# Head of Customer Referral & Emerging Channels
**Company:** [Gusto](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/gusto)
**Location:** Denver, CO, San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Las Vegas, NV, Atlanta, GA, Phoenix, AZ, Chicago, IL
**Salary:** $141K-$207K
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** AI Tools, Salesforce, Amplitude, Redash, Sem, Paid Social, ABM, Data Analysis, Experimentation, Growth Marketing
**Posted:** 2026-04-24
> Leads customer referral programs and emerging channels to drive acquisition through word-of-mouth and new tactics. Requires 10+ years in growth marketing, 3+ years managing teams, AI fluency, and strong analytics skills.
## Job Description
## Responsibilities

- Manage and develop the growth marketing team, setting clear goals, providing coaching, and fostering a culture of accountability and innovation.
- Own and evolve Gusto's customer referral program from strategy and incentive design, to measurement and optimization, driving meaningful new customer acquisition and revenue through word-of-mouth and network effects.
- Build and run a rigorous experimentation roadmap, using advanced testing and data analysis to identify growth levers and scale what works.
- Scout, pilot, and scale emerging acquisition channels, bringing rigor to what gets tested and moving quickly from hypothesis to results.
- Partner with the Web Marketing team to surface and prioritize conversion experiments, translating referral and emerging channel performance data into landing page hypotheses and post-click optimizations that improve acquisition outcomes.
- Partner cross-functionally with Growth, Product, Sales, RevOps, and Data teams to align growth programs with business priorities and optimize the full funnel from awareness to activation.
- Use AI tools as a consistent, habitual part of your workflow, generating referral program briefs, developing incentive copy variants, accelerating channel research, and building reusable systems that scale best practices across the team.
- Report on program performance to senior leadership, distilling complex data into clear insights and concrete recommendations.

## Requirements

- 10+ years of experience in growth marketing, demand generation, or performance marketing, with at least 3 years in a people management role.
- Demonstrated success building and scaling customer acquisition programs (referral, affiliate, and/or word-of-mouth) from concept to measurable growth.
- Working knowledge of paid acquisition channels (SEM, paid social, ABM, etc.) and a strong grasp of full-funnel growth strategy.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate data into decisions; experience with tools like Salesforce, Amplitude, redash, or similar platforms is a plus.
- AI-fluent in practice, not just in theory; you use AI tools consistently in your day-to-day workflow to accelerate briefs, copy, program design, and analysis, and you're building toward systematizing those habits for your team.
- Exceptional communicator who can influence across teams and present clearly to executive audiences.
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience; MBA or quantitative background is a plus.

## Compensation

Cash compensation ranges from $141,000 to $176,000/yr in Denver, Phoenix/Scottsdale, Las Vegas, and Atlanta, and $166,000 to $207,000/yr in San Francisco and New York.
**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/head-of-customer-referral-emerging-channels-at-gusto-75681e3c-793d-4196-9b31-af80ac1e13da
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/head-of-customer-referral-emerging-channels-at-gusto-75681e3c-793d-4196-9b31-af80ac1e13da