Senior Staff Software Engineer - Pricing and Packaging

About the role

The Pricing & Packaging team is looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer and Tech Lead to drive the technical direction of Gusto’s internal Commerce Platform. You’ll own the architecture and delivery of systems that power how Gusto packages, prices, and delivers its products to over 500,000 small businesses nationwide. In this role, you’ll partner closely with product, data science, and cross-functional engineering teams to build reliable, scalable platform infrastructure that enables Gusto’s growth.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical design and architecture for the Commerce Platform including the product catalog, promotion engine, and subscription and entitlement systems, ensuring services are reliable, performant, and meet defined SLOs.
• Partner with product management and cross-functional engineering teams (Growth, Onboarding, Expansion) to define the platform’s technical roadmap and drive adoption across Gusto.
• Drive end-to-end delivery of complex, ambiguous projects: from requirements gathering and technical scoping through implementation, rollout, and post-launch iteration.
• Mentor and grow engineers on the team through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on technical coaching, fostering a culture of craftsmanship and continuous improvement.
• Leverage AI tools such as code assistants, automated testing, and data-driven diagnostics — to accelerate engineering velocity and establish team-wide best practices for AI-augmented development.
• Own and improve platform observability, reliability, and performance: define and track SLOs, lead incident response, and drive blameless post-mortems to lasting resolution.
• Collaborate with Gusto’s marketing and business teams to evolve the self-serve system for managing products, bundles, promotions, and discounts, enabling faster time-to-market for new offerings.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years in a tech lead or staff engineer role setting technical direction for a team.
• Has achieved mastery in at least one programming language (e.g. Ruby, Java, Python, Go).
• Deep experience building and operating large-scale backend platform systems ideally in commerce, billing, subscription management, pricing and packaging domain.
• Strong command of distributed systems, API design, and service reliability practices, with experience defining and meeting SLOs in production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with AI tools (such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or similar) in day-to-day engineering, and a growth mindset toward evolving AI capabilities in the team’s workflow.
• Proven track record of leading cross-functional technical initiatives, influencing without authority, and aligning engineering, product, and business stakeholders around a shared technical vision.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex technical concepts accessible to both engineers and non-technical partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Skills

• Experience with AI tools and technologies (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude Code).

Benefits

• Competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success.

Pay

Cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $189,000/yr to $236,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $223,000/yr to $278,000/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.

Schedule

Employees who are based in Gusto’s physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, or New York City 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.

Application Instructions

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.