Brand Design Manager, Gusto
$172-253k
Salary dependent on location. + Equity
2-3 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
$172-253k
Salary dependent on location. + Equity
2-3 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To grow the small business economy.
Role
Who you are
- 8+ years of professional brand design experience spanning campaign, marketing, and brand systems work
- 2–4+ years of direct people management experience leading brand or production designers
- A portfolio demonstrating strong craft, brand-building work, and range across multi-channel marketing
- Expertise in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite; familiarity with motion tools a plus
- AI fluency in creative workflows and processes, with hands-on familiarity with generative AI tools for design, ideation, and production
- Experience building and maintaining scalable design systems and templates
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills in fast-paced, high-output environments
- A leadership mindset—you enjoy developing people and building systems, not just making the work yourself
What the job involves
- Design at Gusto is made up of over 80 creative, collaborative people who care deeply about our mission to empower small businesses and their employees
- We're a cross-functional group that is always looking for opportunities to build understanding and empathy for the people who use Gusto
- We don't care much about swim lanes and though we care deeply about quality and craft, we are never precious about it
- We work closely with cross-functional partners in Product, Engineering, Data, and Marketing to design, build, and ship experiences that make a real difference
- We believe great design can make hard things possible, even delightful
- We are building an AI-native design organization — and we mean that seriously
- We're looking for designers who are already working this way: using AI to prototype ideas quickly, shorten customer feedback loops, and ship quality UX directly to customers
- This isn't a future aspiration — it's how we work now, and it's changing what the design role looks like at Gusto and across the industry
- Brand design is where our identity comes to life. Visual craft, consistency, and clarity aren't finishing touches—they're the work. They're how we earn trust, convey confidence, and make people feel something
- Gusto is growing our in-house creative studio inside our fast-moving, late-stage startup. We design campaigns, brand systems, and multi-channel marketing assets—partnering closely with marketing, product marketing, and comms to bring Gusto's brand to life across every touchpoint. Our work spans paid media, email, web, social, and experiential
- We're looking for a Brand Design Manager (we call these People Empowerers, or PEs at Gusto) to lead a small team of brand and motion designers. You'll set creative direction, develop talent, and ensure visual quality and brand consistency across everything we ship. This is a leadership role—you'll be managing people, not just making the work
- In this role, you'll coach and mentor designers, set the creative bar for brand design, and partner cross-functionally with marketing leadership to prioritize and deliver high-impact work. You'll also help us scale building design systems, workflows, and templates that let the team move faster without sacrificing quality or brand integrity
- If you're energized by developing people, care deeply about brand craft, and enjoy building the systems that make great creative work repeatable, this role will be an excellent fit
- Manage, mentor, and develop a small team of brand and motion designers—setting expectations, providing feedback, and supporting career growth
- Set creative direction and maintain visual quality across campaigns, paid media, email, web, social, experiential and product marketing
- Build and maintain scalable design systems, templates, and brand guidelines
- Partner closely with marketing, product marketing, comms, and creative leadership to prioritize work and translate strategy into visual execution
- Define and improve team workflows, processes, and production standards to scale creative output
- Explore and integrate modern design tools—including AI-enabled workflows—to expand creative possibilities and improve team efficiency
- Contribute directly to creative work when needed, maintaining a strong connection to the craft
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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