Senior Staff Engineer – Tax Platform Engineering

Gusto

. Design, build, and test the platform supporting tax compliance for millions of people .

Posted 9/19/2026full-timeUnited StatesSenior💰 $223,000 - $278,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in designing and developing robust, distributed systems while leading technical strategy and mentoring engineers. Proficient in building fault-tolerant software in highly regulated domains, with a focus on AI integration and team collaboration.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Ruby On RailsTypeScriptReactDistributed Systems DesignAI Strategy Development

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Robust System DevelopmentLarge-Scale Production CodeFault-Tolerant SoftwareTest-Driven DevelopmentCode Maintenance

Soft Skills

CollaborationCommunicationMentoringProblem Solving

Tools & Technologies

APIsIncident Response ToolsAI ToolsLLMs

Industry Keywords

Tax CompliancePayrollRegulated DomainsHigh-Risk Domains

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed SystemsReactRubyRuby on RailsTypeScript

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Design, build, and test the platform supporting tax compliance for millions of people
Help scale Gusto’s Ruby/Rails and TypeScript/React applications
Collaborate on complex and ambiguous problems with Engineering, Product Management, Design, Data Science, Compliance, Operations, and other cross-functional teams
Improve team productivity and happiness through services, tools, and APIs
Build guardrails into the Tax platform for safe, compliant, accurate, stable, and reliable agentic AI usage
Own and drive technical strategy and roadmap for the team’s domain in alignment with team and group-level OKRs
Identify and prioritize long-term investments in foundational systems and architecture
Lead improvements to incident response processes, tooling, and culture
Mentor and develop engineers through pairing, code review, and knowledge sharing
Guide projects end-to-end, from feature specifications through execution and code maintenance

Requirements

What you’ll need

At least 10+ years of experience
Experience designing and developing robust, distributed systems using multiple general-purpose programming languages
Experience influencing and guiding multiple teams on scaling, refactoring, and optimizing legacy products
Experience architecting, building, and testing large-scale production-level code
Aptitude and interest in bringing clarity and simplicity to complex and ambiguous problems
Ability to communicate technical complexity and facilitate informed tradeoffs
Enthusiasm for a highly collaborative, test-driven environment
Ability to build maintainable, structured, well-documented code
Experience building fault-tolerant, mission-critical software
Experience building products in highly regulated and high-risk domains
Familiarity with current AI tools, including LLMs and agents, and their shortcomings and benefits
Embeds AI in daily development workflow to measurably reduce cycle time
Mentors engineers on effective AI usage and helps develop AI strategy
Experience in Payroll, Taxes, or Compliance preferred
Experience with Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, and React is a bonus

Benefits

Comp & perks

Competitive base pay
Benefits
Equity (RSUs)
Secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection required when approved to work outside a Gusto office