Head of Channel Partnerships, Gusto
$177.2-221.5k
Salary is representative of Denver candidates. For San Francisco and New York, the salary is between $208,000 $260,000
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
$177.2-221.5k
Salary is representative of Denver candidates. For San Francisco and New York, the salary is between $208,000 $260,000
2-3 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To create a world where work empowers a better life.
Role
Who you are
- 15+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, or GTM strategy, with 8+ years in leadership roles
- Demonstrated success managing both ICs and managers
- Strong balance of strategic vision and hands-on execution
- Deep understanding of partnership economics, GTM motions, and scaling playbooks
- Experience working with accounting firms, fintech, SaaS, or B2B partner ecosystems strongly required
- Excellent communication, negotiation, and cross-functional leadership skills
What the job involves
- We’re looking for an experienced and strategic leader to serve as Head of Channel Partnerships at Gusto. This senior role reports to the Head of Indirect GTM and is responsible for building and scaling our channel partner organization. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of managing both individual contributors and managers, setting long-term strategic direction, and driving operational excellence. Success in this role requires balancing big-picture planning (3+ years out) with hands-on execution to deliver measurable growth and impact
- The team sits within the revenue organization, and is responsible for sourcing net-new revenue, and through-partner recruitment
- At Gusto, partnerships are core to our growth strategy. The Channel Partnerships team focuses on:
- Developing partner-to-partner strategies with accounting firms
- Driving new revenue opportunities in collaboration with product partnership teams
- Your remit will span partners across banking/lending, vertical markets (e.g., franchise and medical practices), and time-tracking solutions—shaping how Gusto shows up across the partner ecosystem
- Strategic Leadership (25%):
- Define the long-term vision for the Channel Partnerships organization, including key growth drivers and investible partner criteria
- Conduct portfolio assessments (new categories, scaling existing, sunsetting where needed)
- Build and manage the economic model for investments (partner acquisition and activation costs)
- Team Leadership (25%):
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of ICs and managers
- Design compensation structures, define roles, and drive performance management
- Build a culture of excellence in partnership management
- Go-to-Market Execution (25%):
- Develop and refine playbooks for partner recruitment, activation, and growth
- Mobilize partners through marketing/partner development programs, co-marketing strategies, and partner-to-partner initiatives
- Oversee business planning, contracting, and legal negotiations
- Build a motion for both 1:1 strategic management (deep engagement with high-value partners through joint business planning, dedicated support, and exec-to-exec alignment) and 1:many programmatic management (scaled enablement, digital onboarding, programmatic incentives, and performance dashboards)
- Establish a tiering framework, shared GTM playbook, and feedback loops that connect both models
- Defined approach to-through-with marketing, and implement strategy in collaboration with the partner-marketing team
- Operational Excellence (25%):
- Build and manage resourcing, investment plans, and scalable systems/tools
- Define rules of engagement across internal and external stakeholders
- Ensure rigor in contracts, negotiations, and value exchange modeling
- Continuously measure and optimize partner performance and economics
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 200,000 customers and a multi-billion dollar valuation. 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 will see it reach key profitability benchmarks. It continues to consolidate its platform, for example by integrating with OpenComp to grant its users access to the company's Compensation Intelligence Platform.
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
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits, plus a variety of mental health resources
- Flexible vacation - Gusties are encouraged to take the time off they need to continue doing great work
- Fertility treatments, parental leave, pregnancy termination, caregiving, gender-affirming surgery, hormone treatments, transgender-inclusive services, and more
- If you work at one of our homebases, enjoy food, drinks, and good conversation — on us
- Celebrate 5 or 10 years at Gusto and take a month off to recharge
- Take advantage of internet, phone, commuter, and wellness stipends each month, along with a WFH stipend and cash for anniversaries
Company HQ
Central Waterfront, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Joshua Reeves
(CEO)Studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford and went onto co-found Gusto in 2011.
Tomer London
(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
(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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