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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 hiring a Staff Software Engineer to join Gusto's Payroll Canada team where you'll help build and scale the payroll experience for Canadian businesses. This is a 0-to-1 opportunity meaning you'll be building core payroll capabilities for a new market largely from scratch not just extending an established product. This is primarily a backend role which involves designing and evolving the services and business logic that power Canadian payroll with full-stack components where that logic surfaces to customers via GraphQL. You'll own complex technical problems end-to-end partner closely with Product and Platform teams and help bring Gusto's payroll product to a new country.
About the Team:
The Payroll Canada team is building Gusto's payroll product for the Canadian market from internal (Gusto-on-Gusto) payroll to external customers running payroll for their own employees. We own the backend services and business logic that handle Canadian payroll calculations compliance and remittances and we connect that logic to the frontend through GraphQL. Our work sits at the intersection of backend product engineering and a new fast-moving market launch in a highly regulated domain.
Here's what you'll do day-to-day:
- Design build and maintain backend services and business logic that power Canadian payroll — calculations compliance remittances and related workflows - on Gusto’s Ruby on Rails platform
- Connect backend logic to the frontend through well-designed GraphQL APIs partnering with frontend engineers on the full user experience
- Own a primary domain within Payroll Canada taking responsibility for correctness scalability and long-term evolution as the product and customer base grow
- Act as a technical partner across Product Design Data Compliance and Operations to deliver accurate compliant and customer-impacting solutions
- Author and drive architecture and design documents balancing near-term delivery with long-term platform goals as we expand in Canada
- Leverage AI-assisted development tools to accelerate development improve code quality and testing and help normalize and spread effective AI usage across the team
Here's what we're looking for:
- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong focus on backend development
- Comfortable venturing into full-stack work when needed even if your primary strength is backend
- Experience applying AI tools (LLMs Claude Code Cursor) to accelerate development improve code quality and build testing. Comfortable helping teams adopt effective responsible AI-assisted development workflows.
- Experience working in large complex codebases and a demonstrated ability to improve them incrementally without breaking things. Designing building and testing production level code that functions at scale.
- Strong systems thinking and design skills able to build mental models of unfamiliar systems ask the right questions and produce clear analysis others can act on while designing for performance scalability and reliability in production.
- Experience collaborating across teams as a technical partner communicating technical complexity clearly to product and design partners and helping the team navigate tradeoffs with full context
- Proficiency in one or more backend programming languages; experience with Ruby is strongly preferred but not required
- Interest in or experience with payroll tax or compliance domains a plus
Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $163000–$204000 in Denver & most remote locations and $197000–$247000 for San Francisco & 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.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong focus on backend development
- Proficiency in one or more backend programming languages; experience with Ruby strongly preferred
- Experience designing building and maintaining backend services and business logic at production scale
- Experience connecting backend logic to frontends via GraphQL APIs
- Experience working in large complex codebases and improving them incrementally without breaking things
- Strong systems thinking design skills and ability to design for performance scalability and reliability
- Experience applying AI tools (LLMs Claude Code Cursor) or AI-assisted development workflows to accelerate development and improve code quality
- Comfortable performing full-stack work when needed and partnering with frontend engineers
- Experience collaborating across Product Design Data Compliance and Operations as a technical partner
- Interest in or experience with payroll tax or compliance domains
What the Team is Saying
Gusto Compensation & Benefits Highlights
- Affordable Benefits—Healthcare premiums are heavily subsidized with full employee coverage and significant dependent contributions lowering out-of-pocket costs.
- Parental & Family Support—Generous paid parental leave and substantial fertility benefits plus adoption support and return-to-work programs demonstrate a strong family-support posture.
- Leave & Time Off Breadth—Paid vacation sick time holidays paid leaves and a formal sabbatical provide broad time-off options that encourage rest and balance.
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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