Compensation Partner New San Francisco, CA - Hybrid

Gusto; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 106,000 - 131,000; Full time

Job summary

Gusto, a leading payroll and HR technology company, is seeking a Compensation Partner to join its People team. You will own compensation programs, ensure data integrity, and partner with HRBPs, Finance, and Legal to align with market reality.

The role emphasizes AI-driven automation and scalable processes essential for growth in San Francisco, Denver, and New York. You will model pay ranges, support annual cycles, and deliver insights through reports and dashboards.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in Compensation or Total Rewards
• AI fluency with ability to validate outputs
• Strong analytical foundation with spreadsheets and models
• Attention to detail and deadline-driven work
• Exposure to compensation fundamentals such as salary bands and offer modeling
• Comfort handling highly confidential information
• Clear, concise written communication
• Interest in compensation law (FLSA, pay equity)
• Intellectual curiosity and rigorous thinking
• Quantitative background preferred (math/finance/economics)

Responsibilities

• Support compensation programs across merit, promotions, and equity refresh
• Serve as first point of contact for compensation questions from HRBPs, recruiters, and managers
• Manage annual compensation cycles from data collection to communication
• Benchmark pay using surveys and prepare pay-range recommendations
• Model recommendations against bands and internal equity comparisons
• Maintain data integrity across systems (Workday, Pave, bands)
• Prepare recurring reports and ad hoc analyses for People and Finance
• Leverage AI to automate recurring analysis and reporting while validating outputs
• Ensure compliance with pay regulations and postings
• Document and improve compensation processes for repeatability

Skills

AI fluency

Advanced spreadsheets

Attention to detail

Data integrity

Communication

Regulatory awareness

Analytical thinking

Confidential information handling

Math/Finance background

Tools

Workday

Pave

Radford/Aon benchmarking

Job 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. 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 the Role:

The Compensation Partner is a core member of Gusto's People team, supporting compensation programs that help us attract, retain, and reward top talent. This role is the operational engine of the compensation function: the person who makes sure our programs run accurately, on time, and consistently for every Gustie.

Operating with a systems-first, AI-native mindset, the Compensation Partner uses automation and well-designed workflows to handle recurring analysis, audits, and reporting with speed and precision. This role partners closely with HR Business Partners, Finance, Legal, and business leaders to ensure our compensation programs are grounded in market reality and aligned to our values.

Success in this role is measured by the accuracy and timeliness of compensation data and deliverables, the reliability of the programs you support, and your growing ability to answer questions independently rather than escalating them.

Gusto's compensation function, built on first-principles thinking, is at an inflection point — scaling from early foundations to a mature, high-trust operation. You'll have real ownership to shape how we design and deliver compensation as the company grows.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Support the execution of Gusto's compensation programs and cycles, including merit, promotion, and equity refresh, handling data preparation, validation, tracking, and follow-through.
• Serve as a first point of contact for compensation questions from HRBPs, recruiters, and managers, resolving requests and escalating the ones that need extra attention.
• Manage annual compensation cycles (merit, equity refresh, benchmarking) from data collection through communication.
• Conduct job matching and market benchmarking using survey data (Radford/Aon, Mercer, Pave) and prepare recommendations on pay ranges and offer positioning for review.
• Model and prepare new hire, promotion, and internal transfer recommendations against approved bands and internal equity comparisons.
• Maintain compensation data integrity across Workday, Pave, and our compensation bands, running recurring audits and reconciling discrepancies before they reach downstream processes.
• Prepare recurring reports and dashboards on pay positioning, band utilization, and cycle progress, and produce ad hoc analysis for partners across People and Finance.
• Use AI tools and automation to take manual work out of recurring analysis, audits, and reporting, with sound judgment about when output needs to be validated.
• Support compliance with federal, state, and local pay regulations, including pay transparency postings, FLSA classification reviews, and annual survey submissions.
• Document and improve compensation processes so that the work is repeatable, auditable, and not dependent on any one person's memory.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 3+ years of experience in Compensation, Total Rewards, People Operations, or a related analytical function - ideally in a high-growth technology environment.
• AI fluency: hands-on experience using AI tools to accelerate analysis, research, or documentation, paired with good instincts about when to trust and when to verify.
• Strong analytical foundation: advanced spreadsheet skills (Excel, Google Sheets) including lookups, pivots, and formula-driven models, and the ability to spot when a number looks wrong.
• Exceptional attention to detail and a track record of owning recurring, deadline-driven work without dropped threads.
• Exposure to compensation fundamentals such as salary bands, job leveling, market benchmarking, or offer modeling, or clear evidence of the analytical aptitude and curiosity to pick them up quickly.
• Comfort handling highly confidential information with discretion and consistency.
• Clear, concise written communication, with the ability to explain a number or a process simply to someone who does not work in compensation.
• Interest in compensation and employment law (FLSA, pay transparency, pay equity), with a drive to build real expertise over time.
• High integrity and intellectual curiosity; someone who asks why a process works the way it does instead of just running it.
• Background in Mathematics, Finance, Statistics, Economics, or a related quantitative field is preferred but not required.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is between $87,660 - $108,114/year in Denver and between $106,385 - $131,208/year for New York/San Francisco. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, 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.

Voluntary Self-Identification

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it helps us to build better products, better serve our customers, and makes our company stronger.

In addition to the information required to consider your application, below is a set of demographic questions that help us identify areas for improvement in our process and further support the development and execution of our diversity efforts and programs as well as to create a more inclusive environment for all employees.

Your responses to these questions will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file. Your responses, or your wish not to answer, will not be associated with your specific application, will not be shared with hiring managers, and will not in any way be used in making any employment decisions, including hiring decisions.

Please use this as a reference while completing the disability self-identification:

You are considered to have a disability if you have a physical or mental impairment or medical condition that substantially limits a major life activity, or if you have a history or record of such an impairment or medical condition. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

• Blindness
• Deafness
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Epilepsy
• Autism
• Cerebral palsy
• HIV/AIDS
• Bipolar disorder
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Impairments requiring the use of a wheelchair