Senior Staff Software Engineer - Pricing and Packaging

San Francisco, CA 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: 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. If you’re energized by high-stakes platform work at the intersection of engineering excellence and real business impact, this role is for you. About the Team: The Pricing & Packaging team sits at the heart of Gusto’s Commerce infrastructure, serving as the single source of truth for all products, bundles, add-ons, subscriptions, pricing, promotions, and discounts across Gusto’s first-party customer experience. The team owns and operates Gusto’s internal Commerce Platform including:

Product catalog
Promotion engine
Subscription system
Pricing experimentation platform
Entitlement services

These enable Growth and other teams to bring Gusto’s offerings to market effectively. The team is collaborative with engineers and a data scientist working on quarterly goals and monthly milestones with strong emphasis on platform reliability, adoption, and business impact. Their work directly shapes how 500,000+ small business customers access payroll, benefits, and HR tools daily. Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

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

Here’s what we're looking for:

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

Compensation: Cash compensation targeted at $189K-$236K/year in Denver & most remote locations; $223K-$278K/year for San Francisco/Seattle/New York locations. Stock equity additional. Final offers depend on candidate experience/expertise. Work Location & Expectations: Gusto has offices in Denver, San Francisco (including San Jose metro), New York City; employees based there expected onsite ~2–3 days/week or more depending on role. Same applies to Symmetry subsidiary office in Scottsdale. Remote work requires secure/reliable internet connection. Equal Opportunity Employer Statement: Gusto hires people from diverse backgrounds because it strengthens company/product/customer service quality. No discrimination based on race/color/religion/national origin/age/sex/marital status/disability/genetic info/veteran status/gender identity/expression/sexual orientation or other protected characteristics per law. Considers applicants with criminal histories consistent with law; provides reasonable accommodations during application process upon request. Security & Privacy Notices: Gusto takes personal information security seriously; see Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer & Applicant Privacy Notice. This completes the full job description content including all headings and sections as presented on the webpage for markdown conversion purposes.