Sr Software Engineer, Reliability Engineering

About Gusto

Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.

Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy .

Sr Software Engineer, Reliability Engineering

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Build Tooling & Infrastructure: Design and implement reliability dashboards, AI-driven alerting systems, and internal developer tools that promote operational excellence and self-service.
• Drive Strategic Initiatives: Lead the adoption of DevOps practices across product engineering teams, including environment standardization, service readiness, and release reliability.
• Automate Reliability & Observability: Develop intelligent systems for automated alerting, diagnostics, and incident response using AI/ML approaches. Enhance observability through centralized dashboards and proactive monitoring strategies.
• Mentor & Influence: Coach engineers and leaders on DevOps best practices, champion reliability-focused principles, and mentor peers in systems thinking and operational maturity.
• Establish Standards & Automation: Define engineering standards and implement deterministic automation with a focus on usability, accessibility, and long-term system resilience.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• Strategic thinker, driven to identify high impact opportunities and efficiently implement systemic solutions.
• Resilient problem solver, inspired to be in service of our peers and Gusto’s customers.
• Strong communicator, committed to drive alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Required Previous Experience:

• 5+ years of professional experience as a software engineer.
• Implementation and integration of observability platforms. (Datadog preferred)
• Experience with incident remediation and development of incident management programs.

Preferred Previous Experiences:

• Experience with Ruby, Python, and TypeScript.
• Deployment and operation of cloud infrastructure. (AWS preferred)
• Provisioning and managing infrastructure using Infrastructure-as-Code tools. (Terraform preferred)
• Deploying and operating container orchestration. (Kubernetes preferred)
• Proficient in Linux system administration and comfortable working in shell environments.
• Designed and supported high-availability architectures and scalability strategies.
• Participated in service extraction efforts to break apart monoliths and transition toward a service-oriented architecture.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $164,000-$204,000 in Denver & most remote locations, and $197,000-$235,000 for San Francisco & 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.

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 .