Software Engineer (AI, API)
North America
June 24, 2026 at 10:59 AM
✨ AI summary
Location
- United States (Remote)
Languages
- Ruby
Frameworks
- Ruby on Rails
Experience Level
- 8+ years
About The Company
Gusto is a leading provider of cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions dedicated to empowering small businesses across the United States. With a mission to grow the small business economy, Gusto simplifies complex processes such as payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR compliance, enabling business owners to focus on their craft and serve their customers effectively. The company boasts a diverse team spread across Denver, San Francisco, and New York, supporting over 500,000 small businesses nationwide. Gusto prides itself on fostering an inclusive workplace that reflects the diversity of the communities it serves. Committed to innovation, Gusto integrates AI technologies into its operations, emphasizing responsible AI use and continuous growth in technological fluency for its team members. The organization offers competitive compensation packages, including base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs), aligned with role, level, and location, supporting its philosophy of shared success and employee development.
About The Role
Gusto is seeking a highly experienced Staff Software Engineer to join the Growth team, focusing on Revenue Enablement initiatives. This role involves leading the development of AI-powered customer acquisition, onboarding, and lifecycle engagement systems. The ideal candidate will have a passion for operating across the entire product lifecycle, from conceptualization and technical design to deployment, evaluation, and long-term ownership in production environments. The primary responsibility is to design and implement innovative AI-driven solutions that enhance customer interactions, making growth experiences more personalized, scalable, and effective. Key projects include building an AI Voice Agent to support onboarding processes and scaling AI-generated email experiences across the sales funnel utilizing ACE, Gusto’s large language model-powered content engine. The role demands a strategic thinker capable of owning complex workflows, integrating backend systems, and ensuring safety and reliability in production. Collaboration with cross-functional teams such as Product, Data, Design, Marketing, and Platform is essential to identify growth opportunities, prototype solutions, and deliver measurable impact on customer acquisition and retention metrics. The position also involves establishing best practices for AI development, mentoring engineers, and making architectural decisions that support scalable, secure, and responsible AI systems.
Qualifications
Gusto is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy and related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. We value the unique perspectives and experiences of all applicants and employees, and we are dedicated to providing reasonable accommodations to ensure equitable participation throughout the hiring process and employment. If you require accommodations during the application or interview process, please contact us to discuss your needs.
Gusto is a leading provider of cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions dedicated to empowering small businesses across the United States. With a mission to grow the small business economy, Gusto simplifies complex processes such as payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR compliance, enabling business owners to focus on their craft and serve their customers effectively. The company boasts a diverse team spread across Denver, San Francisco, and New York, supporting over 500,000 small businesses nationwide. Gusto prides itself on fostering an inclusive workplace that reflects the diversity of the communities it serves. Committed to innovation, Gusto integrates AI technologies into its operations, emphasizing responsible AI use and continuous growth in technological fluency for its team members. The organization offers competitive compensation packages, including base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs), aligned with role, level, and location, supporting its philosophy of shared success and employee development.
About The Role
Gusto is seeking a highly experienced Staff Software Engineer to join the Growth team, focusing on Revenue Enablement initiatives. This role involves leading the development of AI-powered customer acquisition, onboarding, and lifecycle engagement systems. The ideal candidate will have a passion for operating across the entire product lifecycle, from conceptualization and technical design to deployment, evaluation, and long-term ownership in production environments. The primary responsibility is to design and implement innovative AI-driven solutions that enhance customer interactions, making growth experiences more personalized, scalable, and effective. Key projects include building an AI Voice Agent to support onboarding processes and scaling AI-generated email experiences across the sales funnel utilizing ACE, Gusto’s large language model-powered content engine. The role demands a strategic thinker capable of owning complex workflows, integrating backend systems, and ensuring safety and reliability in production. Collaboration with cross-functional teams such as Product, Data, Design, Marketing, and Platform is essential to identify growth opportunities, prototype solutions, and deliver measurable impact on customer acquisition and retention metrics. The position also involves establishing best practices for AI development, mentoring engineers, and making architectural decisions that support scalable, secure, and responsible AI systems.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of professional experience in software development, particularly building customer-facing products at scale
- Proficiency in full-stack development, including frontend applications, backend APIs, and production services
- Experience in growth-related domains such as onboarding, communications, workflow automation, CRM, or lifecycle marketing
- Strong applied AI expertise, including prompt design, tool integration, conversational systems, content generation, and evaluation-driven iteration
- Proven ability to lead multi-quarter initiatives that address ambiguous engineering challenges and deliver measurable business outcomes
- Exceptional product and engineering judgment, balancing experimentation with reliability and maintainability
- Excellent collaboration skills to work effectively across engineering and business teams
- Experience mentoring engineers and fostering team growth
- Familiarity or interest in Ruby on Rails is a plus
- Commitment to building well-structured, maintainable, and well-documented codebases
- Strong communication skills for cross-team collaboration and stakeholder engagement
- Design, develop, and maintain AI-powered growth experiences focused on onboarding and lifecycle engagement
- Own the technical strategy and implementation of an AI Voice Agent that supports customer onboarding, including product workflows, backend integrations, safety controls, and evaluation mechanisms
- Build and scale AI-driven email systems across the sales funnel using ACE, managing generation workflows, orchestration, experimentation, and quality controls
- Collaborate closely with Product, Data, Design, Marketing, and Platform teams to identify customer pain points and growth opportunities, rapidly prototype solutions, and ship impactful improvements
- Design reliable APIs, backend services, and frontend experiences that support personalized onboarding, automated workflows, and customer communication journeys
- Establish and promote engineering best practices for AI development, including prompt engineering, tool integration, observability, and safe deployment
- Make strategic architectural decisions to support conversational systems, outbound communication workflows, and platform capabilities
- Mentor and guide other engineers to ensure high standards of technical quality, responsible AI use, and continuous learning within the team
- Competitive base salary aligned with experience and location
- Equity options (RSUs) to share in Gusto’s success
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans
- Flexible work arrangements with opportunities for remote work
- Generous paid time off and holiday policies
- Professional development and growth opportunities
- A collaborative, inclusive, and innovative work environment
Gusto is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy and related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. We value the unique perspectives and experiences of all applicants and employees, and we are dedicated to providing reasonable accommodations to ensure equitable participation throughout the hiring process and employment. If you require accommodations during the application or interview process, please contact us to discuss your needs.