Staff Software Engineer, Platform Orchestration

Staff Software Engineer, Platform Orchestration

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.

Gusto's Platform Orchestration team is rebuilding how engineers ship at Gusto — turning operational toil into a product-grade self-service platform that AI agents can drive end-to-end. We sit at the intersection of Infrastructure Engineering, Developer Productivity, Security, and Product Engineering, and we enable self-service infrastructure capabilities through a Backstage-based Developer Portal and a Crossplane-based Platform Orchestrator. We automate as much as possible — safe rollouts of infrastructure and application changes, approval-based workflows, and the exposure of our entire toolchain to AI agents. We're embarking on a multi-year strategic effort to shift operational tasks into a product-driven platform so the broader Infrastructure group can focus on the future state of our systems.

Here's what you'll do day-to-day:

• Design and implement an internal platform for engineers to build and deploy production-grade systems in a self-service manner
• Establish standards and build deterministic automation while optimizing for user accessibility and system reliability
• Collaborate with Infrastructure, Developer Productivity, and Security teams to deliver capabilities that delight our internal users
• Build the AI-agent surface for our platform — MCPs, Claude skills, and structured tool catalogs that let agents drive infrastructure and deployment workflows safely on behalf of internal users
• Iterate on the internal-platform UX with the same product instincts you'd apply to a customer-facing product — measure adoption, listen for friction, and ship improvements
• Drive paved-road-vs-exception decisions: when to harden a self-service path, when to make a one-off accommodation, and when to redirect to a different supported workflow
• Participate in an on-call rotation supporting the deployment of platform services and the management of underlying infrastructure

Here's what we're looking for:

• 10+ years of experience with modern programming languages, ideally Golang, Ruby, and/or TypeScript
• 5+ years of experience with Kubernetes, ideally using Crossplane to manage Infrastructure as Code
• Hands-on experience with AI-agent coding tools (Claude Code or similar) and demonstrated ability to design tooling for agentic consumption — MCPs, structured CLIs, documented tool contracts — beyond using AI as a chat companion
• Strong work ethic and self-starter who finds a way to operate effectively amidst ambiguity
• Systems-thinking approach to complex systems; identifies small changes that create big impact
• Resilient problem solver capable of prioritizing work that serves both immediate peers and the entire Gusto customer base
• Effective communicator who can simplify complex topics and communicate persuasive ideas

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $163,000-$204,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $197,000-$247,000/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.

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