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Senior Staff Software Engineer, Marketing Technology

San Francisco, CA

 

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. 

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 200,000 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. 

About the Role

As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on the Marketing Technology team, you will spearhead the architectural evolution of Gusto’s new MarTech stack as we transition to an AI-native company.  This is a frontend leaning architecture role where you will be instrumental in designing and building the foundational web platforms that connect our customer data with our communication channels.

Your work will focus on transforming our Headless CMS from a content repository into an AI-driven personalization engine, architecting the high-performance frontend systems that can reason about customer data, predict user intent, and serve the most relevant experience. You will design how these platforms intelligently integrate with our central CDP and multi-channel Orchestration engine, turning backend insights into adaptive, personalized user journeys.

You’ll operate at the intersection of marketing systems, AI capabilities, and platform evolution. If you are passionate about building highly reliable, frontend-focused systems that can reason, predict, and personalize to unlock Gusto’s next phase of sustainable growth, we would love to have you join our team.

About the Team

The Marketing Technology (MarTech) team is building the next generation of infrastructure that powers customer acquisition and engagement funnels.

Our mission is to move beyond deterministic user journeys and build intelligent growth systems. We’re building a world-class technology platform designed to understand customer intent, tailor experiences in real-time, and continuously improve through data and feedback. This means shifting from static tools to an adaptive platform that ensures a seamless, personalized, and performant experience for prospects and customers.

We prioritize quality, observability, and uptime because these intelligent systems are fundamental to Gusto's growth and brand. We partner closely with Marketing, Sales, Growth R&D, and Operations to build and connect the AI-powered tools they use every day.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

  • Architect and evolve our customer-facing web platforms not just for performance and scale, but for AI-driven personalization and intelligent experimentation.
  • Build and maintain integrations with our MarTech stack (Segment, Braze, etc.) to create feedback loops for AI models and enable model-driven actions.
  • Implement and optimize caching strategies across our delivery stack (CDN, edge).
  • Write high-quality, well-tested frontend code leveraging AI-powered tools and techniques to accelerate development, improve test generation, and ensure code reliability.
  • Support, mentor, and up-level fellow engineers on the team, helping to establish best practices for AI-native design patterns.
  • Partner cross-functionally  with Marketing and Sales to translate business needs into technical solutions.
  • Be an owner of the long-term technical roadmap for MarTech, ensuring it aligns with Gusto’s transition to an AI-native company.

Here’s what we're looking for:

  • 12+ years of experience building web systems connected to a headless CMS.
  • Curiosity and ability to operate in an AI-native environment. Integrating intelligence, automation, and experimentation into how we grow the business.
  • Experience building modern frontend applications with technologies such as React, Typescript, and Next.js.
  • Experience with web performance, CDNs, and advanced caching strategies.
  • Experience integrating with MarTech systems (e.g., CDPs, CRMs, orchestration tools).
  • A systems thinker with excellent written communication and collaboration skills.
  • Ability to act as a thought partner for both technical (Engineering, AI/Data) and business (Marketing, Sales) teams.
  • A balance of pragmatic execution for immediate business needs and long-term architectural thinking to build a scalable, intelligent platform.
  • Nice to have:
    • Hands-on experience designing or implementing product experiences incorporating ML/AI, such as AI-driven personalization engines, recommendation systems, or predictive intent models.
    • Experience with generative AI or LLMs, particularly in applications related to content personalization (for a CMS) or building intelligent customer-facing agents.
    • Familiarity with building the frontend components of data feedback loops used for retraining or fine-tuning AI models.

Compensation

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $191,000/yr to $225,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $225,000/yr to $265,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Stock equity is additional. 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.

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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