Head of Customer Experience (CX) - Partnerships, Embedded Payroll

What is Gusto Embedded Payroll?

Gusto Embedded Payroll (GEP) is an API based product that enables software developers to embed and customize payroll directly into their software. And it works in any type of platform serving small and medium businesses: vertical SaaS, business operations, fintech, neobanks, and more. We’ve taken the infrastructure we’ve built servicing tens of millions of paychecks and tens of thousands of tax codes and made it available for software developers.

You can learn more about Gusto Embedded Payroll here.

About the Role:

We are looking for a CX Leader to scale our Platform strategy efforts. This person will be responsible for scaling our payroll service model for Gusto Embedded partners as well as leverage in-house greater Gusto CX capabilities to take us to the next level of growth. What is covered under today’s GEP service model: CX enablement (training our GEP Partners to take on Tier 1 CX), Tier 2 payroll support, tax notice resolution, white glove onboarding & payroll transfers.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Shape and scale CX strategy & operations : Create and implement innovative strategies to scale our customer experience service model as GEP grows, validating our core hypotheses and refining our headcount and business models. Test and refine our CX processes as we expand from 8k to 17k+ employee resources (ERs) by FY26, maintaining a strong emphasis on execution and adaptability in a fast-paced environment. 
• Train and help our Partner CX teams scale: Scale Partner support training program on basic support handling and manage relationships with the Partner support team leadership. Refine systems and processes for how GEP Partners interact with our Tier 2 support program.
• Leverage Gusto Expertise and lead “insourcing” initiatives: Work closely with existing Gusto CX teams, such as CXDI, Biztech, TaxRes, and Payroll Transfers, to effectively augment GEP CX’s capabilities and potentially transition programs back to larger CX, ensuring thoughtful and strategic execution. 
• Collaborate across GEP functions: Partner with GEP leaders to enhance customer experience and reduce cost-to-serve metrics. Translate partner pain points into actionable product ideas for the EPD team (e.g. improved tooling), set clear CX expectations with the Partner Growth team (e.g. enablement needs, support SLAs, partner agreements), and assess how partner embedded products impact downstream customer experience with the Technical Solutions team.
• Use data to drive performance: Collaborate with BizTech and Data teams to refine CX data model and ensure we’re capturing / analyzing the key information sets we need to understand trends in case volume and case complexity, and to track against CX OKRs. 
• Grow & empower your team: Grow and lead a CX team of 10+ members, including 2 sub-functions (Enablement and Tier 2 Ops), cultivating a collaborative and high-performance environment. Enhance our team playbook with best practices and define team career & growth paths.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• Scrappy, entrepreneurial, builder mindset: You have experience in building and operationalizing initiatives from 0 to 1 and scaling them from 1 to 10. You are scaling a new support model and will be doing everything from designing future workflows to rolling out new tooling for internal or partner CX teams. 
• Strategic systems thinker: You will need to figure out how to scale our service model for our next stage of growth, identify gaps and tradeoffs, and prioritize effectively with the broader GEP leadership team. You have a strong background in data analysis, strategy development, and systems thinking.
• Customer empathy: Deep empathy for the partner support team as well as the end customer. Strong PE skills - Can effectively grow and manage a CX & ops team for GEP program
• Desire to learn about GEP end-to-end business: CX is an incredibly strategic function for GEP’s business success as we scale. You will need to understand how CX relates to all other functions / our overall unit economics – and hopefully be excited by that! 
• Ability to influence x-functionally: You will work with other GEP leaders to scale CX and improve cost to serve significantly, including (1) translating pain points into product ideas for EPD; (2) setting expectations and creating policies with partner-facing teams, and (3) understanding how partners are building their embedded product and the CX impacts downstream with technical implementation teams. 
• CX + Payroll expertise: Strong understanding of larger Gusto’s CX support model and able to leverage existing experts and teams (e.g. CXDI, Biztech, Payroll Transfers, TaxRes)

Experience Required

• 10-15+ years of leadership experience in CX, operations, or related roles
• 5+ years of channel/partnerships experience, especially in scaling operations via partners/vendors
• Proven track record working with enterprise SaaS customers in support functions, particularly ones with technically complex workflows, platforms, and infrastructure
• Experience in high-growth startup settings (Series A/B) or incubation teams within larger organizations.
• Familiarity with payroll systems is a bonus but not a requirement.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $147,000/yr - $181,000/yr in Denver and $173,000/yr - $213,000 for San Francisco & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.