Senior Product Design Manager, Payroll
Leads design for Gusto's complex Payroll product, managing a team of designers, defining UX vision, and partnering cross-functionally to simplify workflows with AI and automation. Requires 8+ years product design experience including 3+ years people management.
About the job
About the Role
For the hundreds of thousands of small businesses we serve, our mission starts with one of their most critical responsibilities: paying their team. As the Senior Product Design Manager, Payroll, you’ll lead design for one of Gusto’s most complex and business-critical product areas, shaping the future of a product that millions of people rely on for financial stability and personal prosperity.
Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:
- Lead end-to-end design for Payroll, shaping experiences that help small businesses pay their teams properly, on time, and with confidence.
- Define and communicate the long-term UX vision for Payroll, and rally multiple teams around it.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, Data, Ops and others to set strategy and roadmaps.
- Lead AI and automation initiatives that simplify payroll and reduce manual work, without compromising accuracy or trust.
- Collaborate with Research and Data to uncover customer insights and translate them into clear, actionable UX priorities.
- Influence product and technical roadmaps by advocating for design quality, customer needs, and long-term system health.
- Raise the bar for interaction and visual design, ensuring experiences are clear, polished, and robust across edge cases.
- Define and scale shared patterns, principles, and standards that promote consistency and help teams progress faster.
- Manage and grow a team of designers, providing mentorship, clear direction, and hands-on support across multiple pods.
- Ensure payroll integrates seamlessly with other add-ons in Gusto’s People Platform, including Time & Attendance and third-party tools.
Here’s what we're looking for:
- 8–10+ years of product design experience, with at least 3 years in a people management role.
- Experience leading design direction across multiple teams and influencing product strategy.
- Proven ability to drive alignment, influence cross-functional partners, and represent design in strategic conversations.
- Experience working on B2B, B2C, or SaaS products—ideally in complex, regulated domains.
- Deep systems thinking, with experience turning complex workflows into clear, scalable, and intuitive experiences.
- A portfolio that demonstrates high-quality UX and visual design craft.
- Experience contributing to or evolving a design system—components, patterns, interaction models, and visual standards.
- Familiarity with AI tools and workflows that support design exploration, prototyping, or process efficiency.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity while balancing long-term vision with short-term execution.
- Clear, direct communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to explain decisions and influence partners and stakeholders.
- A genuine bond to Gusto’s mission and the needs of small businesses.
Compensation Details
Our cash compensation range for this role is $172,000/yr to $215,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $202,000/yr to $253,000/yr in San Francisco, Seattle & New York.
Skills
Figma, UX Design, Visual Design, Design Systems, AI Tools, Prototyping, Interaction Design, SaaS, B2B, B2C
Similar jobs
Product Design jobs
Applied Intuition
Sunnyvale, CA
Design and scale platform-level systems that create consistent experiences across complex products, platforms, and interaction models. The role requires 6+ years of product, UX, or design systems experience, strong accessibility and systems thinking, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering or design.
Camber
New York, NY
Design data-intensive healthcare products by understanding complex workflows, using quantitative and qualitative insights, and turning ambiguity into intuitive experiences. The role requires 5+ years of product design experience, strong data fluency, systems thinking, and customer empathy.
Applied Intuition
Sunnyvale, CA
Own end-to-end product design for Defense products spanning real-time operator interfaces and enterprise autonomy platforms. The role requires 8+ years of product design experience, strong research and systems-design judgment, engineer collaboration, and U.S. citizenship with eligibility for a security clearance.
Mirage
New York, NY
The Senior Product Designer will shape AI-native video creation products, owning complex initiatives from problem framing through launch. The role requires 6+ years of product design experience, strong design-system expertise, high-fidelity prototyping, research skills, and effective collaboration with product, engineering, and executive teams.
Gusto
Denver, CODesigns and evolves Gusto’s Workbench product design system, including components, tokens, documentation, and AI-assisted tooling. The role requires extensive product design and design-systems experience, strong technical collaboration, Figma expertise, and fluency with AI workflows.