Staff Software Engineer, AI Developer Tools

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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 the Role:

As a Staff Engineer on the Developer Productivity – AI Developer Tools team, you will play a pivotal role in architecting and scaling the AI platform that powers how Gusto builds software. Operating at the intersection of platform engineering and applied AI, you will help redefine our development lifecycle by embedding intelligence directly into it. From building custom internal coding assistants and automating complex refactors to stabilizing local environments and enhancing CI/CD pipelines, your work will eliminate developer friction at every stage. Your mission is to harness Large Language Models and intelligent automation to accelerate engineering velocity, reduce cognitive load, and fundamentally transform how our teams design, test, and ship products.

About the Team:

The AI Developer Tools team is a specialized unit within Developer Productivity. We believe that AI is the next great leap in software craftsmanship. Our goal is to provide every builder at Gusto with a suite of "superpowers"—tools that understand our codebase and handle the "toil" so our builders can focus on creative problem-solving in a safe way with appropriate guardrails. We treat our fellow builders as our customers and prioritize tools that are not just powerful, but delightful to use.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Architect AI Workflows: Design and implement internal tools and platforms that integrate LLMs into the developer workflow (e.g. automated PR reviews) with a focus on autonomous agentic agents.
• Collaborate & Evangelize: Work closely with builders across the company to understand their pain points and partner with Infrastructure/Platform teams to ensure AI tools are scalable and secure.
• Stay on the Cutting Edge: Actively engage with emerging AI technologies, frameworks, and research to ensure our internal tooling remains world-class, along with defining how we incorporate and manage best practices from the industry.
• Build Faster Feedback Loops: Identify bottlenecks in the development lifecycle and apply AI solutions to remove them, from local environment setup to automated testing.
• Ensure Stability: Like any infrastructure role, you will monitor the health of our developer tools, diagnosing issues related to performance, networking, and tool integration.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 8+ years of software development experience: You are a systems thinker who is comfortable with architectural complexity and delivering production-grade code.
• AI-Native Mindset: You are curious about (and using) AI tools in your daily flow. You understand how to prompt, fine-tune, or build RAG systems to solve practical problems.
• Developer-First Perspective: Curiosity and ability to operate in an AI-native environment. Integrating intelligence, automation, and experimentation to increase developer productivity through tooling and infrastructure enhancements.
• Strong Communication: You can translate complex technical AI concepts into actionable tools that provide immediate value to other engineers.
• Comfortable with architectural thinking and delivering solutions through code.
• Experience with Rails and Ruby, including developer tooling for large engineering teams.
• Ability to work with colleagues as both customers and partners.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $190,000/yr to $210,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $220,000/yr to $250,000/yr in New York, Seattle & San Francisco Bay Area. 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.