Principal Software Engineer, Payments

About Gusto

Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.

Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

About the Role:

Gusto moves hundreds of billions of dollars per year. The Principal Engineer will be part of the Payments team and will be responsible for a.) building new payments and money movement capabilities across US and International, and b.) (re)architecting our payments platform to scale for the future. As a Gusto Software Engineer at this level, you’ll be guiding projects end-to-end by influencing initial feature specs, understanding how to take existing systems closer to desired end states, executing on projects, and maintaining code that powers core experiences. You’ll collaborate with a talented cross-functional team of Product, Design, and Data partners, focusing on building payments experiences that delight customers. If you’re interested in building elegant software with far-reaching effects in our modern economy, join us!

About the Team:

This role is part of the Payments team at Gusto that ensures that our 400,000+ small and medium businesses and millions of their employees are getting paid on time, every time. You will be developing our payments systems that are foundational to the payment solutions offered by Gusto.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Function as a Technical Lead across multiple teams in Payments, helping us keep engineers unblocked and deliver high-quality work supporting our long-term goals
• Design, build, and test the foundation that supports payments for millions of people
• Help scale one of the largest Ruby/Rails and TypeScript/React applications in the world
• Collaborate on complex and ambiguous problems with partnerships from Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other cross-functional teams
• Mentor and grow fellow engineers working to create holistic and scalable solutions
• Drive the product development process from concept to launch, delivering delightful products that make payroll, taxes, and compliance simple and easy
• Improve the productivity and happiness of our teams with the services, tools, and APIs you build
• Engage in a highly supportive environment working with others to drive productivity and innovation

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 15+ years of expertise in Payments platforms at scaled FinTech companies: Experience successfully building scalable and global payments platforms. In addition, this individual should have collaborated with payments partners across the industry (as part of implementation of their technical work or for influencing). Experience with payment regulations including money service licensing and requirements to achieve and maintain SOC2 compliance is a plus. Knowledge of payments unit economics and how they work is also a plus.
• Proven ability to collaborate across multiple teams (3+) to shape product vision and drive strategic direction, effectively aligning diverse stakeholders towards common goals.
• Extensive experience in developing and maintaining platform products that serve as foundational components across the organization, ensuring reliability and fostering innovation.
• Demonstrated expertise in engineering, designing, and deploying large-scale, mission-critical systems in production environments, with a focus on performance, scalability, and resilience.
• Strong knowledge of data structures, data modeling, and system design.
• Strong aptitude for distilling complex technical challenges into clear, actionable insights, facilitating informed decision-making through effective communication with major stakeholders and guiding strategic trade-offs.
• Experience in operationalizing and scaling intricate interconnected production systems, optimizing performance and ensuring seamless integration across various services and applications.
• Passionate mentor dedicated to nurturing and developing fellow engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the creation of holistic, scalable solutions.
• Leadership in driving the entire product development lifecycle from ideation to launch, delivering exceptional products that simplify payroll, tax, and compliance processes, enhancing user satisfaction.
• Commitment to enhancing team productivity and morale by designing and implementing innovative services, tools, and APIs that streamline workflows and empower engineers to excel in their roles.

Please note that travel to Gusto’s Denver office for onboarding is required for this position. If you have any questions regarding this requirement, please share with your recruiter.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $222,000/yr to $247,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $261,000/yr to $290,000/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.

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.

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.

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