Senior Staff Software Engineer, Time

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:

Join Gusto's Time engineering team as a Senior Staff Software Engineer (Backend) and play a key role in shaping the future of how businesses manage time. You'll be responsible for designing, building, and scaling high-performance APIs that power our time tracking and payroll integrations. You'll have the opportunity to lead projects, collaborate with talented engineers, and mentor others while contributing to a product that impacts millions of users. This is a chance to make a real difference in how businesses operate and help them streamline their most valuable resource: time.

About the Team:

The Time engineering team is a passionate and collaborative group dedicated to building intuitive and reliable time management solutions for Gusto's customers. We value innovation, ownership, and continuous learning. We're a tight-knit team that enjoys tackling complex challenges and celebrating our successes together. As a member of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies, contribute to a product that makes a real difference, and grow your skills alongside some of the best engineers in the industry.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Design, develop, and maintain APIs for time tracking, scheduling, time off, and payroll integration.
• Collaborate with product managers and designers to define API specifications and ensure seamless integration with other Gusto products.
• Lead the technical design and implementation of new features and enhancements to our time management platform.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers, providing technical guidance and support.
• Write clean, well-documented, and testable code.
• Participate in code reviews and contribute to improving our engineering practices.
• Work with large-scale data stores and optimize for performance and reliability.
• Troubleshoot and resolve production issues related to time-tracking and API functionality

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with a focus on backend development.
• 8+ years of experience building and maintaining backend systems.
• Strong understanding of API design principles and best practices.
• Experience with relational databases and data modeling.
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (e.g., Java, Python, Go).
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Nice to haves:

• Experience with Ruby on Rails.
• Prior experience in a technical leadership role.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $200,000-$230,000 /yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $230,000-$270,000 /yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. 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 .