Principal Software Engineer, Money Group

Denver, CO;San Francisco, CA;New York, NY About Gusto 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. About the Role: We're hiring a Principal Engineer to serve as a Technical Lead across multiple teams in the Money Group – Gusto's fastest-growing organization and a cornerstone of the company's transformation into the Small Business Finance Platform. You'll define the long-term technical vision for systems that power cash flow management, lending, expense controls, invoicing, payments, and tax optimization (something about consumer financial health?) – ensuring the architecture scales as we grow. This role spans strategy and execution: setting architectural direction across 5+ teams, vetting external partners, prototyping new product lines to unblock product decisions, extracting services from our monolith, and mentoring the engineers around you. You'll be the person who fills whatever role the group needs to hit its goals – from hands-on coding to strategic planning to unblocking other teams. If you're excited about building financial infrastructure with real impact on the people and businesses that power the modern economy, we'd love for you to join us. About the Team: Money is Gusto's fastest-growing group, building financial products for both sides of the employment relationship. For small businesses, we're extending the category of employer-facing financial services – bill pay, invoicing, working capital, expense cards, and cash flow insights that help SMBs get paid faster and pay others with confidence. For employees, we build tools that reduce financial stress: on-demand pay, high-yield cash accounts, automated savings,and credit-building features.This is a deeply technical domain spanning payments infrastructure,lending,multi-party integrations,and mobile-first experiences–with complexity and scale to match. Together these teams are building toward a unified financial operating system for small businesses–accounting,banking,payments,lending,and tax–all connected to Gusto's payroll and people platform. Our unique advantage is Gusto's authority over payroll data which we leverage to build a payroll-confidence engine no standalone fintech can replicate. Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Serve as a Technical Lead across multiple teams in Money Group – setting architectural direction unblocking engineers ensuring high-quality delivery aligned with long-term goals.
• Define north-star architectural vision for Money Group continuously identify shorter-term projects moving us toward it.
• Architect convergence of Gusto's People Stack (payroll HR benefits) Finance Stack (banking accounting payments lending) into unified platform for small businesses.
• Lead service migration from large Ruby-on-Rails monolith into service-oriented architecture defining clean domain boundaries across money movement lending tax.
• Lead technical due diligence – evaluating codebases data models engineering teams compatibility with Gusto's platform.
• Manage complex partner ecosystem.
• Build prototypes proofs-of-concept de-risk new ideas unblock product decisions quickly.
• Tackle complex ambiguous problems close partnership Product Management Design Data Science Compliance Operations.
• Drive AI-native architecture decisions – from LLM-powered transaction categorization tax optimization conversational financial management experiences.
• Act as technical consultant across all Money sub-teams – Consumer Business Tax Credits Payments – ensuring architectural coherence across group.
• Set bar for technical excellence – through code design reviews standards you hold group to.
• Mentor fellow engineers contribute growth senior staff engineers help build healthy high-performing teams.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 15+ years software engineering experience (successful applicants typically meet or exceed this).
• Deep expertise distributed systems payments fintech–including data modeling financial systems consistency guarantees money movement compliance-aware architecture.
• Proven track record engineering scaling operating large interconnected production systems.
• Experience setting long-term technical vision driving multi-year architectural transformations–not just executing migrations but identifying right boundaries sequencing work across teams ensuring strong technical stewards drive execution.
• Experience working across multiple teams influencing both technical direction product strategy.Demonstrated ability own group-level OKRs accountable technical strategy delivering them.
• Experience navigating decisions core infrastructure particularly fintech–evaluating APIs negotiating technical contracts leading integration evaluation through production.
• Ability bring clarity complex problems–communicating technical tradeoffs non-technical stakeholders identifying significant risks opportunities before others driving decisions.
• Track record raising technical bar–through code quality design rigor testing security best practices standards set those around you.
• Track record filling whatever role group needs–from hands-on prototyping strategic planning firefighting–bias toward action.
• Experience complex highly regulated domains (e.g., fintech payments banking lending).

Our cash compensation for this role is $214000-$260000yr in Denver & most major metro locations,and $250000-$300000yr in San Francisco & New York.Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location experience expertise may vary from amounts listed above. Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver San Francisco New York City Employees based those locations expected work office designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role). Same office expectations apply all Symmetry roles,Gusto's subsidiary whose physical office Scottsdale Note: San Francisco office expectations encompass both San Francisco San Jose metro areas When approved work location other than Gusto office secure reliable consistent internet connection required including non-office days hybrid employees . Our customers come all walks life so do we.Hire great people wide variety backgrounds not just because right thing do but because makes company stronger.If share values enthusiasm small businesses find home at Gusto. Gusto proud equal opportunity employer.Do not discriminate hiring employment decision based race color religion national origin age sex (including pregnancy childbirth related medical conditions) marital status ancestry physical mental disability genetic information veteran status gender identity expression sexual orientation other applicable legally protected characteristic.Gusto considers qualified applicants criminal histories consistent applicable federal state local law.Gusto also committed providing reasonable accommodations qualified individuals disabilities disabled veterans job application procedures.Want see candidates perform best ability.If require medical religious accommodation any time throughout candidate journey please fill out form member team get touch . Gusto takes security protection personal information very seriously.Please review Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.Personal information collected processed part application subject Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.