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 strategic and execution-oriented Lead, Process Transformation to lead the evolution of our People Operations ecosystem. This leader will identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate people processes while ensuring operational excellence across our HRIS Operations and service delivery teams.
Reporting into the People Systems & Operations organization, this role sits at the intersection of strategy, technology, and operations. You'll partner across HR, Legal, Finance and business leaders to redesign how work gets done—from hire to retire—creating scalable experiences for employees, managers, and People teams.
In addition to leading enterprise process transformation initiatives, you'll oversee the teams responsible for executing our core people operations workflows, including HRIS Operations and People Services.
What You'll Do
Lead People Process Transformation
- Develop and execute a multi-year strategy for transforming People Operations processes.
- Analyze end-to-end employee lifecycle workflows to identify friction, inefficiencies, redundancies, and opportunities for simplification.
- Redesign processes using Lean, service design, and automation principles.
- Consult with technical partners to understand how tooling, AI and agentic solutions can support improved efficiency
- Build business cases that quantify operational impact, employee experience improvements, and ROI.
- Prioritize transformation initiatives based on organizational impact, scalability, and strategic objectives.
Drive Technology-Enabled Improvements
- Partner closely with People Technology to implement technology solutions that improve operational efficiency.
- Evaluate opportunities to leverage workflow automation, AI, integrations, self-service capabilities, and system enhancements to drive prioritization for people technology.
- Ensure process design and technology decisions work together to create sustainable solutions.
- Balance configuration, workflow redesign, and policy changes to achieve desired outcomes.
Lead Operational Excellence
Provide leadership for:
- HRIS Operations
- Own operational governance for core HR system transactions and data processing.
- Ensure operational accuracy, compliance, and service level achievement.
- Continuously improve throughput, quality, and controls.
- People Services
- Lead the HR Service Center responsible for Tier 0/1 Gustie (employee) and People Empowerer (manager) support.
- Improve service delivery through knowledge management, self-service, case management optimization, and triage/query process improvements.
- Develop service metrics and continuously improve customer experience.
Establish Operational Governance
- Define operational standards, process ownership, documentation, and governance across People Operations.
- Create KPI dashboards measuring efficiency, quality, service levels, cycle times, automation adoption, and employee experience.
- Build mechanisms to continuously identify improvement opportunities through operational data and customer feedback.
Lead and Develop Teams
- Lead and coach managers and individual contributors across HRIS Operations and People Services.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, operational excellence, and customer-centric thinking.
- Build organizational capability in process improvement methodologies and change management.
Partner Across the Business
- Influence senior stakeholders across HR leadership, Finance, IT, Security, and Legal.
- Translate business priorities into operational improvements.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives requiring alignment across multiple organizations.
What We're Looking For
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of experience in People Operations, HR Operations, Business Operations, Process Excellence, Consulting, or related fields.
- 5+ years leading managers and operational teams.
- Demonstrated success leading enterprise-scale process transformation initiatives.
- Experience managing HR shared services, HR operations, HRIS operations, or similar service organizations.
- Strong understanding of HR technology ecosystems (Workday or comparable HRIS, case management platforms, workflow tools).
- Experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, business process management, or operational excellence methodologies.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to use operational metrics to drive decisions.
- Proven ability to influence senior leaders without direct authority.
- Excellent executive communication and stakeholder management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in high-growth technology companies.
- Experience implementing HR technology or enterprise workflow platforms.
- Familiarity with AI-enabled workflow automation and employee support technologies.
- Lean Six Sigma certification or equivalent operational excellence training.
- Experience leading organizational change and large cross-functional programs.
Success in This Role
Within your first year, you will have:
- Established a transformation roadmap for People Operations.
- Identified and delivered measurable improvements in key employee lifecycle processes.
- Reduced manual work through workflow redesign and automation.
- Improved HR service center effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
- Increased operational visibility through standardized metrics and dashboards.
- Built a culture where continuous improvement becomes part of day-to-day operations.
Leadership Competencies
This leader excels at:
- Strategic systems thinking
- Operational excellence
- Customer obsession
- Data-driven decision making
- Organizational influence
- Change leadership
- Developing high-performing teams
- Balancing innovation with operational rigor
Our cash compensation amount for this role is $147,000/yr to $190,000/yr in Denver & most major metro locations, and $173,000/yr to $225,000/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.
This is a HYBRID role where you will be expected onsite Tuesday and Wednesday in either New York, Denver, San Francisco.
At Gusto, we don't use titles the traditional way, as a signal of rank or hierarchy. Instead, our titles describe two things at once — your craft (what you do, e.g. Engineering, Design) and your scope of ownership (what you're accountable for) — which is why you'll see something like "Head of X" instead of a rank word like "Director" that tells you neither. Because of this, the title on this posting may look different from what you'd expect based on the scope and seniority of the role, and from how similar roles are typically titled elsewhere. If you have questions about how this role compares to your current title or level, your recruiter can help translate.
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.
Reliable, consistent presence: We expect regular and predictable attendance, whether you're working in-office, hybrid, or fully remote, so that you stay closely connected to your team, customers, and stakeholders in real time and ensure colleagues and customers receive the timely support and responsiveness they deserve.
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.
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