Software Engineering Manager, Symmetry

About Gusto

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy. 

Symmetry Software is part of Gusto. Symmetry is the payroll infrastructure for software & payroll platforms powering the paychecks of over 64 million workers each year. Our fully integrated suite of payroll tax APIs and software tools allows companies to solve tax compliance issues and build applications across the entirety of the payroll process.

What we are looking for:

We are looking for a seasoned engineering leader for our new product development team who is excited about building the future through AI. Come lead the team that blazes new trails in pursuit of designing and delivering Symmetry's latest product innovations, with a specific focus on AI-powered solutions that redefine our market.  You will be tasked with guiding engineering teams through the process of developing a completely new product, from the initial idea stage ("0") to the point where it becomes a functional, viable, and market-ready product ("1"). A crucial part of this is instilling an AI-native approach in every stage of our development lifecycle.  You will champion the integration of machine learning and generative AI to create truly innovative, smart features and core product capabilities. Your vision will ensure that AI is a fundamental component of our product differentiation, not just an add-on. The right person will be an "activator" who brings execution strength, sparks initiatives, and fosters deep bonding among the team. You will be integral to our company's growth, guiding our success through relentless innovation and the delivery of cutting-edge, AI-driven new product deliverables.

What you’ll be doing

• Aligning teams to focus on new AI native features, and business goals.
• Taking complete functional ownership of your area including vision for both the platform and product in partnership with product managers and stakeholders.
• Initiating or beginning new projects, ideas, or actions by providing the initial energy, or inspiration needed to get them started.
• Elevating our engineering practices to be AI-native, guiding adoption of tools, processes, and methodologies that leverage AI to increase velocity, code quality, and operational efficiency across the team.
• Aligning and prioritizing the organization deliverables based on the company needs, working closely with the leadership across functional departments.
• Ensuring products and services are performant, available 24x7x365, and stable.
• Supporting technical innovation and lead creation, continual refinement, and active management of our engineering standards to ensure that our technology can be sustainably operated.
• Evaluating emerging technologies including SaaS systems for opportunities to improve services, acting as technical consultant for the company to champion practical technical solutions.
• Partnering with engineering leaders across the company to architect and champion well-defined sub-systems and continually refining company-wide platform architecture.

Experience & requirements:

Prior experience:

• Masters or Bachelor degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of engineering leadership experience – managing both people and tech stacks.
• Proven ability to initiate new projects, ideas, or actions by providing the initial effort, inspiration, or inspiration needed to get them started
• Applicable experience or exposure in AI native product development leveraging AWS services (Bedrock, Agent Core, etc)
• A proven track record and ability to communicate with cross functional peers, communicating technical concepts to business stakeholders, and communicating business objectives to the technical team.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership on problems and projects and lead them to completion.
• A proven ability to debug and triage critical systems, including team performance.
• Hands-on experience with agile methodologies, and their functional application.
• Proficient with web application development, Dev-ops, distributed systems, CI/CD and test automation.
• Deep knowledge of Object-Oriented Design, Service Oriented Architecture, and Systems thinking.
• Remarkable verbal and written presentation skills, including ability to prepare materials for audiences at all levels of the organization.

Required skills & mindsets:

• Solid analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability and interest for helping growing engineering teams and making others better.
• A commitment and drive for quality and building for the long term.
• Ability to get into the nitty gritty of how a product works and clearly communicate its value.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $189,000/yr to $237,000/yr in Scottsdale & most major metro locations. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

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 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. 

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.

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Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.