Staff Software Engineer, AI Developer Tools

Gusto; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 220,000 - 245,000; Full time

Job summary

Gusto is seeking a Staff Engineer for their Developer Productivity – AI Developer Tools team in Seattle. This role will shape the AI platform that enhances engineering productivity across Gusto by eliminating developer friction through AI tools and systems.

Ideal candidates will have over 8 years of systems engineering experience and a proven record in AI, particularly in production settings. Responsibilities include architecting AI infrastructure and collaborating with teams to optimize processes.

The cash compensation is between $220,000 and $245,000 annually for Seattle, complemented by stock equity.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering.
• Demonstrated experience moving AI beyond prototypes.
• Strong understanding of prompt engineering and multi-agent workflows.
• Capable of executing on data privacy and security strategies.
• Excellent communication skills for mentoring and stakeholder alignment.
• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain AI core infrastructure integrating LLMs.
• Establish best engineering practices for AI development.
• Collaborate with product teams to identify friction points.
• Optimize production lifecycle and eliminate bottlenecks.
• Monitor AI system reliability and integration issues.

Skills

Systems Expertise

Production AI Experience

Developer-First Mindset

Strategic Execution

Exceptional Communication

Team Collaboration

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.

About the Role

As a Staff Engineer on the Developer Productivity – AI Developer Tools team, you will be the architectural anchor shaping the AI platform that accelerates engineering across Gusto. Your mission is to eliminate developer friction through AI tools, multi‑agent systems, and intelligent automation. Whether you are building bespoke internal coding assistants, automating sprawling code‑base refactors, or deploying AI to self‑heal CI/CD pipelines, your work will directly multiply the velocity of hundreds of builders.

About the Team

The AI Developer Tools team is a specialized team within Developer Productivity. We believe AI is the next great leap in software craftsmanship. Our goal is to provide every builder at Gusto with a suite of “superpowers” tools that deeply understand our codebase and absorb operational toil so engineers can focus on creative problem‑solving. We treat our fellow engineers as our primary customers, prioritizing developer experiences that are powerful, but also absolutely delightful to use.

Responsibilities

• Architect AI Core Infrastructure: design, scale, and maintain the internal platform and APIs that integrate LLMs into the developer workflow, focusing on autonomous agents, custom retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), and smart context‑delivery systems.
• Drive Technical Leadership & Vision: establish engineering best practices for building with AI at Gusto, including robust evaluation frameworks (evals), guardrails for code safety, and strategies for optimizing model latency and token spend.
• Collaborate & Evangelize: partner closely with product engineering teams to uncover systemic friction points, and collaborate with core Infrastructure and Security teams to ensure all AI tooling is scalable, compliant, and secure.
• Optimize Feedback Loops: identify and eliminate critical bottlenecks in the local‑to‑production lifecycle at scale across Gusto.
• Maintain Enterprise Reliability: treat AI infrastructure with production‑grade rigor. Monitor system health, diagnose complex integration or networking issues, and mitigate model drift or downtime.

Qualifications

• 8+ Years of Systems Expertise: you are a seasoned engineer who is highly comfortable navigating massive, complex codebases and delivering production‑grade, distributed software.
• Production AI Experience: you have a proven track record of moving AI beyond prototypes. You possess a deep understanding of prompt engineering, fine‑tuning, RAG architectures, and orchestrating multi‑agent workflows.
• Developer‑First Mindset: you are passionate about Developer Experience and Productivity. You intuitively understand what makes an internal tool frictionless, fast, and empowering for other engineers.
• Strategic Execution: you think deeply about data privacy, security, cost management, and systemic reliability when deploying AI solutions.
• Exceptional Communication: you can seamlessly translate bleeding‑edge AI capabilities into clear, actionable infrastructure strategies, mentoring junior engineers, and aligning cross‑functional stakeholders along the way.
• Working as a Team: you work across team boundaries and bring other teams and groups along with you toward our strategic vision.

Compensation

Your cash compensation is targeted at $180,000/yr to $200,000/yr in Denver and most remote locations, and $220,000/yr to $245,000/yr for San Francisco, New York, and Seattle. Stock equity is additional. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise.

Remote & Office Expectations

Employees based in Denver, San Francisco, or New York are expected to work from the office on designated days, approximately 2‑3 days per week (or more depending on role). Similar expectations apply to our subsidiary Gusto’s Scottsdale office. When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required, including non‑office days for hybrid employees.

Values & 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 enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.

Equal Opportunity

Gusto is a proud 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, please fill out the form and a member of our team will get in touch.

Privacy & Security

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.