Description
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.
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.
About the Role:
Gusto's Unified Service Platform (USP) is the infrastructure behind how small businesses get help when it matters most , AI-driven support, multi-channel service, and the human expertise that steps in when AI isn't enough.
We're looking for a Head of Design to lead the design team behind it and set the bar for what AI-native service design looks like at Gusto.
Responsibilities:
- Lead, coach, and grow a team of three designers (product + conversation design) , own their development, careers, performance, and craft growth, and create the conditions for them to do their best work.
- Own design direction and quality across USP , set the vision and the bar, and be accountable for the team's outcomes, not just its output.
- Stay hands-on where it matters most , as a player-coach, prototype and design the hardest flows and quartet-level artifacts yourself, not just review them; flex your hands-on time down as the team grows.
- Represent design on the USP quartet , co-lead product direction with PM, Engineering, and Data leaders; author strategy and POV in ambiguous spaces; drive convergence and close decisions.
- Set the standard for AI-native service design. This includes how trust, uncertainty, graceful failure, and AI-human handoffs show up on the platform.
- Guide service design end-to-end , journey mapping, blueprinting, and operational handoffs for a two-sided product , through your team.
- Champion an AI-native design practice , model and expect fluency with AI-native tools (Claude Code, Cursor, and comparable agentic tools) as part of the craft, and raise the floor for how the team designs.
- Partner on hiring and team building as the team grows.
Requirements:
- Experience managing and growing product designers , you've led a team, developed designers, run performance and growth, and built a healthy team culture.
- Design leadership in ambiguity , you set direction and a high craft bar, co-own strategy with cross-functional peers, and hold a position when the right answer is unpopular.
- AI-product judgment in consequential domains , you've shipped (or led teams that shipped) AI-mediated experiences in production, and can speak to uncertainty, errors, graceful failure, and human override.
- Service design depth , real journey mapping and blueprinting on two-sided products with operational handoffs, not workshop exercises.
- Hands-on AI fluency , you use AI-native tools yourself and can raise your team's fluency; you perceive AI as part of the craft, not separate from it.
- 12+ years of design experience, including 5+ years managing designers, with clear ownership of shipped work in a B2B SaaS environment.
Compensation Details:
Our cash compensation range for this role is $204,000/yr to $238,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $240,000/yr to $280,000/yr in San Francisco, Seattle & New York.