Staff Product Designer, Retirement

About Gusto

At Gusto were on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stufflike payroll health insurance 401(k)s and HRso owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver San Francisco and New York were proud to support more than 400000 small businesses across the country and were building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

About Design at Gusto:

Product 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. Were a cross-functional group that is always looking for opportunities to build understanding and empathy for the people who use Gusto. We dont care much about swim lanes and though we care deeply about quality and craft we are never precious about it. We work closely with cross-functional partners in Product Engineering Data and Marketing to design build and ship experiences that make a real difference. We believe great design can make hard things possible even delightful.

We are building an AI-native design organization and we mean that seriously. Were looking for designers who are already working this way: using AI to prototype ideas quickly shorten customer feedback loops and ship quality UX directly to customers. This isnt a future aspiration its how we work now and its changing what the design role looks like at Gusto and across the industry.

About the Team:

The Retirement team at Gusto builds financial products and services that help bridge the retirement gap for small business owners and their employees. With 401(k) plans designed to be affordable easy to manage and easy to understand Gusto is working to make retirement accessible to small businesses and teams that have historically been underserved by the 401(k) market.

Were a collaborative group that values creativity transparency and a deep respect for our craft. We hold ourselves to a high bar and actively support one another so that we can do our best work. Our process incorporates using AI in our daily workflows to move faster explore ideas and increase our impact. From building tools that help individuals navigate their financial future to new retirement offerings the Retirement team plays a central role in contributing to Gustos mission.

About the Role:

Were hiring a Staff Product Designer to partner with Product Engineering Data (and Research) to shape strategy align partner teams and create a cohesive high-trust retirement experience across the employer and employee journey. Youll operate as the design lead for your projectsco-owning priorities success metrics and driving alignment across Retirement and key partner teams (Payroll Benefits Support/Ops). Your scope will include:

• Improving both setup and account management to boost confidence adoption and retention to reduce contact rate and confusion.
• Creating a more connected journey between payroll and retirement by designing across the seams of product operations and supportwhere the hardest and most interesting problems live.
• Designing flexible scalable patterns across Retirement integrating seamlessly with adjacent payroll and benefits touchpoints. Apply discerning design judgment to determine when and how to effectively incorporate AI to enhance the experience.

If youre energized by ambiguous problem spaces high-trust financial experiences and designing workflows that make complex decisions feel clear and confidentthis role is for you.

Heres what youll do day-to-day:

• Strategic Vision & Partnership: Partner with Product Management to define the customer problems to solve the strategy to solve them and the measurable outcomes that matteracross activation engagement and retention.
• Data and research informed iteration: Collaborate with Data and Research to understand funnel drop-offs behavior over time retention drivers as well as define success metrics and iterate based on what you learn.
• Design Leadership & Ownership: Drive the full design process for shipped experiencesscoping and sequencing work prototyping testing and delivering MVP iteration longer-term improvements.
• Trust compliance design: Translate regulatory/tax-driven requirements into clear flows content and UI patterns that build trust without overwhelming customers.
• Communication & Storytelling: Craft compelling product narratives that align cross-functional stakeholders around the problem strategic options and tradeoffs clearly explaining the reasoning behind design decisions and outcomes.
• Elevating Craft & Mentorship: Provide thoughtful critique and mentorship to design peers; raise the quality bar across the organization. Be an innovation driver with using and designing for AI.
• System Advocacy & Evolution: Champion the design system and contribute patterns/components that improve cohesion and quality.
• AI-Accelerated Prototyping & Learning: Use AI to move quickly from concept to customer-tested artifact building clickable high-fidelity prototypes that generate real signal faster than traditional methods allow. Bring a clear point of view on where AI enhances the customer experience not just your workflow and help raise the teams fluency through your example.

Heres what were looking for:

Weve found that a low ego a growth mindset and a bias for action go a long way here.

• 8 years in product design with a portfolio showing end-to-end shipped work and the impact it drove
• High bar for craft across interaction design information architecture and visual designespecially for complex form-heavy workflows
• Bonus: Experience in regulated/high-trust domains (fintech taxes insurance healthcare benefits/retirement)
• Demonstrable AI fluency in your design practice not just familiarity with tools but evidence of AI changing how you prototype test and ship. Well ask you to show this not just describe it.
• Comfort moving between design and code whether that means shipping UI improvements directly working closely in the codebase with engineers or using AI-assisted tools to close the gap between prototype and production.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and shaping messy inputs into clear goals tradeoffs and shipped outcomes
• Bonus: Comfortable tackling content design aspects (making complex concepts understandable)
• Building strong partnerships with Product Engineering and Data to prioritize execute and iterate
• Systems thinker who designs solutions that scale beyond one-off screens and hold up across a product ecosystem
• Bonus: Have contributed to growing a Design system with components or patterns
• Bring a clear point of view engage in constructive feedback and help teams align quickly by clarifying tradeoffs and driving decisions forward
• Track record leading multi-workstream initiatives across teamssetting direction unblocking partners and shipping measurable improvements

At Gusto we strive to provide rewards that empower employees to achieve their financial and personal goals. We offer competitive compensation packages with a strong emphasis on equity based compensation (ownership in Gusto). To learn more about Gustos compensation philosophy and benefits offerings please view our Total Rewards Approach page.

Our cash compensation range for this role is $146000/yr to $183000/yr in Denver & most remote locations and $177000/yr to $222000/yr in San Francisco Seattle & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate 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 Gustos 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 its 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.

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Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject toGustos Applicant Privacy Notice.