Staff Software Engineer - AI-Native Solo Platform

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

Job summary

Gusto Solo is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to help build the next chapter of Solo. You’ll lead end-to-end development, apply AI to enhance workflows, and collaborate with product, design, data science, and GTM teams to solve meaningful problems for solopreneurs.

You’ll own architecture decisions, ship scalable features from backend to frontend, and shape engineering practices as this early, high‑leverage team grows. This role supports hybrid in-office work in SF and nearby areas.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of shipping full-stack features end to end.
• Proficiency across a full-stack toolkit (e.g., Ruby on Rails, React, TypeScript, GraphQL) and the judgment to choose the right tool for the problem.
• Demonstrated ownership of 0→1 or greenfield projects, not just extension of existing systems.
• A self-driven mindset: comfortable setting direction amid ambiguity, not just executing against a spec.
• Genuine, habitual use of AI tools in day-to-day engineering work
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with a track record of strong 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 engineering

AI usage in engineering

Cross-functional collaboration

Product mindset

Tools

Ruby on Rails

React

TypeScript

GraphQL

Job description

Gusto Solo is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to help build the next chapter of Solo. You’ll lead end-to-end development, apply AI to enhance workflows, and collaborate with product, design, data science, and GTM teams to solve meaningful problems for solopreneurs.

You’ll own architecture decisions, ship scalable features from backend to frontend, and shape engineering practices as this early, high‑leverage team grows. This role supports hybrid in-office work in SF and nearby areas.