Lead Sales Engineer

About Gusto At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 500,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve. All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy. AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process. About the Role: The most senior individual-contributor seat in Solutions/Sales Engineering, not defined by a stage in the customer journey, but by scope: you're the final technical escalation point for Solutions Engineering, and the person who sets technical strategy and standard for the function as a whole. Where other Solutions Engineers own the deepest technical work on a given deal, you own the problems and decisions that span deals, route-to-market segments, and teams, like the ones with no existing playbook because nobody's had to solve them at this scale before. You're equally credible sketching an API flow with an engineer and discussing technical roadmap with an exec. In practice, that often means owning the deep API and OAuth-level integration and customization work behind the organization's highest-value enterprise and partner deals, the work that has historically had no clear owner, leaving sales and delivery teams to chase down the technical follow-through themselves. Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day: - Serve as the final technical escalation point for the rarest, highest-ambiguity problems — the ones with no existing playbook. - Set standing technical strategy and direction for Solutions Engineering as a function, independent of any single route to market or deal. - Represent Solutions Engineering directly in cross-functional and executive conversations with Product, Engineering, and GTM leadership — translating technical reality into business decisions and vice versa. - Mentor and set the technical bar for the broader Solutions Engineering team — including coaching on the judgment calls that come with full deal/technical autonomy. - Own the technical strategy — and the hands-on build — behind the org's highest-stakes, most cross-functional initiatives: deep API and OAuth-based integration work for enterprise and partner accounts, from initial authorization through ongoing customization, end-to-end. - Act as the technical through-line between engineering/platform teams and go-to-market teams on the largest deals — making sure a committed integration or customization actually ships for the customer, instead of leaving that follow-through to sales. - Turn bespoke, one-off integration builds into reusable patterns and tooling other accounts and partners can adopt, rather than re-solving the same problem for every new deal. - Influence product and engineering roadmap from a position of pattern-recognition across the entire SE function, not just your own book. - Operate with full autonomy — no standard escalation path exists above this seat for day-to-day technical decisions. Here’s what we're looking for: - 8–12+ years of relevant experience, with significant time in a senior technical pre-sales, solutions-architecture, or implementation leadership role. - Proven track record operating independently on the most complex, highest-stakes technical problems an organization has — not just executing an established playbook. - Comfortable and credible in both a whiteboard session with engineers and a strategy conversation with executives — able to translate fluently between the two. - Demonstrated experience setting technical direction or standards across a team or function, not just for your own accounts. - Strong track record influencing product/engineering roadmap through structured technical feedback and pattern recognition across many accounts or problems. - Deep fluency across Gusto's technical surface area — Salesforce/CRM, API and integration architecture (including OAuth/token-based authorization flows), payroll/tax/compliance systems — sufficient to be the final word when others can't resolve something. Bonus points if you have: - Payroll Certification. - Prior experience in a Staff/Principal-titled technical pre-sales or solutions-architecture role at another company. - Experience standing up a net-new technical program or capability from scratch (e.g. an OAuth-based API/partner access program) rather than operating inside an existing one. - Track record mentoring senior technical ICs (not just junior ones) into more autonomous, higher-scope roles. - Executive-facing communication experience — comfortable owning a technical narrative in a room with Gusto leadership or a customer's leadership. Our OTE cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $150,000-$185,000 OTE in Denver, Atlanta & most remote locations. This OTE is structured with a target 80% base pay and 20% commission pay. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above. At Gusto, we don't use titles the traditional way, as a signal of rank or hierarchy. Instead, our titles describe two things at once — your craft (what you do, e.g. Engineering, Design) and your scope of ownership (what you're accountable for) — which is why you'll see something like "Head of X" instead of a rank word like "Director" that tells you neither. Because of this, the title on this posting may look different from what you'd expect based on the scope and seniority of the role, and from how similar roles are typically titled elsewhere. If you have questions about how this role compares to your current title or level, your recruiter can help translate. 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. Reliable, consistent presence: We expect regular and predictable attendance, whether you're working in-office, hybrid, or fully remote, so that you stay closely connected to your team, customers, and stakeholders in real time and ensure colleagues and customers receive the timely support and responsiveness they deserve. 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. 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