Application Systems Engineering Manager

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 Team: The Unified Service Platform’s 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 Payoffs 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 payoff 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 Go To Market 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 bu