Principal Software Engineer - Pay Group Engineering

We're seeking a seasoned Principal Software Engineer to join our Pay Group Engineering team at Gusto. You'll guide projects end-to-end, influencing feature specs, and executing on projects that power core experiences.

As a Gusto Software Engineer at this level, you'll be working on core platform capabilities, improving existing systems for extensibility and scalability, and building the future of Gusto's Payroll and Tax systems.

The Pay Group teams are responsible for product, operations, and service components used to onboard customers, process payrolls, calculate taxes and deductions, pay and file with tax agencies, and maintain compliance.

Responsibilities:

• Function as a Technical Lead across multiple teams in Payroll Services
• Design, build, and test the foundation that supports compliant payroll for millions of people
• Help scale one of the largest Ruby/Rails and TypeScript/React applications in the world
• Collaborate on complex problems with cross-functional teams
• Mentor and grow fellow engineers
• Drive the product development process from concept to launch
• Improve team productivity and happiness with services, tools, and APIs
• Stay up-to-date with advancements in AI and Machine Learning

Requirements:

• 15+ years of experience
• Ability to build maintainable, structured, well-documented code
• Strong knowledge of data structures, data modeling, and system design
• Experience working across 3+ teams, influencing product and team direction
• Experience with platform products depended upon throughout the company
• Experience engineering, designing, building, and supporting large-scale systems in production
• Aptitude for bringing clarity and simplicity to complex problems
• Experience operationalizing and scaling large interconnected production systems
• Enthusiasm for a collaborative, test-driven environment
• Experience in complex, highly regulated domains (e.g., HR, Payroll, Taxes, Compliance)
• Experience using AI tools to build, test, and iterate on products quickly
• Understanding of how to evaluate AI-driven outputs using clear success criteria

Compensation:

• Targeted cash compensation: $215,000/yr to $252,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $251,000/yr to $295,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York
• Stock equity is additional

Location:

• Denver, CO
• San Francisco, CA
• New York, NY