Principal Product Operations Manager

About Gusto

At Gusto were 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 500000 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:

At Gusto building a great product and delivering a great service arent separate tracks they have to move together and thats what Service Transformation Product Operations exists to ensure. As a Principal Product Operations Manager youll own some of the most cross-cutting work in the Customer Experience org: shaping how new products and features come to market leading service design that identifies where AI can create the most leverage across the service experience and operating as the connective tissue between Product CX Engineering Legal and GTM. This is not a coordination role youll drive strategy build and deploy AI-powered workflows and bring rigor creativity and a bias toward execution to problems that dont yet have obvious answers.

About the Team:

The mission of our Service Transformation (ST) team is to evolve and scale how Gusto delivers outstanding service experiences and to leverage AI to do it faster and better. We design the systems processes and feedback loops that let Gustos product and service improve together continuously and reliably in a way that earns the trust of the small businesses we serve and the Gusto teams who serve them.

ST Product Operations is a cross-functional team sitting at the intersection of Product and CX responsible not just for making todays experience better but for shaping how new products and features come to market and how AI changes what great service looks like at scale. If something is broken we fix it. If something needs to be built we build it. If a new capability is ready to ship we make sure it lands well.

Heres what youll do day-to-day:

• Shape and drive strategy at the intersection of Gustos Product and Service orgs working closely with Engineering Design Product Management and Customer Experience to improve existing products launch net-new capabilities and ensure the service experience scales alongside them.
• Own the end-to-end CX strategy and implementation for net-new product and service launches from determining how customers will be supported to engaging external partners while ensuring every new capability meets Gustos rigorous service standards before and after it goes live.
• Lead strategic service design work alongside Product Management and CX teams mapping end-to-end service blueprints identifying where AI can augment or accelerate work done by service teams and designing the handoffs and escalation logic that keep quality high as automation scales.
• Build deploy and iterate on AI-powered workflows that improve how Gustos service operations run from automating intake and documentation to designing agentic systems that resolve customer needs faster and more reliably.
• Serve as an AI thought leader within ST Product Operations identify where AI can accelerate how the team works set the bar for how those opportunities get acted on and partner with teammates to propose build and adopt solutions that raise the baseline for everyone.
• Provide business insights and recommendations grounded in quantitative and qualitative data to influence both product and service roadmaps. Communicate in a way that drives action translating complex operational dynamics into clear direction for senior stakeholders.
• Identify and lead cross-functional initiatives that deliver measurable value for customers and for Gusto building the roadmap aligning stakeholders and seeing work through from framing to execution.

Heres what were looking for:

• 9 years of relevant experience in product operations service design business operations strategy or program management ideally at a company where you were building or improving a product and service simultaneously.
• Demonstrated track record working at the cutting edge of AI implementation over the last two to three years youve built agentic workflows automated service or operational processes using AI tooling or designed AI-assisted systems in production. Youre not learning to do this; youve done it.
• Experience with service design or service blueprinting you understand how to map a customer journey end-to-end identify failure points and design systems that hold up at scale.
• Proven ability to own and improve complex cross-functional launch or release processes you know what it takes to bring a product to market well and have built the coordination systems to make it repeatable.
• Strong results-orientation with the ability to extract and interpret data to identify trends and influence decisions comfortable doing this with or without AI assistance and fluent in knowing which approach fits the moment.
• Experienced at influencing senior stakeholders across Product Engineering CX Legal and Compliance in writing in design reviews and in high-stakes forums.
• Experience leading through change whether guiding a team driving an organizational transformation or helping others adapt to new systems and ways of working.
• Highly adaptable and able to create structure in ambiguous environments. Youve built the plane while flying it before and that energizes rather than exhausts you.
• Deep empathy for small business customers and a genuine obsession with making their experience better.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is $148085/yr to $182638/yr in Denver & most major metro locations and $167345/yr to $217549/yr for San Francisco & New York. 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 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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