**Who this is for** This role is designed for a heavyweight Ruby on Rails expert with over 10 years of experience who is passionate about developer experience (
Work type: remote
Location: Denver, CO;San Francisco, CA;New York, NY;Los Angeles, CA;Seattle, WA;Toronto, Ontario, CAN - Remote
Salary: $190,000 – $250,000/yr
Type: Full-time
**Who this is for** This role is designed for a heavyweight Ruby on Rails expert with over 10 years of experience who is passionate about developer experience (DX). You should be a systems thinker who enjoys building tools for other engineers rather than building product features. The ideal candidate has deep architectural knowledge and a modern interest in how AI can automate and accelerate local development environments. **Key highlights** The compensation is highly competitive, reaching up to $250k base depending on location, plus stock equity. While the role offers remote flexibility across several major US hubs and Toronto, those near San Francisco, Denver, or NYC will transition into a hybrid schedule (2-3 days in-office). This is a high-leverage position within the Developer Productivity organization, meaning your work directly impacts the daily happiness and velocity of hundreds of engineers. **You might be a good fit if you...** * Have a decade of experience and deep expertise in the Ruby/Rails ecosystem. * Are excited about building internal platforms and CLI tools to streamline setup and troubleshooting. * Have worked with complex infrastructure like Kafka or Sidekiq for asynchronous processing. * Want to experiment with integrating AI and automation into the developer inner loop.
About Gusto
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 400,000 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](https://gusto.com/about/careers/total-rewards).
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.
About the Role:
As a Staff Engineer on the Developer Productivity – AI Developer Tools team, you will play a pivotal role in architecting and scaling the AI platform that powers how Gusto builds software. Operating at the intersection of platform engineering and applied AI, you will help redefine our development lifecycle by embedding intelligence directly into it. From building custom internal coding assistants and automating complex refactors to stabilizing local environments and enhancing CI/CD pipelines, your work will eliminate developer friction at every stage. Your mission is to harness Large Language Models and intelligent automation to accelerate engineering velocity, reduce cognitive load, and fundamentally transform how our teams design, test, and ship products.
About the Team:
The AI Developer Tools team is a specialized unit within Developer Productivity. We believe that AI is the next great leap in software craftsmanship. Our goal is to provide every builder at Gusto with a suite of "superpowers"—tools that understand our codebase and handle the "toil" so our builders can focus on creative problem-solving in a safe way with appropriate guardrails. We treat our fellow builders as our customers and prioritize tools that are not just powerful, but delightful to use.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
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 daysper 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](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEfl7Bp-Twz7LLlhGlha46CrxZ9Kacgakmarf3K2TbnaEgKQ/viewform) 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](https://gusto.com/about/careers/fraudulent-activity-disclaimer).
Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to [Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice](https://gusto.com/about/careers/applicant-privacy-notice).