About Gusto
At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 500,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve.
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.
AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.
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 team
Contractors play a huge role in our economy, and are becoming more prevalent every year. Contract work offers flexibility and independence for workers, and hiring contractors helps small business owners scale quickly and access specialized skills. Our Contractors team helps small and medium business owners (SMBs) hire, manage, and pay domestic and international contractors. We also help contractors manage their client engagements and build their own thriving businesses.
About the role
As a staff product designer, you’ll help bring our contractor products to maturity. You’ll be the IC design leader across this area, driving foundational shifts to our platform and customer experiences. This is a unique opportunity to make major experience changes to established, business critical workflows. As part of the cross-functional leadership team, you’ll drive the entire product development process from setting the long-term vision to strategic planning; all the way to launching new features and iterating on existing ones.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day
- Drive end-to-end design strategy and execution across the contractors experience from discovery and visioning through iterative delivery and refinement. 
- Partner with product, engineering, research, data, legal, compliance, operations, and support to define problem spaces, align on priorities, and deliver solutions that meet both customer and business needs. 
- Translate insights from research and data into intuitive, scalable experiences that support a variety of customer workflows. 
- Champion thoughtful, inclusive design by participating in design reviews, sharing feedback, and contributing to design standards and platform quality. 
- Bring genuine AI fluency to your design practice, using it to prototype quickly, shorten feedback loops, and improve contractor experiences.
- Mentor and support fellow designers by offering thoughtful critique, sharing knowledge, and contributing to design community initiatives across Gusto. 
Here’s what we're looking for:
- 8+ years of product design experience with demonstrated impact in complex domains. 
- Proven ability to lead design direction at the product level and influence cross-functional partners. 
- Strong collaboration experience with partners in product, engineering, research, and data. 
- A portfolio that demonstrates high-quality interaction and visual design with thoughtful consideration for accessibility and end-to-end user experiences. 
- Comfort translating ambiguity into clear design decisions and outcomes. 
- Strong communication skills with the ability to align teams around shared goals. 
- Demonstrated AI fluency in your design practice. You're using AI to move faster, prototype more, and get to better decisions.
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.
Our cash compensation range for this role is $146,000/yr to $183,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $177,000/yr to $222,000/yr in San Francisco & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.
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. This includes non-office days for hybrid employees.
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.