Head of Brand Studio New Denver, CO;San Francisco, CA;New York, NY;Seattle, WA;Toronto, Ontario[...]

Gusto; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Gusto seeks a visionary Creative Director for its in-house Brand Studio to lead and inspire a team in crafting high-impact marketing deliverables. This role requires exceptional leadership and creativity to align brand design with business objectives, making a powerful impact in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in brand design, advertising, or creative direction.
• Strong management and mentorship skills.
• Expert-level design and brand craft.

Responsibilities

• Lead and empower a team of designers and creatives.
• Define and evolve brand’s visual identity across platforms.
• Ensure creative execution is cohesive and impactful.

Skills

Leadership

Creativity

Brand Strategy

Team Management

Communication

Job description

About Gusto

Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.

Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy .

About the Role:

We’re looking for an inspiring, visionary leader for our small but mighty in-house Brand Studio. This is a unique opportunity for a creative powerhouse who thrives in a fast-moving, high-impact environment—someone who can set the creative vision, build and implement a scalable approach to brand design, and empower a talented team while staying hands-on in the work.

As the leader of our Brand Studio team, you’ll oversee the creation of high-impact creative across a range of marketing deliverables—including our website, brand advertising, social campaigns, digital displays, email, and landing pages. You’ll also work closely with our Product Design team to ensure our brand is well represented in our product experiences, with a particular focus on collaboration with our Growth Design team. You’ll guide your team to produce work that is not only visually stunning but also strategically effective, driving engagement and brand affinity.

We need someone with exceptional taste, craft, and leadership skills who can build collaborative partnerships with marketing, product, and founders to elevate our brand. You’ll foster a culture of creative excellence, and ensure our work is bold, distinctive, and unmistakably Gusto. You’ll also wear your business hat, measuring impact and ensuring that everything we create is not just beautiful but also moves the needle.

This role is empowered by our Chief Design Officer, Amy Thibodeau.

About the Team:

At Gusto, we believe a cohesive brand is a strategic advantage. We have an opportunity to build a world-class brand that reflects our deep love for small businesses, and we’re looking for someone to lead this effort. You’ll be responsible for defining and maintaining a cohesive brand identity that aligns with our brand and company strategy, and ensure that every design choice augments and reinforces who we are and how we want to show up in the world.

If you love executing, leading with vision, and building a design system that makes every interaction with our brand feel cohesive and powerful, we’d love to meet you.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Set the Creative Vision: Define and evolve our brand’s visual identity, voice, and storytelling across all platforms with a focus on our owned web properties like Gusto.com, and marketing channels
• Lead & Inspire: Manage, mentor, and empower a team of designers, writers, and creatives, fostering a culture of collaboration, feedback, and innovation.
• Ensure Brand Consistency: Oversee creative execution across website, digital, tv, social, product marketing, and events, ensuring every touchpoint is cohesive and impactful.
• Be Hands-On: While leading strategy, roll up your sleeves when needed—whether it's concepting, reviewing work, or jumping in to refine a campaign.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Work closely with Marketing, Product, and Gusto Senior Leadership to align creative strategy with business objectives and internal client needs.
• Operationally Excellent: Deliver high quality creative on time, at a high velocity, aligned with stakeholder expectations and briefs.
• Client Service Mindset: Ensure internal teams—our clients—feel heard, supported, and excited by the creative process and outcomes.
• Approve Final Assets: Provide clear, high-quality creative direction and sign off on final deliverables to maintain brand integrity.
• Measure Creative Impact: Define and track KPIs for brand and creative success, ensuring we’re delivering measurable results.
• Drive Innovation: Stay ahead of design, storytelling, and brand trends, pushing creative boundaries while maintaining brand integrity.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 15+ years of experience in brand design, advertising, or creative direction, preferably in startups, tech, or consumer brands.
• Proven track record of leading and growing creative teams, with strong management and mentorship skills.
• Expert-level design and brand craft—you have exceptional taste and can articulate what makes great creative work great.
• Experience working across multiple mediums (digital, video, print, social, experiential, etc.).
• Deep understanding of brand strategy, storytelling, and user experience.
• Ability to balance creativity with business impact, aligning creative work with company objectives.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills—you know how to advocate for great creative while bringing people along.
• Resilient, adaptable, and excited to thrive in a fast-paced, get-stuff-done startup environment.
• Experience with TV advertising, commercial production, or high-impact brand campaigns is a plus.
• Background in design systems and product marketing creative is preferred.
• Knowledge of growth marketing and performance-driven creative, and familiarity withAI and emerging creative technologies is also a plus.

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.

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.

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Enter manually

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Preferred Name *

Zip Code / Postal Code (Non-U.S. based candidates, please enter "00000") *

LinkedIn Profile

How did you hear about this opportunity? (select all that apply) *

LinkedIn

Indeed

Facebook

News Article

Conference or Meetup

Company Blog

Company Employee

Company Website

Are you legally authorized to work in the country where you are applying? * Select...

Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship for employment? * Select...

If you’ll require this employer to commence, i.e., “sponsor,” an immigration or work permit case in order to employ you, either now or at some point in the future, then you should answer yes. An example of an immigration or work permit case that may require sponsorship now or in the future would be an H-1B or other employment-based work permit sponsorship.

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

How would you describe your gender identity (please select one)? * Select...

I identify as transgender (please select one): * Select...

I identify my sexual orientation as (please select one): * Select...

I identify my race/ethnicity as (mark all that apply): * Select...

Veteran Status (please select one): * Select...

I have a disability (please select one): * Select...

I identify as a first-generation professional (please select one): * Select...