Full-Time
Staff Software Engineer
Database Infrastructure
Gusto
1,001-5,000 employees
Payroll, benefits, HR platform for SMEs
No salary listed
Seattle, WA, USA + 4 more
More locations: San Francisco, CA, USA | Los Angeles, CA, USA | New York, NY, USA | Denver, CO, USA
Hybrid
Hybrid role; must be in-office ~2-3 days/week at listed offices; SF covers SF/San Jose metro.
 Software Engineering (1) |
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- 12+ years of software engineering experience building and scaling large-scale infrastructure systems
- Hands-on experience building and operating distributed databases on Kubernetes (strongly preferred: TiDB; alternatively: CockroachDB, Vitess, Citus, or similar solutions)
- Deep expertise in distributed data systems including horizontal sharding, partitioning strategies, and distributed transaction management
- Proven experience coordinating complex, zero-downtime migrations affecting production systems at scale
- 5+ years of AWS experience with RDS, Aurora, caching systems (Redis/ValKey), streaming platforms (Kafka), and infrastructure optimization at scale
- Strong communication skills with the ability to simplify technical complexity and collaborate on technical direction across teams
- Curiosity and ability to operate in an AI-native environment, leveraging AI tooling to enhance infrastructure operations, driving improvements in query optimization, performance evaluation, and infrastructure automation
- Architect, deploy, and own the full lifecycle of distributed database systems (TiDB) on Kubernetes at scale, ensuring high availability, data consistency, and operational excellence
- Coordinate complex, zero-downtime migrations from monolithic to distributed architectures, including vertical sharding to isolate Product Services
- Define and drive efficiency improvements across the storage infrastructure through query optimization, caching strategies, and workload management
- Define standards and build reliable automation to ensure data consistency, integrity, and security across distributed systems
- Continuously improve operational excellence by reducing on-call burden through sustainable, long-term solutions
- Partner with product engineering teams and technical collaborators to enable rapid and reliable product development
- Mentor engineers across the Datastores Infrastructure team on best practices for operating complex, self-hosted distributed systems, actively developing our collective operational expertise
- Bonus: Experience with service extraction and vertical sharding from monolithic architectures
- Bonus: Experience working with Ruby on Rails or similar MVC frameworks at scale
Gusto provides payroll, benefits, and HR services for small to mid-sized businesses through a cloud-based platform. It automates payroll processing, employee benefits enrollment (health insurance, retirement), and HR tasks in one place via a subscription model with tiered plans. By centralizing these functions, it helps businesses save time, stay compliant, and avoid maintaining a large in-house HR team. Its goal is to help SMEs run people operations more efficiently and support growth with easy-to-use, scalable software.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
Series E
Total Funding
$706.2M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2011
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Gusto hits 500K customers and $1B revenue from AI-fueled one-person businesses.
- Karbon integration embeds Gusto payroll into accounting firm workflows since May 2026.
- State 401(k) mandates drive revenue via Guideline acquisition and expansions.
What critics are saying
- Intuit's Claude TurboTax integration erodes Gusto's AI payroll features by Q4 2026.
- Rippling captures Gusto's SME customers with advanced HCM by mid-2027.
- UK real-time payroll mandate triggers Gusto fines and churn by Q2 2027.
What makes Gusto unique
- Gusto integrates Mosey for AI-powered state compliance in payroll platform.
- Gusto offers Claude, ChatGPT, Slack integrations for natural language payroll queries.
- Gusto enables instant global stablecoin payouts via zerohash for contractors.
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Your Connections
People at Gusto who can refer or advise you
Benefits
It’s a marathon, not a sprint: Employees celebrating 5 or 10 years at Gusto enjoy a month-long sabbatical to travel and relax after all their hard work.
Meals and conversations: Free meals, snacks, and drinks to keep us fueled, but more importantly: they bring people together and foster community.
Wellness for every body: We’re proud to offer inclusive health care such as hormone treatments, gender-affirming surgery, therapy, family planning, and more.
The time you need: Our flexible PTO policy means every employee is encouraged to take the time they need now to keep doing great work, long term.
