People Partner - Product and Product Design

The Wrap; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 154,000 - 223,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity (RSUs)

Job summary

Gusto is seeking a high-ownership People Business Partner to support Product & Design. You will partner with leaders, drive core People programs, and translate strategy into action in a fast-growing tech environment.

The role blends hands-on execution with data-driven insights, enables organizational changes, and requires building trust through follow-through. Hybrid work is expected across our SF, Denver, and NYC offices.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of HRBP or People Partner experience in tech.
• Able to partner with Product Management and Product Design leaders.
• Experience running end-to-end people initiatives in high-growth environments.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted partnerships with Product Management and Product Design leaders.
• Synthesize People data into actionable reads for leadership.
• Operate core talent programs: performance cycles, calibrations, promotions, manager enablement.
• Maintain high-performance standards and clear expectations across orgs.
• Act as liaison between Product teams and broader People function.
• Own end-to-end change initiatives, including transition planning and comms.

Skills

HRBP experience

Cross-functional partner

Data-driven

Job description

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 the Role:

We're looking for a high-ownership People Business Partner to support our Product and Design organizations at Gusto. This role serves as a trusted partner to leaders across some of our most cross‑functional, fast‑moving teams at Gusto. This role blends high‑trust business partnership with hands‑on execution. You'll partner with leaders through organizational changes, drive core People programs and operating rhythms, and act as the connective tissue between Product & Design and the broader People team. The leaders you'll support have strong points of view and deep context - you add value by stress‑testing their thinking, then making it happen. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable analyzing data to surface a team health trend, running a clean reorg end‑to‑end, and building a lightweight process that makes a program actually land. This role is designed for someone who operates with high ownership, has a strong bias toward action, and earns trust with follow‑through, not slide decks. We're in an active build phase - this role requires someone who arrives ready to construct, not inherit.

About the Team:

Gusto's People team is growing and scaling with the company! As our business scales and becomes more complex, and as we add hundreds of new Gusties each year, we need to ensure that our strategies for engagement with our employees are positive, engaging, values‑driven and compliant.

Here’s what you’ll do day‑to‑day:

• Build trusted partnerships with Product Management and Product Design leaders - understanding what's happening in their teams, surfacing friction early, and navigating performance management, promotions, leveling, and employee relations matters with good judgment.
• Synthesize People data - engagement survey, performance cycles, attrition signals, headcount trends - into clear, actionable reads for Product and Design leaders before they have to ask.
• Support and operationalize core talent programs including performance cycles, calibration discussions, promotion processes, and manager enablement.
• Reinforce high performance standards, accountability, and clarity around expectations, feedback, and growth across Product Management and Product Design.
• Serve as the liaison between Product & Design and Gusto's broader People team (Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, L&D, People Ops), translating company‑wide programs into what they mean for product and design orgs - and surfacing that context back to the center.
• When org changes are decided, own end‑to‑end execution - transition planning, communication sequencing, Workday updates, leader enablement, and follow‑through until nothing is left unresolved.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• Relevant Experience: 10+ years of HRBP or People Partner experience, with meaningful time supporting Product Management, Product Design, or similar cross‑functional product organizations in a high‑growth tech company. Track record of executing complex People initiatives end‑to‑end - org changes, performance cycles, talent calibrations - owning the process and outcome, not just the advisory role.
• High‑Ownership Executor: Blends high‑trust business partnership with hands‑on execution - earns credibility through follow‑through, not decks, and owns the details, dependencies, and timeline without being pushed.
• Program Partner and COE Integrator: Acts as the connective tissue between Product Management, Product Design, and the wider People team, staying accountable for outcomes while pulling in the right COE capability - and builds those relationships proactively.
• Builder & AI‑Native: Builds lightweight, scalable People processes and reaches for AI to do it, without waiting for a perfect framework. Knows when to iterate on what AI gives them and when to keep the human in the loop.
• High Judgment, Low Bureaucracy: Applies People principles without creating unnecessary process - assesses risk and nuance quickly, and knows when a situation needs a scalable solution versus a good answer now.
• Comfortable Navigating Ambiguity and Driving Transformation: Operates effectively without perfect information, brings structure to complexity, and leads through change - ideally at Gusto‑scale or larger.
• Comfortable in the Data: Willing to dig into survey results, performance or attrition cuts, or comp tools - bringing a clear read to a leader conversation rather than a referral.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is between $154,405 - $189,989/year in Denver, between $181,275 - $223,573/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.

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.