Head of Engineering, Embedded

Denver, CO; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY

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.

About the Role:

We are seeking an experienced Head of Engineering for Gusto Embedded Payroll (GEP) to drive the end-to-end development of our innovative embedded API products. You will lead a talented team of engineers while collaborating closely with internal teams - Product Management, Design, Data, and Technical Solutions - to create scalable, high-quality solutions that meet the demanding requirements of our customers. We operate like a startup within Gusto—candidates who prefer a rapid pace of change and a nascent, fast moving market landscape will feel at home. You’ll connect and leverage teams across Gusto to build this “startup” within our internal network of experts and play a key leadership role at Gusto as we build out this business. You’ll be directly empowered by our GM of Gusto Embedded Payroll.

About the Team:

Gusto Embedded Payroll (GEP) is an API-based product that enables software developers to embed and customize payroll directly into their software. And it works in any type of platform serving small and medium businesses: vertical SaaS, business operations, fintech, banks, accounting, and more. We’ve taken the infrastructure we’ve built servicing tens of millions of paychecks and tens of thousands of tax codes on Gusto and made it available for external software developers. Our vision is to enable any third party developer to build the best payroll product for their end customers.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Technical Empowerment: Lead and mentor a large team of engineers (several sub-teams) with plans to expand in the next 12 months. Invest in the growth and development of both managers and individual contributors. Attract, hire, and grow talent into a new, world-class engineering team at Gusto.
• Strategic product leadership: Lead technical strategy and execution for Gusto’s embedded payroll product. Oversee the development of GEP’s API and developer products, ensuring they are customer-centric and scalable. Collaborate with the Head of Product to influence product direction and strategy.
• Customer-centric problem solving: Tackle complex technical challenges from a developer's perspective, while ensuring a platform-first approach. Articulate clear goals and measured outcomes, collaborating closely with product and go-to-market teams to meet aggressive timelines to serve our partners and customers and grow the GEP business.
• Operational Scaling: Foster a culture of excellence by implementing engineering rituals, operating best practices, and high-performance standards to increase velocity and quality. Ingrain and scale excellent development standards and on-time delivery of commitments.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build strong relationships with internal teams (Product, Design, Data, Technical Solutions, etc.) and external partners to facilitate collaboration and problem-solving.
• Cross-Gusto technical influence: Create and advise teams on API-first architectural specifications, collaborating across Gusto teams to ensure feasibility, functionality, and integration with existing systems/platforms.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• Over 10–15 years of engineering experience, including 5+ years in senior leadership roles overseeing multiple teams.
• Proven track record developing enterprise SaaS products, particularly with technically complex workflows, platforms, and infrastructure.
• Experience in high-growth startup settings (Series A/B) or incubation teams within larger organizations.
• Familiarity with payroll systems is a bonus but not a requirement.
• Demonstrated success in building and scaling developer-focused products and APIs, especially within complex areas like embedded fintech, vertical SaaS, and HRIS/workflow automation.
• Proven leadership of engineering teams with 20+ members, emphasizing strong people management and team development.
• Skilled at evolving early-stage, 0-to-1 products into robust, scalable, and high-quality solutions.
• Deep architectural expertise paired with strong business acumen to align technical decisions with strategic goals.
• Customer-first mindset with a knack for building strong enterprise relationships and understanding client needs.
• Clear, effective communicator with strong written and verbal skills; known for driving execution and getting things done.

Compensation:

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $222,000-$256,000 /yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $261,000-$299,000 /yr 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 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. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at