Staff Software Engineer, Financial Platform

Gusto
Austin +8 more
HybridCareer-pivot friendly

In the 12 months to 30 Jun 2026, Gusto filed 9 H-1B positions titled "Software Engineer". Source: U.S. Department of Labor, LCA disclosure data. A record of filings already made, not a commitment to sponsor.

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have 8+ years of experience in financial systems and are comfortable with Ruby on Rails.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 8+ years of experience in financial systems and a track record of shipping production systems
    — “8+ years of software engineering experience building and shipping production products or platforms”
  • Individuals who have worked on high-correctness domains like payments or compliance systems
    — “Experience working on financial systems, payments, or other high-correctness domains (or the ability to ramp quickly)”
  • Engineers who are comfortable with end-to-end ownership and operational responsibility
    — “Comfortable owning systems end-to-end, including production support and operational work”
  • Candidates with strong cross-functional collaboration experience, especially with product and compliance teams
    — “Experience working closely with PMs and cross-functional partners to deliver scoped work”
  • Individuals who can mentor others and lead in complex technical environments
    — “Ability to mentor engineers to maximize their performance and impact”

Things to consider

  • Onboarding requires travel to a Gusto office, which may not be feasible for remote-only candidates
    — “travel to Gusto's office for onboarding is required for this position”
  • Hybrid roles require 2-3 days per week in the office, which may not align with remote-preference candidates
    — “employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with Ruby on Rails or comparable backend frameworks in your resume and interviews
    — “Experience with Ruby on Rails (or a comparable backend framework)”
  • Emphasize your ability to debug and improve financial system reliability and observability
    — “Debug production issues and improve reliability, observability, and operational tooling”
  • Showcase your track record of delivering production-ready solutions with cross-functional teams
    — “Partner with product, compliance, and operations to scope work and deliver production-ready solutions”
  • Demonstrate your capability to work on complex financial workflows like payroll integration or KYB/KYC
    — “Work on payments, settlements, reconciliation, and corrections involving real customer funds”
  • Include examples of mentoring engineers or leading complex technical projects in your application materials
    — “Mentor other engineers to help solve some of the hardest technical problems out there in very complex domains and at a large scale”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • design, build, and ship services and APIs for money movement and financial integrations
  • work on payments, settlements, reconciliation, and corrections
  • build and support critical workflows
  • partner with product, compliance, and operations to deliver production-ready solutions
Typical background
software engineeringfinancial systemspayments

Skills & requirements

Required

Backend ServicesApisRuby On RailsPaymentsSettlementsReconciliationCorrectionsProduction SupportOperational WorkProduct ManagementComplianceOperationsDebuggingObservabilityOperational ToolingIntegrationMentorship

Stack & domain

Software EngineeringBackend ServicesApisRuby On RailsServicesData-heavy WorkflowsFinancial SystemsPaymentsSettlementsReconciliationCorrectionsPayroll IntegrationKyb/kyc401k LoansBilling And InvoicingIRAProduct ManagementComplianceOperationsDebuggingReliabilityObservabilityOperational ToolingIntegrationMentoringCodeTestingVersion ControlScalabilityCustomer LoveCollaborationCommunicationProblem-solvingTeamworkAttention To DetailOrganizational SkillsTime ManagementCritical ThinkingIndependent ThinkingStress ManagementConflict ResolutionFinancial Platform

About the role

Original posting from Gusto via Greenhouse

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:

You’ll be a key engineer focused on building and owning the systems that move money and assets through Gusto Retirement. This is a very hands-on role: owning backend services and APIs end-to-end, shipping production code, and working through real financial edge cases. You’ll partner closely with product, compliance, and operations to turn complex financial requirements into reliable software. If you like working on core systems where correctness matters and enjoy getting things shipped, you’ll be a great fit.

About the Team:

The Financial Infrastructure team owns the core money and asset flow systems for Gusto Retirement. We’re a senior team that works on payments, settlements, tax and compliance integrations, and much more. The work is complex and often cross-functional, so we stay focused, collaborate closely, and keep tight ownership of what we build. We work closely with product and partner teams, but we’re responsible for execution and reliability end-to-end.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

Design, build, and ship services and APIs for money movement and financial integrations

Work on payments, settlements, reconciliation, and corrections involving real customer funds

Build and support critical workflows like payroll integration, KYB/KYC, 401k loans, billing and invoicing, and IRA

Partner with product, compliance, and operations to scope work and deliver production-ready solutions

Debug production issues and improve reliability, observability, and operational tooling

Collaborate with other engineering teams to integrate with shared systems and platforms

Mentor other engineers to help solve some of the hardest technical problems out there in very complex domains and at a large scale

Write clear, reliable, well-tested code that ships quickly and scales well

Build a product that our customers genuinely love

Here’s what we're looking for:

8+ years of software engineering experience building and shipping production products or platforms

Strong experience with services, APIs, and data-heavy workflows.

Experience working on financial systems, payments, or other high-correctness domains (or the ability to ramp quickly).

Comfortable owning systems end-to-end, including production support and operational work.

Experience working closely with PMs and cross-functional partners to deliver scoped work.

Pragmatic, execution-focused approach to engineering.

Clear communicator and collaborative teammate.

Ability to mentor engineers to maximize their performance and impact

Experience with Ruby on Rails (or a comparable backend framework).

Bonus Points:

Experience leveraging AI tools or systems to accelerate development, improve testing, and deliver new product capabilities.

Curiosity and experimentation with emerging AI frameworks, applying and sharing best practices to evaluate and scale AI use safely across teams.

Please note that travel to Gusto's 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 $163,000–$204,000 in Denver & most remote locations, and $197,000–$247,000 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. 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.

Source: Gusto careers (Greenhouse)

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