Family-friendly benefits: Fertility treatments, primary and secondary parental leave, sleep coaching, house cleaning for new parents, and more.
Be well, be you: Get free, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits, plus a monthly fitness stipend and mental health resources too.
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 3%1 year growth
↑ 0%2 year growth
↑ 0%Tech news: Intuit, Gusto both tout Claude integrations. Published April 10, 2026 12:48 PM Updated April 10, 2026 5:00 PM Intuit, Gusto both tout Claude integrations; Oracle premieres Fusion Agentic Applications; Suralink launches Financial Statement Tie Out solution; and other accounting tech news and updates. Intuit, Gusto both tout Claude integrations. ThongSam - stock.adobe.com announced the launch of the TurboTax connector on Claude, which brings TurboTax capabilities directly into Claude, including personalized and real-time tax estimates, instant refund projections, connection to a live Intuit tax expert, and a personalized tax document checklist with in-app document capture capabilities. The company also announced enhancements to its existing ChatGPT integration. Based on a few questions about their tax situation - whether they're a freelancer, a homeowner, a retiree or all three - users can now receive a personalized checklist of which forms to gather. They can also upload documents directly within the TurboTax app in ChatGPT and pick up right where they left off in TurboTax to continue filing. Payroll solutions company , which sports a , also announced an integration with Claude. With the integration, user can ask in plain English questions such as "What drove my payroll increase last pay period?" or "How much have we spent on overtime this quarter?" Claude will provide answers, drawing directly on the user's Gusto account, without ever leaving the tool they're already in. Gusto also announced a similar integration with Slack, with the same capabilities.
Gusto acquires Mosey to add compliance capabilities. * Gusto acquired compliance platform Mosey to embed small business compliance tools into its payroll and HR platform. * The purchase allows Gusto to integrate state and local business registration, filings, and ongoing compliance directly into its platform that serves 400,000 small businesses. * Mosey will help Gusto attract compliance-first customers while adding value via new upsell opportunities. Payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto has acquired business compliance platform Mosey. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Gusto plans to leverage Mosey to help its customers manage their compliance obligations. Mosey was founded in 2021 to help small business owners avoid common compliance pitfalls such as hiring without the right legal setup, configuring payroll incorrectly, and missing tax deadlines. "I started Mosey because I'd made every compliance mistake myself, and then I watched thousands of other businesses make the same ones," said Mosey Founder Alex Kehayias. "The problem isn't that small business owners don't care about compliance, it's that they shouldn't have to become experts in it. Joining Gusto means we can bring that vision to the millions of small businesses that need it most." "Building a business is hard enough without compliance getting in the way," said Gusto Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Tomer London. "With Mosey now part of Gusto, we can do what Gusto has always done: take complexity off the plate of small business owners so they can focus on what they actually started their business to do. This is a natural extension of our vision to be the platform that helps small businesses start, hire, and grow." Acquiring Mosey will allow Gusto to offer state and local registration, filings, renewal, and ongoing compliance management directly within its own platform. Once integrated, Gusto's 400,000+ small business clients will be able to hire, pay their teams, and manage their compliance obligations from a single place. Specifically, Gusto will add: * State and local business registrations * Entity management, ongoing filings and renewals * Resolving agency mail * Real-time surfacing of new compliance obligations as businesses grow or expand to new states Strategically, Gusto will be able to use Mosey's technologies to attract clients seeking compliance strategies, but not necessarily HR capabilities. Additionally, it will allow Gusto to cross-sell Mosey's compliance capabilities to its existing customer base. This is another case of "rebundling" fintech, in which fintech platforms are piling on more capabilities to their long-standing platforms in order to add value and create a broader, more encompassing ecosystem for clients. The deal comes eight months after Gusto acquired retirement specialist Guideline to offer 401(k) retirement plans through its platform. Gusto, originally known as ZenPayroll, was founded in 2011 and provides a cloud-based payroll, benefits, HR management, and business financial management solution. If the San Francisco-based company continues down its current path of expansion, it may eventually offer corporate credit cards and business banking tools.
