Senior Product Design Manager, Payroll

About Design at Gusto 

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.

About the Role:

For the hundreds of thousands of small businesses we serve, our mission starts with one of their most critical responsibilities: paying their team. Getting payroll right isn’t just a feature—it’s the foundation of trust with every business that relies on us.

As the Senior Product Design Manager, Payroll, you’ll lead design for one of Gusto’s most complex and business-critical product areas, shaping the future of a product that millions of people rely on for financial stability and personal prosperity. This is a high-impact, high-visibility role with broad scope. You’ll manage a team of designers and set the UX direction for Payroll, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Research, Data, Ops, Compliance, and others to take on payroll complexity so our customers don’t have to.

Your work will include simplifying complex, interconnected workflows, defining a long-term UX vision and rallying others around it, and leading automation and AI initiatives that make the work of paying a team disappear. You’ll also mentor designers, raise the bar for craft across the broader Design team, and contribute to platform standards that help others across Gusto build consistent, high-quality experiences.

About the Team:

Payroll is the foundation of Gusto and our most-used, most-loved product. It’s the first Gusto experience many customers interact with, and it continues to power their success as they grow. Payroll also underpins our broader ecosystem, enabling the adoption of Benefits, Time Tracking, HR tools, and so much more. Our team is tasked with evolving and scaling this core experience for small businesses of all sizes, from solo entrepreneurs to growing companies. We focus on taking on the complexity of payroll so our customers don’t have to—making payroll faster, more flexible, and increasingly hands off.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Lead end-to-end design for Payroll, shaping experiences that help small businesses pay their teams properly, 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 AI and automation initiatives that simplify payroll and reduce 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