Staff Software Engineer (People Technology)

Join Gusto as a Senior Software Engineer in the People Technology team. You will be the architect and hands-on engineer behind PeopleOS, our AI-native internal HR platform. Your role will involve designing, building, and shipping software that shapes the HR experience for all Gusties. You will work closely with People Ops stakeholders, maintain integrations across various platforms, and build intelligent internal tools. The ideal candidate has 7+ years of full-stack software engineering experience, is comfortable with AI/LLM API integration, and has a strong understanding of HR data sensitivity and labor law implications.

• Design, build, and ship software that directly shapes how every Gustie experiences HR, from recruiting and onboarding to performance and offboarding.
• Be the technical owner for PeopleOS, our internal AI-powered HR platform that was built with the purpose of enhanced Gustie experiences for people programs and a more efficient People team.
• Partner directly with People Ops stakeholders to translate workflows into working software driving technical design, implementation, UAT support, and release.

• The ideal candidate is a hands-on full-stack engineer and problem solver who thrives in ambiguity, cares about the employee experience, and wants to see their work used every day by real people
• Comfort with AI/LLM API integration — Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, or equivalent — including prompt design and response parsing
• Strong written communication: you can document your own APIs, write a clear tech spec, and explain trade-offs to non-engineers
• Experience shipping internal tools or developer tooling with real end users and feedback loops
• 7+ years of full-stack software engineering experience, with production-quality work in Python, TypeScript/Node.js, or both
• An understanding of sensitivity of HR data and familiarity with implications of labor law and data retention guidelines
• Demonstrated ability to integrate SaaS platforms (bonus: Workday, Greenhouse, Slack, or Google Workspace)
• Strong experience building and consuming REST APIs — including OAuth flows, rate limiting, pagination, and error handling
• Familiarity with MCP (Model Context Protocol) server architecture
• Experience with HR Tech ecosystems: HRIS, ATS, LMS platforms
• Experience with XML, XSLT, JSON, and related integration technologies
• Background in People Ops, HR Systems, or internal tools engineering at a high-growth tech company