Gusto has acquired Mosey, an AI-powered business compliance platform, to expand its services beyond payroll and HR. The acquisition will integrate state and local registration, filing and ongoing compliance management into Gusto's platform, serving its more than 400,000 small business customers. Small businesses face significant compliance challenges, with firms under 50 employees spending approximately $14,700 per employee annually on compliance costs—20% more than large enterprises. Each new hire in a different state can trigger multiple registration and filing requirements across various agencies. Mosey was founded by Alex Kehayias after experiencing compliance difficulties firsthand. The combined platform will offer state and local business registrations, entity management, and real-time compliance alerts as businesses grow. Gusto Business Compliance is expected to launch later this year.
Elevate named best consumer Payments Platform for second consecutive year. Mar 19, 2026, 10:15 ET FinTech Breakthrough recognizes Elevate's cloud-based, AI-enabled platform that transforms how healthcare benefits are delivered and scaled DENVER, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Elevate, a modern consumer directed benefits administration platform, today announced that it has been selected as winner of the "Consumer Payments Platform of the Year," in the 10th annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards. This is the second consecutive year Elevate has received this honor from FinTech Breakthrough, an independent market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global FinTech market. "Being recognized by FinTech Breakthrough for the second year in a row is a powerful validation of our mission to modernize how healthcare benefits work for real people," said Brian Cosgray, co-founder and CEO of Elevate. "We built Elevate to eliminate challenges that have long defined consumer-directed benefits. This award reflects the impact our platform is having - helping partners scale faster, reduce operational burden and give workers immediate access to the healthcare dollars they depend on." Elevate is redefining how consumer-directed healthcare benefits are delivered, making it easier for U.S. workers to access and use their healthcare dollars when they need them most. The industry's first fully cloud-based, API-driven and AI-enabled consumer-directed benefits platform, Elevate replaces legacy infrastructure with real-time automation and modern consumer experiences. The platform supports instant claims processing, real-time reimbursements, automated claims submission, and a single secure payment card that works across multiple benefit plans, including chip security and contactless payments. By removing friction from every step of the benefits journey, Elevate helps benefits administrators - such as Gusto, Rippling, and Rocky Mountain Reserve - deliver faster access to funds and a simpler, more intuitive experience for members. The company's scalable platform drives efficiency, reducing exceptions and customer support volume, even as new clients are onboarded. The results are measurable, as Elevate customers have reported achieving 40% to 50% new business growth, while reducing cases per customer by more than 60%. The FinTech Breakthrough Awards is the premier awards program founded to recognize the FinTech innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the world in a range of categories, including Digital Banking, Personal Finance, Cryptocurrencies, Lending, Payments, Investments, RegTech, InsurTech and many more. Elevate is named alongside two of its partners, Gusto and Rippling, and an elite group of distinguished winners across the financial services industries, including MasterCard, Nerd Wallet, Intuit, Betterment, Capital One, and others. About Elevate Elevate is the first completely cloud-based, API-driven and AI-enabled consumer-directed benefits platform with a focus on configurability, embeddability and real-time automation. The all-in-one platform can manage all types of benefit accounts, from health savings accounts (HSAs) to complex health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and even commuter and lifestyle accounts. Elevate's team of industry experts recognized the need for modern technology in an outdated benefits administration industry, which led to the creation of Elevate in 2020. To learn more visit www.elevate.ai and follow Elevate on LinkedIn. SOURCE Elevate
Gusto has selected zerohash to power stablecoin payout capabilities across its global payments platform, currently in beta. The partnership enables contractors worldwide to receive earnings instantly in digital dollars through zerohash's regulated onchain settlement infrastructure. The integration addresses growing demand from distributed workforces, as 11% of small businesses employed international contractors in 2025. Traditional cross-border payments take three to seven days, whilst Gusto's new system using US Real-Time Payments and stablecoins can move funds globally in minutes. Gusto, which serves over 400,000 small business employers, will offer stablecoin payouts with real-time settlement and onchain traceability. The service supports both custodial and self-custodial wallets, providing faster transfers and improved cash flow flexibility for global teams.