People Process Transformation Lead

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy.

We're looking for a strategic and execution-oriented Lead, Process Transformation to lead the evolution of our People Operations ecosystem.

Responsibilities

Lead People Process Transformation

• Develop and execute a multi-year strategy for transforming People Operations processes.
• Analyze end-to-end employee lifecycle workflows to identify friction, inefficiencies, redundancies, and opportunities for simplification.
• Redesign processes using Lean, service design, and automation principles.
• Consult with technical partners to understand how tooling, AI, and agentic solutions can support improved efficiency.
• Build business cases that quantify operational impact, employee experience improvements, and ROI.
• Prioritize transformation initiatives based on organizational impact, scalability, and strategic objectives.

Drive Technology-Enabled Improvements

• Partner closely with People Technology to implement technology solutions that improve operational efficiency.
• Evaluate opportunities to leverage workflow automation, AI, integrations, self-service capabilities, and system enhancements to drive prioritization for people technology.
• Ensure process design and technology decisions work together to create sustainable solutions.
• Balance configuration, workflow redesign, and policy changes to achieve desired outcomes.

Lead Operational Excellence

Provide leadership for:

• HRIS Operations - Own operational governance for core HR system transactions and data processing.
• Ensure operational accuracy, compliance, and service level achievement.
• Continuously improve throughput, quality, and controls.
• People Services - Lead the HR Service Center responsible for Tier 0/1 Gustie (employee) and People Empowerer (manager) support.
• Improve service delivery through knowledge management, self-service, case management optimization, and triage/query process improvements.
• Develop service metrics and continuously improve customer experience.

Establish Operational Governance

• Define operational standards, process ownership, documentation, and governance across People Operations.
• Create KPI dashboards measuring efficiency, quality, service levels, cycle times, automation adoption, and employee experience.
• Build mechanisms to continuously identify improvement opportunities through operational data and customer feedback.

Lead and Develop Teams

• Lead and coach managers and individual contributors across HRIS Operations and People Services.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, operational excellence, and customer-centric thinking.
• Build organizational capability in process improvement methodologies and change management.

Partner Across the Business

• Influence senior stakeholders across HR leadership, Finance, IT, Security, and Legal.
• Translate business priorities into operational improvements.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives requiring alignment across multiple organizations.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in People Operations, HR Operations, Business Operations, Process Excellence, Consulting, or related fields.
• 5+ years leading managers and operational teams.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-scale process transformation initiatives.
• Experience managing HR shared services, HR operations, HRIS operations, or similar service organizations.
• Strong understanding of HR technology ecosystems (Workday or comparable HRIS, case management platforms, workflow tools).
• Experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, business process management, or operational excellence methodologies.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to use operational metrics to drive decisions.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders without direct authority.
• Excellent executive communication and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in high-growth technology companies.
• Experience implementing HR technology or enterprise workflow platforms.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled workflow automation and employee support technologies.
• Lean Six Sigma certification or equivalent operational excellence training.
• Experience leading organizational change and large cross-functional programs.

Success Metrics

Within your first year, you will have:

• Established a transformation roadmap for People Operations.
• Identified and delivered measurable improvements in key employee lifecycle processes.
• Reduced manual work through workflow redesign and automation.
• Improved HR service center effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
• Increased operational visibility through standardized metrics and dashboards.
• Built a culture where continuous improvement becomes part of day-to-day operations.