Gusto, Inc.
Principal Product Manager, Core Experiences
Job Summary
This role involves leading the long-term product strategy for Gusto’s Design System and core experience initiatives, with a focus on enabling internal teams to build cohesive app experiences efficiently. The candidate will collaborate across multiple disciplines to drive roadmaps, prioritize features, and spearhead innovative solutions grounded in user needs. Qualified applicants should have at least 5 years of product experience, particularly in platform, design systems, or UX, and possess strong communication and systems thinking skills. The position offers high ownership, impact, and the opportunity to contribute to a mission-driven company supporting small and medium-sized businesses.
Required Skills
Benefits
Job Description
About Gusto
Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.
Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.
By the Numbers:
- Named #1 best software for small business of 2024 by G2
- 2,700+ employees in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Turkiye and growing
- Over $500M in annual revenue
- The SMB market is large (and growing!) with huge opportunities for Gusto to make an incredible impact for SMBs
- There are 6.2M employers in the US, 98% have fewer than 100 employees (1)
- 550,000 new businesses are created each year in the US (1)
What Product Management is like at Gusto:
- We’re looking for high-autonomy, entrepreneurial Product Managers to come build high-impact solutions for small businesses and their employees. We believe in high-ownership Product Managers who operate like business owners - owning an entire roadmap end to end and shipping product all the way from strategy through to the nitty gritty details (some describe this kind of role as a “GM” type role).
- Our Product team is lean, which means you’ll have a high degree of impact and ownership.
- We’re here to serve small and medium businesses. Gusto has a strong mission-driven culture, and we care deeply about lifting up these business owners.
About the Team:
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, easy to use and feels custom-built for the unique needs of their business.
This role will support the dedicated Gusto Design Systems team which sits within the Core Experiences group, while also taking on strategic initiatives spanning beyond Design Systems.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
- Ownership: Craft a holistic vision grounded in user needs and lead the long-term product strategy for our Design System as well as additional strategic Core Experience initiatives.
- North Star: Your goal is to enable internal gusto R&D teams to build end-to-end app experiences more quickly and consistently while also driving significant progress in strategic Core Experience initiatives.
- Collaborate: Work closely with Design, Engineering, Data, and peer product teams to drive the roadmap forward. You’ll also manage dependencies and mitigate roadblocks that could impact the design system's development or adoption.
- Problem Framing & Research: Use Design Thinking to reframe ambiguous problems and inject user-led validation early in the lifecycle.
- Roadmapping & Prioritization: Manage the system like a product, prioritize design impact and add new layers of insight while sequencing work and shipping iteratively.
- Innovation: Identify or take the lead on net-new strategic initiatives that need deeper innovation through systems thinking and develop concepts that lead to roadmap initiatives.
- Measure & Communicate: Define success metrics that reflect adoption, usage, system health, and UX impact. You will demonstrate how the system drives org-wide value—even when that value is indirect—and advocate for its role as a core platform investment.
Here’s what we're looking for:
- 8+ years of direct product experience
- Demonstrated Platform experience and combination of systems thinking, user empathy, and vision-driven approach to Platform product management
- Experience driving cross-functional AI initiatives from inception
- Strong background in Design, UX, Design Systems or equivalent
- Proven track record of successfully leading complex projects from concept to launch
- 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
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.
Our cash compensation amount for this role is $181,000/yr to $223,000/yr in Denver & most major metro locations, and $212,000/yr to $262,000/yr for San Francisco, Seattle & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.
Where do PMs at Gusto work?
We have offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York and have remote team members across the US and Canada. We are actively hiring for the following Centers of Gravity: Toronto, Canada, Atlanta, GA, Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Denver, CO, Los Angeles, CA, Miami, FL, and Seattle, WA. Our open roles will specify on the careers page and in the job description where the position is eligible for work.
(1) Business Applications with Planned Wages (www.census.gov)
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.
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.
Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.
Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.
Gusto, Inc.
A platform offering payroll, benefits, and HR management services tailored for small and medium-sized businesses.
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