Senior Compensation Partner, Gusto
$181-223.6k
2-3 days a week in office
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
Posted today
Automated payroll, benefits & HR platform
1001+ employees
Posted today
$181-223.6k
2-3 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To grow the small business economy.
Role
Who you are
- 8+ years of experience in Compensation, Total Rewards, People Operations, or a related analytical function — ideally in a high-growth technology environment
- AI fluency: hands-on experience using AI tools or automation to accelerate analysis or synthesis, paired with strong judgment around trust and validation
- Hands-on experience running compensation cycles (merit, equity, benchmarking) and building scalable programs from early-stage to maturity
- Survey benchmarking fluency: direct experience with Radford/Aon, Mercer, Carta, or comparable compensation survey tools and methodologies
- Systems-first orientation: experience building durable workflows, automating reports, or designing operating mechanisms that reduce recurring manual work
- Strong analytical foundation: advanced spreadsheet skills (Excel, Google Sheets), comfort with data modeling, and experience building dashboards or visualizations that leaders actually use
- Knowledge of compensation and employment law, including FLSA, pay transparency statutes, and pay equity frameworks — or foundational knowledge with a clear drive to build expertise
- Clear, concise communicator who can translate complex pay data into narratives and recommendations for non-specialist audiences, including executives
- Comfort operating at multiple altitudes — from hands-on analysis and modeling to advising leadership on compensation philosophy and strategy
- High integrity and intellectual curiosity; someone who asks hard questions about fairness and market position, and isn't satisfied with the status quo
- Background in Mathematics, Finance, Statistics, Economics, or a related quantitative field is preferred but not required
What the job involves
- The Senior Compensation Partner is a core member of Gusto's People team, responsible for building and scaling the compensation programs that help us attract, retain, and reward top talent
- This role exists to bring rigor, fairness, and strategic clarity to how Gusto thinks about pay — operating at the intersection of data, policy, and people
- Operating with a systems-first, AI-aware mindset, the Senior Compensation Partner uses automation, scalable workflows, and well-designed tooling to improve decision quality, ensure compliance, and reduce reliance on manual, one-off analysis
- This role partners closely with HR Business Partners, Finance, Legal, and business leaders to ensure our compensation programs are grounded in market reality and aligned to our values
- Success in this role is measured by the quality and fairness of compensation decisions, the scalability and reliability of our programs, and the degree to which the organization can operate with confidence — without constant intervention or heroics
- Gusto's compensation function, built on first-principles thinking, is at an inflection point — scaling from early foundations to a mature, high-trust operation. You'll have real ownership to shape how we design and deliver compensation as the company grows
- Develop, implement, and communicate Gusto's compensation programs, policies, and procedures, ensuring internal equity, external competitiveness, and alignment with business strategy
- Partner with and influence key stakeholders — including HRBPs, Finance, and senior leadership — to translate compensation philosophy into clear, actionable programs
- Lead annual compensation cycles (merit, equity refresh, benchmarking) and own the end-to-end process from data collection through communication
- Perform market analyses and compensation studies using survey data (e.g., Radford/Aon, Mercer, Pave) to recommend pay ranges, job levels, and offer positioning
- Use AI tools and automation thoughtfully to accelerate analysis, synthesize benchmarking data, and reduce planning and reporting load — while maintaining sound judgment around data quality and decision guardrails
- Design and maintain scalable compensation workflows and tooling — automating recurring analyses, audit processes, and reporting so programs run reliably without manual intervention
- Build and maintain compensation dashboards and data visualizations that give leaders real-time insight into pay equity, market positioning, and budget utilization
- Craft competitive, compelling offers to attract top-tier talent, and build playbooks to help recruiters and HRBPs communicate Gusto's total rewards story
- Ensure ongoing compliance with federal, state, and local pay regulations — including pay transparency laws, FLSA classification standards, and emerging pay equity requirements — and proactively flag legislative changes
- Partner with People Operations to integrate and optimize HRIS and compensation tools, ensuring data accuracy and system scalability as the company grows
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 co-founders of Gusto all come from small business backgrounds, which is why they created a platform 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 position in a competitive market, including the likes of Ardius, Symmetry and Guideline.
Through its continued acquisitions and fundraising efforts, the company has carved out a strong position for itself in the space. It continues to expand its platform, for example by partnering with Parafin to launch a payroll line of credit for small businesses, and more recently launching Cofounder, an AI teammate tailored to the needs of small businesses.
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
- 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
- Paid vacation, sick time, bereavement, and holidays, paid leaves, sabbatical, and more
- Free meals and refreshments at the office (conversation and community is an added bonus!)
Company HQ
Central Waterfront, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Joshua Reeves
(CEO & Co-Founder)Studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford and went onto co-found Gusto in 2011.
Tomer London
(CPO & Co-Founder)Has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. Was a Researcher at Intel, and then interned at Bump Technologies. Co-founded Vizmo before co-founding Gusto in 2011.
Edward Kim
(Head of Technology & Co-Founder)Studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford. Was Senior Project Engineer at Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Lab and then co-founded Picwing before co-founding Gusto in 2011.
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