Welcome! I'm an engineer and I love solving problems.

My background

My happy place is solving impactful problems where we can build something better through technology. Along with this, I believe that great product experiences require thoughtful engineering decisions. Thoughtful engineering decisions require a diverse culture of collaboration and making room to foster the growth of the engineers on those teams.

I apply these beliefs in my current role leading financial product engineering teams at Gusto. Our team’s mission is to help folks who are underserved financially and often living paycheck to paycheck, something I know about from experience. Before Gusto, I worked on a product called Swaay that's focused on reducing polarization and toxicity in online discourse. I also enjoy working with early stage startups, and worked with startups like Skinary and Krikey with their mobile apps. Previously I was a Senior Software Engineer at LinkedIn for 5 and a half years, and before that a Software Engineer at Wolfram Research. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I got a M.Sc. from the Computer Science department. I worked in the Motion Strategy Lab with Steve LaValle. I also graduated from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics. I have a younger sister, Gabrielle Taylor. She's cooler than me, knows everything about plants and birds, and is also a software engineer at Gusto. I’m a lifelong bookworm - here’s what I’ve been reading in 2023!

People sometimes ask me for bios. Below are a couple variations.

Conference bio

Kamilah Taylor is an engineer, writer, entrepreneur and a public speaker who hails from the tiny island of Jamaica and currently resides in San Francisco. She currently leads engineering teams at Gusto and has worked in tech for over a decade, with specialties in fintech, mobile apps, and robotics. She is also an advocate for encouraging more underrepresented minorities to choose STEM as a career field and is a coauthor of the books Women in Tech, and Swift For Good. In her free time she buys too many books and puzzles, watches too much tv, and is a life long Trekkie.

Extended bio

Kamilah Taylor is an engineer, writer, entrepreneur and a public speaker who hails from the tiny island of Jamaica and currently resides in San Francisco. She currently leads engineering teams at Gusto, a startup that does payroll and benefits for small businesses. She previously worked on mobile apps and robotics at many places including Krikey, LinkedIn, Wolfram Research, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and is a cofounder of Swaay, an app that facilitates thoughtful conversation online. She is also an advocate for encouraging more underrepresented minorities to choose STEM as a career field and is a coauthor of the books Women in Tech, and the recently released Swift For Good, a new book written by 20 top authors and speakers, with 100% of all revenue going to charity. She was named as one of Business Insider’s 43 most powerful women in tech in 2017, and one of Essence’s 10 Black Women Rocking the Tech World in 2018. In her free time she buys too many books and puzzles, watches too much tv, and is a life long Trekkie.

I want to invent. Create. Dream. Make music. Dance. Write. Have a positive impact on the world.