Head of Partner Experience, Embedded Payroll

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:

We are looking for a CX Leader to scale our Platform strategy efforts. This person will be responsible for scaling our payroll service model for Gusto Embedded partners as well as leverage in-house greater Gusto CX capabilities to take us to the next level of growth. What is covered under today’s GEP service model: CX enablement (training our GEP Partners to take on Tier 1 CX), Tier 2 payroll support, tax notice resolution, white glove onboarding & payroll transfers.

About the Team:

Gusto Embedded Payroll (GEP) is an API based product that enables software developers to embed and customize payroll directly into their software. And it works in any type of platform serving small and medium businesses: vertical SaaS, business operations, fintech, neobanks, and more. We’ve taken the infrastructure we’ve built servicing tens of millions of paychecks and tens of thousands of tax codes and made it available for software developers.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Shape and scale CX strategy & operations : Create and implement innovative strategies to scale our customer experience service model as GEP grows, validating our core hypotheses and refining our headcount and business models. Test and refine our CX processes as we expand from 8k to 17k+ employee resources (ERs) by FY26, maintaining a strong emphasis on execution and adaptability in a fast-paced environment.
• Train and help our Partner CX teams scale: Scale Partner support training program on basic support handling and manage relationships with the Partner support team leadership. Refine systems and processes for how GEP Partners interact with our Tier 2 support program.
• Leverage Gusto Expertise and lead “insourcing” initiatives: Work closely with existing Gusto CX teams, such as CXDI, Biztech, TaxRes, and Payroll Transfers, to effectively augment GEP CX’s capabilities and potentially transition programs back to larger CX, ensuring thoughtful and strategic execution.
• Collaborate across GEP functions: Partner with GEP leaders to enhance customer experience and reduce cost-to-serve metrics. Translate partner pain points into actionable product ideas for the EPD team (e.g. improved tooling), set clear CX expectations with the Partner Growth team (e.g. enablement needs, support SLAs, partner agreements), and assess how partner embedded products impact downstream customer experience with the Technical Solutions team.
• Use data to drive performance: Collaborate with BizTech and Data teams to refine CX data model and ensure we’re capturing / analyzing the key information sets we need to understand trends in case volume and case complexity, and to track against CX OKRs.
• Grow & empower your team: Grow and lead a CX team of 10+ members, including 2 sub-functions (Enablement and Tier 2 Ops), cultivating a collaborative and high-performance environment. Enhance our team playbook with best practices and define team career & growth paths.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• Scrappy, entrepreneurial, builder mindset: You have experience in building and operationalizing initiatives from 0 to 1 and scaling them from 1 to 10. You are scaling a new support model and will be doing everything from designing future workflows to rolling out new tooling for internal or partner CX teams.
• Strategic systems thinker: You will need to figure out how to scale our service model for our next stage of growth, identify gaps and tradeoffs, and prioritize effectively with the broader GEP leadership team. You have a strong background in data analysis, strategy development, and systems thinking.
• Customer empathy: Deep empathy for the partner support team as well as the end customer. Strong PE skills - Can effectively grow and manage a CX & ops team for GEP program
• Desire to learn about GEP end-to-end business: CX is an incredibly strategic function for GEP’s business success as we scale. You will need to understand how CX relates to all other functions / our overall unit economics – and hopefully be excited by that!
• Ability to influence x-functionally: You will work with other GEP leaders to scale CX and improve cost to serve significantly, including (1) translating pain points into product ideas for EPD; (2) setting expectations and creating policies with partner-facing teams, and (3) understanding how partners are building their embedded product and the CX impacts downstream with technical implementation teams.
• CX + Payroll expertise: Strong understanding of larger Gusto’s CX support model and able to leverage existing experts and teams (e.g. CXDI, Biztech, Payroll Transfers, TaxRes)

Experience Required

• 10-15+ years of leadership experience in CX, operations, or related roles
• 5+ years of channel/partnerships experience, especially in scaling operations via partners/vendors
• Proven track record working with enterprise SaaS customers in support functions, particularly ones with technically complex workflows, platforms, and infrastructure
• Experience in high-growth startup settings (Series A/B) or incubation teams within larger organizations.
• Familiarity with payroll systems is a bonus but not a requirement.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is $124,080 to $161,304/yr in Denver & most major metro locations, and $146,120 to $189,956/yr for San Francisco & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, 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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