Staff Applied AI/ML Engineer

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 Role:

Gusto’s Data Science team leverages Gusto’s rich dataset to guide product direction and decision‑making. We operate full‑stack, conducting analyses, prototyping and deploying predictive models and statistical tools both for internal use and for our customers.

For this role, we are looking for a technical leader (an individual contributor) to drive our customer‑facing upsell motions. You will improve a model‑driven recommendation platform to better understand our customers, build lead scoring to drive Sales outreach, and predict and experiment against customer preferences in terms of communication timing and content. Overall you will be improving the long‑term value that a customer gets from Gusto by ensuring that they use the products that are most relevant to their business needs and growth.

You’ll work with a strong AI/ML team and seasoned Growth leaders in Engineering, Product, Design, Data Science, Marketing, and Sales. In this role, you’ll work cross‑functionally to build Platforms that span the entire breadth of the Growth Stack using machine learning and AI to personalize world‑class content for our customers and provide timely, relevant product recommendations.

Here’s what you’ll do day‑to‑day:

- Design and develop scalable, production‑grade AI and machine learning models for solving complex business problems.

- Lead and mentor teams of ML scientists and engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation.

- Collaborate cross‑functionally with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to identify AI opportunities and translate them into actionable solutions.

- Stay current with latest AI research; prototype and implement new algorithms and advancements from academia and industry.

- Oversee model validation, deployment, evaluation, and lifecycle management, ensuring robust monitoring, explainability, and performance.

- Guide technical strategy, roadmap, and architectural decisions for the ML/AI function.

- Communicate findings, roadmaps, and performance results clearly to executives and non‑technical partners.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

- 7+ years’ hands‑on experience building and deploying end‑to‑end ML/AI systems in industry or academia.

- Deep expertise in one or more advanced ML methods (supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement learning, deep learning, NLP, LLMs, RAG, etc.).

- Proven track record of delivering large, impactful ML/AI projects into production environments.

- Proficient in modern ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, HuggingFace, etc.) and cloud computing platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

- Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with best engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, code review).

- Demonstrated leadership in cross‑disciplinary teams and ability to mentor scientists and engineers.

- Excellent communication skills and business acumen.

- Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field is a plus.

Preferred, but not required:

- Hands‑on experience building LLM (Claude, Gemini, OpenAI, etc.) based applications and agentic AI workflows.

- Experience developing and deploying modeling solutions such as propensity scoring, recommendation engines, and forecasting. A background in growth‑oriented product development will accelerate the impact you can generate.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $225,000 - $285,000 for San Francisco, New York, and Seattle, $205,000- $255,000 in Los Angeles, $187,000 - $235,000 in Denver, and $200,000 - $250,000 CAD for Toronto, Canada. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience 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.

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