Senior Staff Service Designer

About Gusto

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

About the Role:

As a Senior Staff Service Designer, you will anticipate and solve high-risk or mission-critical problems, focusing on elevating service design craft and service impact across multiple groups and influencing at the organizational level. Given the accelerating changes in technology, especially through AI, you will impact key initiatives iteratively in line with company priorities and contribute to planning activities in collaboration with other leaders that directly impact our ability to improve customer outcomes, from software to service.

Your work will contribute to how we approach service design at Gusto as a continuously evolving practice. You will directly contribute to solving complex organizational and customer-facing problems by linking people, process and product interactions with the goal of impact. Success looks like: more holistic and successful experiences that serve our customers and our business that you can understand and measure.

About the Team:

Design at Gusto is made up of over 80 creative, collaborative people who care deeply about our mission to empower small businesses and their employees. We’re a cross-functional bunch focused on Design, Research, Writing, Ops, and Front-end Development who are always looking for opportunities to build understanding and empathy for the people who use Gusto. We don’t care a whole lot about swim lanes and we work closely with our partners in Product, Engineering, Data, CX, Marketing, and Sales to design, build, and ship holistic customer experiences that make a difference. We are passionate advocates for thoughtful, crafted, and inclusive experiences and we believe great design can make hard things possible, even delightful. Read more about Design at Gusto.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

Lead the end-to-end service design process for products and services that help small business owners and their employees thrive.

Define and align on medium-term visions for the software-to-service experience, ensuring alignment across multiple groups and driving tangible impact for customers and the business.

Develop a deep understanding of customer needs by leveraging quantitative and qualitative insights to inform and evolve the customer experience and supporting business systems.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to co-design and drive implementation of compelling service experiences that are impactful for small businesses and sustainable for Gusto teams..

Partner with R&D, service, and other teams with internal and external stakeholders to identify and prioritize new opportunities and solve complex problems.

Advocate for a user-centered approach and lead strategic initiatives that significantly improve the experience for small business owners and internal teams.

Support the evolution of the service design practice by contributing to frameworks, documentation, and learning tracks that scale across the organization.

Clearly and persuasively communicate vision, concepts, and recommendations to a variety of audiences, including leadership, to create alignment and motivate action toward a long-term design vision.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

You have 8+ years of experience in service design, with a strong background in tech and a proven ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to create holistic customer experiences.

You possess a broad understanding of design practices across product, brand, and service, which you can demonstrate with a portfolio.

You have a proven track record of building customer trust and loyalty and business value by meeting and exceeding user expectations while navigating operational and technical constraints.

You are proficient at mapping user journeys and service architectures and analyzing them to identify new opportunities.

You bring expert-level workshop design and facilitation skills, including the ability to design and lead high-stakes, cross-functional and executive working sessions that help teams move from ambiguity to shared understanding and aligned decisions.

You have a demonstrated ability to influence strategic decisions across multiple groups by prioritizing customer needs and articulating your rationale.

You are comfortable working with and communicating effectively with senior-level stakeholders and leadership.

You can proactively lead and organize service design projects, effectively planning and prioritizing efforts to focus on high-impact moments.

You have a deep understanding of customer needs and a history of leveraging that insight to influence business strategy and resolve challenging cross-functional issues.

At Gusto, we strive to provide rewards that empower employees to achieve their financial and personal goals. We offer competitive compensation packages with a strong emphasis on equity based compensation (ownership in Gusto). To learn more about Gusto’s compensation philosophy and benefits offerings please view our Total Rewards Approach page.

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. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate 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, 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.

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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