Staff Software Engineer, PEO

San Francisco, CA - Hybrid · 8+ years experience · Hybrid · Posted Oct 6, 2026

At a glance

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 500,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve.
All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.
AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.

Gusto is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the PEO (Professional Employer Organization) Growth team, focusing on the end-to-end customer onboarding experience.
This role involves shaping the technical direction for a strategic product, integrating cross-team domains, and leveraging AI to improve both internal development and the customer journey.

Own the PEO onboarding experience end-to-end, from initial discovery to full setup.
Set technical direction by turning ambiguous product bets into designs, sequencing, and durable abstractions.
Build in a regulated domain where quality and accuracy are critical.
Partner across app teams to integrate domains into a coherent journey and negotiate ownership seams.
Utilize AI tools for coding, review, debugging, and codebase exploration.
Build AI-assisted guidance into the onboarding experience to help customers resolve issues independently.
Instrument the funnel to define and measure onboarding success using experiments.
Raise the engineering bar through code reviews, testing strategy, and observability.

8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
Experience owning customer-facing product surfaces in a large production codebase.
Strong full-stack range, including mature server-side codebases and modern component-based frontend.
Demonstrated AI fluency with practical experience using AI tooling in day-to-day work.
High ownership in ambiguous environments with the ability to shape fuzzy business needs into buildable specs.
Strong collaboration and influence skills with a track record of leveling up surrounding engineers.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience in growth, including funnels, conversion, plan and product configuration, or provisioning systems.
Experience with Ruby on Rails.
Experience with React and TypeScript.

Hybrid role based in San Francisco, CA.
Employees in office locations are expected to work from the office 2-3 days per week.
San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.
Requires a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection for non-office days.