Job Description
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 500000 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 looking for a Senior Staff Security Engineer to lead Gusto's edge and network security strategy owning the design and operation of our Cloudflare WAF DDoS protection Zero Trust and broader perimeter controls. The ideal candidate brings deep hands-on Cloudflare expertise and a proven track record of hardening edge and network architectures at scale including tuning WAF rulesets defending through live DDoS events and shipping Zero Trust rollouts engineers actually adopt. You think in terms of layered defense measurable risk reduction and automation over manual toil. In this role you'll serve as a force multiplier across the security org partnering with infrastructure and product teams to make high-impact architectural decisions that compound over time.
About the Team:
The Gusto's Enterprise Security Engineering team a small but high-leverage group responsible for cloud security posture edge and network defense container security secrets management and endpoint protection across the company. The team runs a modern stack including Cloudflare Wiz CrowdStrike Panther and Tines scaling impact through automation IaC and AI-augmented tooling. The work carries real stakes protecting the payroll benefits and HR systems that hundreds of thousands of small businesses and their employees rely on every day. The team is engineering-first with most of the roadmap living in code and a strong emphasis on partnering with infrastructure and product teams rather than gatekeeping them.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
- Design and operate Gusto's edge security stack including Cloudflare WAF DDoS protection Bot Management WARP Gateway and Access tuning rules against real traffic and shaping how engineers and operations teams reach internal systems securely.
- Own the network security perimeter across AWS and the edge: VPC design Network Firewall Shield CloudFront NACLs and egress filtering all codified in Terraform and Crossplane observable and consistently enforced.
- Develop policy-as-code patterns for WAF rules network policies and edge configuration so changes ship through pull requests with review testing and clean rollback paths.
- Build detections and alerting on edge and network telemetry including Cloudflare logs VPC Flow Logs and CloudTrail flowing into Panther and lead incident response for perimeter and network events.
- Contribute broadly across the security engineering surface including cloud posture container security IAM vulnerability management and on-call bringing a strong generalist instinct to wherever the work is most critical.
- Operate as an AI-native engineer using Claude Code MCP-driven tooling and agentic workflows as a daily force multiplier across investigation automation and detection engineering.
- Prototype and ship agents custom MCP servers and LLM-assisted automations that compress security work from days to minutes and raise the bar for what one engineer can own.
Here’s what we're looking for:
- 10+ years of hands-on security engineering experience with significant time owning edge network or perimeter security at scale.
- Deep production-grade expertise with Cloudflare's security stack including WAF DDoS Bot Management WARP Gateway and Access covering rule tuning incident response and Zero Trust rollouts.
- Strong network architecture skills across edge and cloud: TLS/mTLS segmentation egress controls DDoS resilience and AWS networking including VPC Network Firewall Shield CloudFront and NACLs.
- Fluency with policy-as-code Terraform and CI/CD-first delivery of security controls; Crossplane or similar a plus.
- Solid generalist foundation across cloud security IAM container security and detection engineering with hands-on incident response experience on edge and network telemetry in a modern SIEM.
- AI-native working style with daily use of Claude Code or equivalent agentic tooling and a track record of building AI-assisted workflows including custom MCP servers agents and LLM automations that compound team output.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; you can take a complex perimeter decision and explain the tradeoffs to a staff engineer a PM and a VP without changing the substance.
- Relevant certifications a plus including AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty AWS Certified Security Specialty Cloudflare Certified Security Associate/Professional CKS or equivalent.
Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $210000/yr to $230000/yr in Denver & most remote locations $230000/yr to $270000/yr for San Francisco New York & Seattle. 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.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of hands-on security engineering experience
- Significant experience with Cloudflare's security stack
- Strong network architecture skills including DDoS resilience
- Fluency with policy-as-code Terraform and CI/CD processes
- Hands-on incident response experience in a modern SIEM
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Relevant security certifications
What the Team is Saying
Gusto Compensation & Benefits Highlights
- Healthcare Strength—Medical dental and vision coverage is described as comprehensive for employees and dependents with mental‑health resources included. Health benefits are also available and administered within one system that syncs with payroll.
- Inclusive Benefits Coverage—Family planning and fertility support gender‑affirming care and a range of mental‑health resources extend coverage to diverse needs. Adoption assistance childcare benefits and return‑to‑work support further broaden inclusivity for different family structures.
- Leave & Time Off Breadth—Paid vacation sick time bereavement holidays and paid leaves form a wide time‑off foundation. A sabbatical program adds longer‑term rest options beyond standard PTO.
Gusto Insights
What We Do
Gusto is a modern online small business 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 400000 businesses. 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.
Why Work With Us
We help small businesses—the backbone of the economy—thrive. Everything we do ladders up to empowering entrepreneurs and supporting their teams. Gusto empowers builders at every level to take initiative and make things better. You'll be solving meaningful challenges that shape the future of work.
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We’ve built an inclusive connected culture—no matter where you live. Whether near an office or remote you’ll find opportunities to connect grow and belong. Employees work from the office on 2 designated days per week.
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Date Posted
05/24/2026
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