed databases on Kubernetes (e.g., TiDB, CockroachDB, Vitess, or Citus), horizontal sharding, or service/vertical extraction from monolithic architectures
• Bonus: Experience working with Ruby on Rails or similar MVC frameworks at scale

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $183,000-$200,000 /yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $222,000-$245,000 /yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Office and Remote Expectations

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.

Our Commitment to Diversity

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.

Equal Employment Opportunity

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 seriously. 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.