Hybrid opportunity at
GustoStaff Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Gusto operates a platform serving over 500,000 small businesses across the United States by managing payroll, health insurance, 401(k) plans, and human resources functions. The company…
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About This Role
Gusto operates a platform serving over 500,000 small businesses across the United States by managing payroll, health insurance, 401(k) plans, and human resources functions. The company maintains offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York. Gusto is currently hiring a Staff Software Engineer for its Cloud Infrastructure team on a full-time, hybrid basis in San Francisco. This position focuses on code-driven infrastructure, centering on automation, system architecture, and developer tooling.…
Job Description
Gusto operates a platform serving over 500,000 small businesses across the United States by managing payroll, health insurance, 401(k) plans, and human resources functions. The company maintains offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York.
Gusto is currently hiring a Staff Software Engineer for its Cloud Infrastructure team on a full-time, hybrid basis in San Francisco. This position focuses on code-driven infrastructure, centering on automation, system architecture, and developer tooling. It is well-suited for professionals with a background in platform engineering, DevOps, or site reliability engineering who want to help other engineers operate with greater efficiency.
In this capacity, the engineer will define architectural patterns and operational standards, migrate production workloads to an AWS multi-account environment, and enhance disaster recovery protocols. The team utilizes Terraform, OpenTofu, and Spacelift to manage infrastructure as code. Candidates are also expected to actively use artificial intelligence tools to support development and troubleshooting.
Travel to a Gusto office is required for initial onboarding. For hybrid staff in San Francisco, attendance at the designated physical office is expected roughly two to three days per week.
Responsibilities
- Build and maintain AWS infrastructure using Terraform and OpenTofu through code-based workflows.
- Enhance the speed, reliability, and usability of Spacelift deployment pipelines for engineering teams.
- Collaborate with application and infrastructure teams to migrate production services to a multi-account AWS architecture.
- Improve disaster recovery and compliance readiness by testing and implementing infrastructure resilience.
- Refactor infrastructure code into modular and reusable components for easier maintenance.
- Assist engineering teams with cloud infrastructure troubleshooting, needs, and vendor integrations.
- Utilize AI-assisted tools to accelerate infrastructure development and automation.
- Participate in an on-call rotation dedicated to internal engineering support and operational improvements.
Requirements
- Minimum of eight years of hands-on experience in platform, site reliability, or infrastructure engineering.
- Deep production-level expertise in AWS compute, networking, security, and identity primitives.
- Demonstrated mastery of Infrastructure as Code principles, module design, and state management.
- Experience with multi-account AWS governance, including AWS Organizations, Service Control Policies, and federated identity.
- Hands-on background with a managed Infrastructure as Code orchestration platform like Spacelift or Terraform Cloud.
- Experience operating production infrastructure for a customer-facing software-as-a-service platform, including incident response and observability.
- Ability to drive multi-quarter infrastructure projects to completion independently.
Qualifications
- Experience operating Terraform or OpenTofu at large scale across thousands of workspaces or state files.
- Background working in compliance-regulated environments such as SOC 2, NIST, or PCI.
- Solid foundation in cloud networking, encompassing VPC design, DNS, IP address management, and egress control.
Core Skills
Benefits
- Competitive base pay
- Stock equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units
- Standard employee benefits
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
What is the location and remote status for this role?
This position is based in San Francisco on a hybrid schedule. Employees work from the office approximately two to three days per week.
What is the salary for the Staff Software Engineer position?
The target cash compensation range for San Francisco and New York is $197,000 to $247,000, with additional stock equity provided. Final offers depend on candidate expertise and experience.
Is travel required for this job?
Yes, travel to a Gusto office is required specifically for the onboarding process.
What kind of technical background is required?
Candidates need 8 plus years of infrastructure, platform, or site reliability engineering experience, deep AWS expertise, and mastery of Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform or OpenTofu.
Sample Interview Questions
AI-generated questions tailored to this specific role — a preview of the full practice set.
