Principal Software Engineer

Gusto

Principal Engineer leading technical vision across multiple teams in Gusto's Money Group. Designing cash flow management systems with a focus on fintech innovations.

Posted 5/15/2026full-timeDenver • California, Colorado, New York • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $214,000 - $260,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed SystemsRubyRuby on Rails

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Serve as a Technical Lead across multiple teams in the Money Group.
Define the north-star architectural vision for the Money Group.
Architect the convergence of Gusto's People Stack and Finance Stack into a unified platform.
Lead service migration from a large Ruby-on-Rails monolith into a service-oriented architecture.
Lead technical due diligence – evaluating codebases, data models, and engineering teams.
Manage a complex partner ecosystem.
Build prototypes and proofs-of-concept to de-risk new ideas.
Tackle complex, ambiguous problems in close partnership with various teams.
Drive AI-native architecture decisions.
Act as a technical consultant across all Money sub-teams.
Set the bar for technical excellence and mentor fellow engineers.

Requirements

What you’ll need

15+ years of software engineering experience
Deep expertise in distributed systems, particularly in payments or fintech
Proven track record of engineering, scaling, and operating large, interconnected production systems.
Experience setting long-term technical vision and driving multi-year architectural transformations.
Experience working across multiple teams, influencing both technical direction and product strategy.
Experience navigating decisions for core infrastructure, particularly in fintech.
Ability to bring clarity to complex problems – communicating technical tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders.
A track record of raising the technical bar – through code quality, design rigor, testing and security best practices.
A track record of filling whatever role the group needs.
Experience in complex, highly regulated domains (e.g., fintech, payments, banking, lending).

Benefits

Comp & perks

Competitive base pay
Benefits
Equity (RSUs)

ATS Keywords

✓ Tailor your resume

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

Ruby on Railsdistributed systemsservice-oriented architecturetechnical due diligenceprototypingAI-native architecturecode qualitydesign rigortesting best practicessecurity best practices

Soft Skills

leadershipmentoringproblem-solvingcommunicationinfluencingcollaborationclarity in complex problemstechnical consultingsetting technical visionraising technical bar