People Partner Lead, CX

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 senior People Business Partner to support our Customer Experience organization at Gusto. This role reports into Gusto's Head of People and serves as an embedded, execution-oriented partner to the CX Leadership Team — someone who advises and then stays in the room until the work is done.

This is a senior partnership role with a team management component. You'll spend most of your time working directly with CX VPs and Directors — the leaders who run one of our largest, most operationally complex functions — on org design, workforce strategy, and the harder talent conversations that only land when there's real trust. At the same time, you'll directly empower 2 People Partners who deliver the day-to-day: coaching frontline managers, managing ER volume, and executing People programs across a large, distributed org.

You earn trust through follow-through, not decks. You stress-test thinking and then own the outcome — from org change communication to the last Workday update. You don't identify primarily as a strategist. You identify as someone who gets things done, and your ability to work alongside senior leaders is a byproduct of that credibility — not the other way around.

We are in an active build phase — this role requires someone who arrives ready to construct and deliver, not inherit and sustain.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Build trusted partnerships with CX VPs and the CX Leadership Team — understanding org dynamics, surfacing friction early, and driving decisions on talent strategy, workforce planning, and org design — staying accountable for outcomes, not just recommendations.
• Lead the harder conversations: delivering candor to senior leaders on their own effectiveness, navigating performance decisions on high-profile talent, and partnering through significant org changes end-to-end.
• Directly empower and develop 2 People Partners (team of 3 total) who deliver coaching at scale and execute People programs across frontline CX teams — setting a high bar, giving direct feedback, and keeping ownership with your team.
• Synthesize People data — attrition signals, gPulse results, absenteeism trends, ER case patterns — into clear, actionable reads for CXLT before they have to ask.
• Build lightweight, scalable People processes, operating mechanisms, and repeatable playbooks — reaching for AI when the work is repetitive or data-heavy rather than waiting for a perfect framework before shipping a good one.
• Support and operationalize core talent programs including performance cycles, calibration discussions, promotion processes, and senior leader enablement.
• Reinforce high performance standards, accountability, and clarity around expectations, feedback, and growth at the leadership level.
• Serve as the liaison between CX and Gusto's broader People team (Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, L&D, People Ops), translating company-wide programs into what they mean for the CX org — and surfacing CX context back to the center.
• When org changes are decided, own end-to-end execution — transition planning, communication sequencing, Workday updates, leader enablement, and follow-through until nothing is left unresolved.

Here’s what we're looking for: