Head of Product, Gusto
Core Experiences Platform
$206-292k
Salary dependent on location
1-2 days a week in office
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
Be an early applicant
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$206-292k
Salary dependent on location
1-2 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To grow the small business economy.
Role
Who you are
- Possess 10+ years of hands-on product development leadership experience within an R&D team in a modern technology business
- Direct prior platform product leadership
- Demonstrated Platform experience and a combination of systems thinking, user empathy, and a vision-driven approach to Platform product management
- A proven track record of driving impact with both 0 to 1 and at-scale products within a multi-product company
- Expertise in identifying and understanding patterns across interconnected systems
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to lead through influence and inspire cross-functional teams in high-stakes environments
- Display strong strategic thinking skills, capable of evaluating multiple paths, making effective tradeoffs, and articulating a clear and compelling forward plan
- The ability to tell a compelling story that drives alignment and inspires action
- Strong collaboration skills; ability to quickly build trust
- A passion for helping small businesses
- You’re a builder at heart — entrepreneurial, curious, fluent, and staying up to date on AI tools that help you move faster and think bigger
- Experienced in building with modern AI systems — from prompting and fine-tuning to evaluating outputs and shipping reliable, user-facing experiences
- Coach and multiplier of AI craft – You mentor PMs and cross-functional leaders to build AI fluency — both in how they evolve business and product strategies to use AI for customer and business impact, and in how they integrate AI into daily work. You drive systematic adoption of AI practices that increase execution speed, decision quality, and customer value at scale
- If you don't think you meet all of the criteria above but still are interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box, and we're looking for someone excited to join the team
What the job involves
- Gusto seeks an experienced Product leader to oversee and drive our Core Experiences platform products and team
- As a key member of the Core Experiences group, you will assume end-to-end responsibility for the logic and intelligence engines that abstract complexity and power cross-product workflows for all of Gusto’s products, in addition to being responsible for shaping how our key experience engines enable cohesive, proactive, AI-first customer journeys
- The engines are composed of multiple charters, with scope for expansion, currently covering reporting, compliance, permissions, and onboarding experiences
- Beyond the platform focus, this role will also drive a new vision, strategy, and roadmap for a primary customer experience
- Job-to-be-done: understanding which actions are required across all of Gusto’s services and how AI will influence them
- This is a critical area for Gusto, our current customers, and our future vision
- If you are a customer-centric builder who thrives on making a substantial impact within a high-growth organization, we would be thrilled to hear from you!
- The Core Experiences Platform teams encompass the foundational data models, APIs, and UX concepts (or “commons”) that teams across Gusto leverage to build high-quality, cohesive experiences at scale
- We think globally about how to craft a thoughtful system of apps and experiences — considering the full stack — so that App teams can focus more locally on solving their unique jobs to be done
- This work is critical to ensuring that Gusto functions and feels like one integrated, connected experience, where concepts, data, and UX patterns have shared meaning and where customers can build their own understanding and confidence because the experience is predictable, consistent, AI-first, easy to use, and feels custom-built for the unique needs of their business
- Own the vision and strategy. Set the long-term direction of the Core Experiences platform teams and product experiences — defining the big problems we can solve well and building toward a durable competitive advantage. You’ll do this by continuously uncovering and deeply understanding customer needs, testing risky assumptions, running lean experiments, and staying close to trends and the market environment as the product evolves toward product–market fit
- North star. Identify a common thread across all of Gusto’s product areas that can be solved with Core Experience platform offerings and create a durable competitive advantage
- Collaborate and influence. Partner across every function — Engineering, Design, Data Science, Service Delivery, Marketing, Finance, and more — to bring your bold vision to life. You’ll rally cross-functional teams and leaders around a shared strategy, building alignment and momentum to make that vision a reality
- Make it happen. Be the pace setter. Drive execution as a boundaryless builder with end-to-end ownership. You will use AI as your co-builder to turn complex problems into durable, customer-loved solutions with urgency and care
- Institutionalize and scale AI-native practices across teams: Make AI a core part of how your teams and partners discover, build, and deliver products. Lead the design and adoption of AI-powered workflows, tools, and processes — and coach PMs and cross-functional partners to apply them effectively and responsibly. Create reusable frameworks, playbooks, and best practices that raise the bar for AI fluency and execution across the organization
Our take
For many small businesses, vital administrative tasks such as payroll, taxes, and benefits are manual tasks that take time and energy which many SMB owners don’t have. The three co-founders of Gusto – all coming from small business backgrounds – collaborated on a Fintech company that would handle employee payments, benefits administration, and compliance support specifically for small businesses.
The company may have started slowly, as the founders focused on nailing each individual aspect of Gusto’s operations, but has now skyrocketed to unicorn status with more than 400,000 customers and a multi-billion dollar valuation. And in 2021, Gusto began acquiring other companies to strengthen its offering and its position in a competitive market, including two other fintech startups, Ardius and Symmetry.
Through its continued acquisitions and fundraising efforts, the company has carved out a strong position for itself in the space. Although Gusto has found itself impacted by the macroeconomic situation, through the significant effect it has had on its clientele, the company still appears positive for the future after raising funds in 2023 that has seen it reach key profitability benchmarks. It continues to expand its platform, most recently partnering with Parafin to launch a payroll line of credit for small businesses. With a growing suite of services and a clear focus on supporting small businesses through changing economic conditions, Gusto looks set to sustain its momentum and further strengthen its position in the HR and payroll technology market.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
45% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 9 rounds)
May 2022
$55m
SERIES E
Aug 2021
$175m
SERIES E
Total funding: $706.3m
Company benefits
- Health and Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents. Family care and support, including family planning and fertility benefits. Gender-affirming care and support. A variety of mental health resources.
- Time Away: It's important to take time away for yourself or to take care of your family. Gusto offers paid vacation, sick time, bereavement, and holidays, paid leaves, sabbatical, and more!
- Free meals and refreshments: If you work at one of our offices, enjoy food, drinks, and snacks— on us. Conversation and community is an added bonus!
- Perks:
Company HQ
Central Waterfront, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Joshua Reeves
(Co-Founder & CEO)Studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford and went onto co-found Gusto in 2011.
Tomer London
(Co-Founder & CPO)Has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. Was a Researcher at Intel, and then interned at Bump Technologies. Co-founded Vizmo, a mobile self-service technologies company, in 2008. Co-founded Gusto in 2011.
Edward Kim
(Co-Founder & Head of Engineering)Studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford. Was Senior Project Engineer at Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Lab and then co-founded Picwing, a printed photos company, in 2008. Co-founded Gusto in 2011.
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