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Sr. Staff Software Engineer

Denver, CO;San Francisco, CA;New York, NY;Seattle, WA;Toronto CAN

 

About Gusto

Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.

Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy. 

Staff Storage Infrastructure Engineer – Datastores

About the Role
At Gusto, our mission is to build a world where work empowers a better life. The Storage Infrastructure Engineering team is the bedrock of that mission, designing, building, and operating the foundational data platforms that power every aspect of our product—from MySQL and Postgres to Redis and Kafka.
We’re looking for a seasoned staff- or principal-level engineer to drive the next evolution of Gusto’s data layer. This is a high-impact role focused on leading complex migrations from legacy systems, designing the future architecture for our core storage systems, and building the resilient, automated platforms that enable all of Gusto Engineering to ship products quickly and safely. You will be a technical leader, guiding cross-team decisions, mentoring engineers, and setting the standards for data consistency, security, and operational excellence across the company.
  • What You’ll Do
    • Design, build, and test the core infrastructure software that powers Gusto’s platform, enabling teams across engineering to deliver reliable and scalable customer experiences
    • Lead complex migrations from legacy systems to modern, efficient designs with minimal disruption to customers
    • Define standards and build deterministic automation to ensure data consistency, integrity, and security
    • Continuously improve the on call experience by driving sustainable, longterm solutions that minimize operational overhead
    • Partner closely with product engineering teams to ensure our storage infrastructure empowers rapid and reliable product development
     
  • What We’re Looking For
    • 12+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of building and scaling large scale infrastructure systems
    • 5+ years of experience with AWS
    • Experience guiding technical direction across teams, particularly in scaling, refactoring, and optimizing complex systems
    • Strong communication skills, with the ability to simplify technical complexity and guide informed tradeoffs
    • Bonus: Deep experience with infrastructure technologies including relational databases (MySQL, Postgres), caching systems (Redis), and streaming platforms (Kafka)

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $164,000-$237,000 in Denver & most remote locations, and $235,000-$265,000 for San Francisco & New York. 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.

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.

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.

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