Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure

About Gusto

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy .

At Gusto, we are looking for a forward thinking technical leader to shape the next generation of our compute (Kubernetes) and networking (service mesh) platforms. This role is for someone who loves building foundational systems that empower hundreds of engineers to move faster, safer, and smarter. You will define the long-term vision for how services run and communicate at Gusto, ensuring reliability, scalability, and developer delight at every layer.

What You’ll Do

• Define and drive the vision for Gusto’s compute and networking platforms by setting the strategy for Kubernetes, service mesh, and related systems that power our global SaaS platform
• Lead architecture design, performance optimization, and security hardening of distributed systems at scale
• Partner with engineering leaders to translate broad organizational goals into concrete, measurable technical outcomes
• Treat infrastructure as a product by focusing on the developer experience, simplifying workflows, and accelerating delivery
• Serve as a mentor and force multiplier by growing the skills of mid level engineers through coaching, pairing, and modeling best practices
• Communicate with clarity by simplifying complex concepts and building alignment across teams and functions
• Lead incident response and ensure our systems meet the highest standards of availability and resiliency

What You’ll Bring

• 12 or more years of experience in Infrastructure, Platform, or Site Reliability Engineering roles operating large scale distributed systems
• Proven hands-on coding experience in production environments and the ability to contribute directly to system development and automation
• Deep expertise running, scaling, and securing Kubernetes and service mesh technologies such as Istio, Envoy, or Cilium in production
• A demonstrated record of designing highly available systems that balance reliability, observability, and developer velocity
• Mastery of Infrastructure as Code using tools such as Terraform or Crossplane, with experience managing complex state for large engineering organizations
• Experience owning and evolving twenty four seven SaaS infrastructure including monitoring, alerting, and performance analysis
• A systems thinking mindset that identifies small levers capable of creating meaningful organizational impact
• Exceptional communication skills that simplify complex ideas and bring teams together around a shared vision
• A strong bias toward action, resilience in the face of ambiguity, and the ability to transform big ideas into real, impactful systems

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $200,000-$230,000 /yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $230,000-$270,000 /yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. 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 .