Application Systems Engineering Manager
Summary
Engineering Manager role at Gusto leading a 6-person AI engineering team within the Unified Service Platform (USP) / PayOps org, focused on building and deploying AI-powered solutions for payroll workflows, customer experience, and agentic automation.
About the role
About Gusto
At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.
About the Team:
The Unified Service Platform’s (USP) mission is to create seamless connected, efficient and delightful experiences that empower our customers (internal and external) to make informed decisions and be supported throughout their journey. This team operates as a startup-within-a-startup with a high level of ownership around specific problems to solve for our customers.
The PayOps team sits within this platform and is responsible for building and maintaining the systems that power end-of-lifecycle payroll workflows, including custom routing, intelligent automations, auto-indexing of tax documents, and end-of-year processing. We move fast, care deeply about quality, and are actively investing in AI-driven approaches to make our systems smarter and more scalable.
About the Role:
Gusto is looking for an experienced Application Systems Engineering Manager to lead the design, development, and deployment of AI solutions that enhance our customer experience. In this role, you'll empower a team of 6 to architect and deliver solutions that keep Gusto's payops workflows running reliably and intelligently.
You'll be a key technical voice on the team, helping define how we build, mentor engineers around you, and actively leverage AI and agentic tools to accelerate delivery. Our mission is to deliver consistently exceptional Customer and Advocate experiences, at scale, across every touchpoint. The ideal candidate will have a background in artificial intelligence, and software engineering, with proven expertise in applying these technologies to improve customer interactions and satisfaction. Be a change agent on how Gusto leverages AI to better serve customers.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
- Lead Gusto’s USP AI engineering team, including the recruitment, hiring, and empowerment of a world-class team
- Collaborate closely with AI Scientists and AI Product Managers to create a world where the sales motions run proactively and efficiently with AI.
- Lead your engineering team to design, develop, and deploy AI-powered applications to enhance customer and advocate experiences.
- You will work cross-functionally with engineering, product, design, and stakeholder teams to lead various initiatives to advance our customer service solutions
- You will leverage our data to identify key insights and create operational efficiencies, as well as produce accurate and meaningful analysis to drive business decisions
- Meet with stakeholders from business and engineering to understand OKR requirements and convert them into analytical solutions
- Integrate with third-party platforms (e.g., Salesforce, Zendesk, or similar CRM/support systems) where applicable
- Responsible for driving the development of product and core platform in a fast paced, start-up environment
- Providing technical leadership in defining the product and platform solutions
- Understand customer pain points, devise solutions, and then iterate through prototyping and frequent, successful product launches.
- Work cross functionally with design leadership and product management leadership to build and drive Gusto’s product vision and strategy
- Empowering a team of senior engineers, architects, and potentially managers to create alignment, clarity, high morale, driving quick but informed decision making, and helping them get unblocked
Here’s what we’re looking for:
- 10+ years of total relevant technical experience
- 2+ years of engineering management experience
- 2+ years in Generative AI demonstrating the ability to leverage AI/agentic tools (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, or similar) to accelerate development
Nice to Have:
- Experience with CRM platforms or third-party integrations (Salesforce, Zendesk, or similar)
- Familiarity with tax or payroll processing domains
- Prior experience working with contractor-heavy or distributed team structures
Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $163,000-194,000 in Denver and $197,000-235,000 for San Francisco and New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience, level, 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. 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 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.
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Gusto is a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR platform serving over 300,000 small and mid-sized businesses across the United States. It automates payroll processing, tax filings, health insurance, 401(k) management, and compliance — giving small businesses enterprise-grade people operations tools.