Staff Software Engineer, AI-Native Solo Platform

Gusto; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 197,000 - 247,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock equity (RSUs)

Competitive base pay + benefits

Job summary

Gusto is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for Gusto Solo in San Francisco, to own end-to-end delivery of new AI-native product areas and help build high-impact experiences for solopreneurs and their accountants.

You'll work in a small, fast-moving team, responsible for architectural decisions, collaborating with product, design, data science, and GTM. The role requires 8+ years of experience and a strong product mindset, with hybrid office expectations in SF.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with end-to-end delivery.
• Proficiency across a full-stack toolkit (Ruby on Rails, React, TypeScript, GraphQL).
• Ownership of 0→1 or greenfield projects and strong product mindset.
• Experience shipping AI-powered or AI-augmented product experiences.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with cross-functional partnership.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of net-new product areas, from technical design through shipping.
• Use AI as a genuine multiplier in your own workflow, and help build AI-native experiences into the product itself (including MCP tools).
• Partner closely with Product, Design, Data Science, and GTM to identify customer and business problems, prototype solutions, and iterate quickly.
• Make pragmatic architecture and data-modeling decisions for problems that mostly don't have existing precedent at Gusto yet.
• Build and maintain full-stack features - from backend APIs to frontend UI - with an eye toward scalability and maintainability as the team and product grow.
• Weigh in beyond the "engineer lane" when it helps the team: product framing, design tradeoffs, or GTM considerations.
• Help define engineering practices and technical foundations for a team that's still early in its build-out.

Skills

Full-stack development

Product ownership

AI tooling

Cross-functional collaboration

Ruby on Rails

React

TypeScript

GraphQL

Regulated domain experience

Startup / solo work experience

Tools

Ruby on Rails

React

TypeScript

GraphQL

Job description

Gusto is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for Gusto Solo in San Francisco, to own end-to-end delivery of new AI-native product areas and help build high-impact experiences for solopreneurs and their accountants.

You'll work in a small, fast-moving team, responsible for architectural decisions, collaborating with product, design, data science, and GTM. The role requires 8+ years of experience and a strong product mindset, with hybrid office expectations in SF.