Senior Product Design Manager, Payroll

About the role

Lead end-to-end design for Payroll — shaping experiences that help small businesses pay their teams correctly, on time, and with confidence.
Define and communicate the long-term UX vision for Payroll, and rally multiple teams around it.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Data, Ops and others to set strategy and roadmaps.
Lead product initiatives where AI and automation are central to the user experience, simplifying payroll and reducing manual work without compromising accuracy or trust.
Collaborate with Research and Data to uncover customer insights and translate them into clear, actionable UX priorities.
Influence product and technical roadmaps by advocating for design quality, customer needs, and long-term system health.
Set the quality and judgment standard for all design work — whether AI-assisted or not — including when to push further and when outputs meet the bar.
Define and scale shared patterns, principles, and standards that promote quality, consistency, and velocity.
Manage and grow a team of designers, providing mentorship, clear direction, and hands-on support across the team.
Champion the Payroll experience as the foundation of Gusto's broader People Platform, ensuring seamless integration across Benefits, Time & Attendance, and third-party tools.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end design for Payroll — shaping experiences that help small businesses pay their teams correctly, on time, and with confidence.
Define and communicate the long-term UX vision for Payroll, and rally multiple teams around it.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Data, Ops and others to set strategy and roadmaps.
Lead product initiatives where AI and automation are central to the user experience, simplifying payroll and reducing manual work without compromising accuracy or trust.
Collaborate with Research and Data to uncover customer insights and translate them into clear, actionable UX priorities.
Influence product and technical roadmaps by advocating for design quality, customer needs, and long-term system health.
Set the quality and judgment standard for all design work — whether AI-assisted or not — including when to push further and when outputs meet the bar.
Define and scale shared patterns, principles, and standards that promote quality, consistency, and velocity.
Manage and grow a team of designers, providing mentorship, clear direction, and hands-on support across the team.
Champion the Payroll experience as the foundation of Gusto's broader People Platform, ensuring seamless integration across Benefits, Time & Attendance, and third-party tools.

Requirements

8–10+ years of product design experience, with at least 3 years leading and managing design teams.
Experience designing in complex domains i.e. financial products, healthcare, or similarly regulated environments.
Experience setting UX direction across multiple teams and influencing product strategy — not just executing on it.
Experience leading product initiatives where AI or automation is central to the user experience — including how to represent uncertainty, surface errors gracefully, and preserve user agency when automation gets it wrong, particularly in high-stakes contexts.
Demonstrated ability to assess AI-generated design directions: knowing when to use them, when to override them, and how to raise the quality bar on AI outputs.
Proven ability to drive alignment across cross-functional partners and represent design in high-stakes, strategic conversations.
Deep systems thinking, with a track record of turning interconnected, complex workflows into experiences that feel simple and intuitive.
Experience leading a team through an AI workflow transition — not just adopting AI personally, but changing how a team works, including establishing new norms and standards.
Clear, direct communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to explain design decisions and influence partners at all levels.

Qualifications

A genuine bond to Gusto's mission and the needs of small businesses.

Skills

Experience designing in complex domains i.e. financial products, healthcare, or similarly regulated environments.
Experience setting UX direction across multiple teams and influencing product strategy — not just executing on it.
Experience leading product initiatives where AI or automation is central to the user experience — including how to represent uncertainty, surface errors gracefully, and preserve user agency when automation gets it wrong, particularly in high-stakes contexts.
Demonstrated ability to assess AI-generated design directions: knowing when to use them, when to override them, and how to raise the quality bar on AI outputs.
Proven ability to drive alignment across cross-functional partners and represent design in high-stakes, strategic conversations.
Deep systems thinking, with a track record of turning interconnected, complex workflows into experiences that feel simple and intuitive.
Experience leading a team through an AI workflow transition — not just adopting AI personally, but changing how a team works, including establishing new norms and standards.
Clear, direct communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to explain design decisions and influence partners at all levels.

Benefits

All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

Pay

Compensation Details: At Gusto, we strive to provide rewards that empower employees to achieve their financial and personal goals. We offer competitive compensation packages with a strong emphasis on equity based compensation (ownership in Gusto). To learn more about Gusto’s compensation philosophy and benefits offerings please view our Total Rewards Approach page.

Schedule

Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above. Employees who are based in Gusto's physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City 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.